I’m not a fan of firing coaches during the season, and I’m well aware it’s only Week 2, but Ron Rivera has got to go. He has shown his ceiling as an NFL coach and it’s not good enough. When a team continues to lose leads and close games like the Panthers have over the last two seasons there needs to be a change. There is an obvious talent problem on that team, and they lost a good chunk of their already-bad secondary to injuries during the game, but an NFL team cannot let a rookie QB with no time outs drive 80 yards in the last two minutes to win the game. Jon Gruden always slobbers over Cam Newton anyway, so throw some money at him and make a change.
Heh, in my pick 'em pool I need the Bengals and Steelers to tie to stay in second and get some money this week. I’m not counting on that $50…
You don’t want Jon Gruden. Not unless you have a strong GM, and judging by the fact that the Panthers brought in zero receiving help this offseason and threw money at another extraneous running back, you don’t.
As an aside, a hearty FUCK YOU! to cheap shot artist and all around asshole Brandon Merriweather, for literally headhunting Eddie Lacy. While I don’t want to see anyone hurt, I admit to not shedding a single tear when later in the game Merriweather suffered his own concussion.
I found it somewhat karmically appropriate too.
Guess I wasn’t the only one who noticed.
Pretty limp response, but I admit that I’m not entirely unhappy to hear that the league is being less nitpicky about some rules that are essentially trivial.
Nobody is watching this game?
Yeah mon. Wassup?
Between John Gruden calling Ike Taylor one of the best CB’s in the NFL and Andy Dalton’s mediocre QBing, this game is painful to watch.
I’d be a hall of game corner too if I only had to cover for a second. How about that Giovanni Bernard?
Yeah. The overthrows were painful to watch. He had open receivers all damn day. Dalton has to do better than that. MUCH better.
Gio is a motherfucking stud and it’s surprising to me how milquetoast they are working him into the lineup. Who cares if he’s a fucking rookie?
Well, he is a bit undersized. He’s listed at over 200 but he looked tiny on the field. Which brings up another interesting point: is it the uniforms, or do the Bengals look skinny? Gresham looks much more like a WR than a TE. The defensive ends as well. Even the nose tackle doesn’t look that big.
The stripes are slimming.
I’m pretty late to the party, but did anyone watch the Colts game? That was a really terrible 2nd half, with some really questionable play calling - especially in the Colts’ final drive. Why in the world would they put Goddammit Donald Brown in during pass plays where he’s going to be needed to block? He’s probably the worst pass blocking RB in the league, and sure enough - he completely misses his assignment forcing Luck to dump it on 4th down.
I wound up watching most of the second half on Redzone Channel since apparently nothing else was happening around the league. Almost everything the Colts have done this season has been questionable to me, not least signing Ahmad Bradshaw, the Human Injury Report.
Some of those guys are pretty slender looking because what the Bengals have a lot of is really tall players. T Dennis Roland is 6’9". T Whitworth is 6’7". Gresham is 6’5" and Eifert is 6’6". DE Michael Johnson is 6’7".
I’m growing pretty concerned that Trent Richardson is Cedric Benson.
I think Trent is talented as shit, but going to a team with so many issues is setting him back.
That said, I can’t wait for the Packers to come to Cincinnati. Last time we played them we romped. Now, I don’t expect a romping, but it should be a good game. I think the Bengals are just now peeling the top off what their offensive capabilities are with Giovanni Bernard and Tyler Eifert in the mix, along with AJ Green, a resurgent Jermaine Gresham, and the improved Marvin Jones and Mohammed Sanu. I’m not worried about Dalton.
He had some adrenaline overthrows in the first half of yesterday’s game, and while he admittedly will never be a guy like Rodgers, he is more than a Dilfer-esque game manager. The kid is scrappy and smart. All he needs is for the oline to keep him clean and we should be able to score. The Green Bay defense is a sieve right now, and the Bengals isn’t. I can’t decide if I think it will be an offensive shootout or a grinding affair.
I’m leaning towards a lot of airing the ball out. I’m not going to make a prediction because GB is a really good offense and team overall but the Bengals are as well. The boys in orange start cleaning up their miscues and they will be a force.
Next Week: NFL officials will delay any game until the Relative Humidity drops below 70%, even if the game is being played indoors.
LOL, whut?