All I ask is that the Bengals play like they did against the Bears. Give us stupid ill timed penalties, turn the ball over by not protecting it and throwing stupid passes that get intercepted, and mismanage the clock, give free yardage on the final drive, and rob your own team of any chance to tie with an idiotic pushing match. You do that again, the Packers win easy.
I am not on the Gio bandwagon, I think he was way overdrafted, won’t be durable enough to be a full time back, and isn’t electric enough to do the Darren Sproles thing. I also would be worried about Dalton. If AJ Green goes down (God forbid, he’s really fun to watch), Dalton would be nothing but an mediocre QB.
The Bengals are at home, so it should be a tough game. The Packers’ secondary is missing 2/5th of their starters, so they can be exposed (especially if they’re outcoached), and their left tackle is a rookie (thanks to another season ending injury to their starter).
Still, with Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews, the Packers are always dangerous. I think the Bengals will be flat after the Monday night game against the horrible Steelers, and I remain unimpressed by Andy Dalton. I think the Packers get a win.
Good news for you, Hamlet: rumor has it that Greg Schiano has Lost The Team and will be fired if they don’t beat the Pats. Wonder if Marty Schottenheimer wants to come back to coaching.
Too true. Sadly. I was upset with his asinine behavior in that game.
I’d be surprised if they fired him only 3 games into the season. It’s not like he’s the guy who’s committing personal fouls costing them games, getting suspended for head hunting, or being unable to cut it as an NFL quarterback.
That said, he’s certainly not created a team that wants to play fairly for him, and if the accusations of rigging the captain vote are true, he’s lying to his players. Add in that he has them doing stuff that grown men football players shouldn’t have to do, and that he’s a complete douchebag, and it’s certainly not helping.
If he’s fired, he’ll head back to some college that has boosters who leave bags of money in recruits houses and coach again. But he’ll still be a douche.
As a Rutgers grad who enjoyed the brief success they had under Schiano, I’m curious about these statements. I’m not trying to refute them, I have no idea how much of a douchebag he is or isn’t. RNATB’s comment implies you have a known dislike for Schiano too. What’s the scoop?
It may have started with Schiano having his defense rush the QB full speed at game end when the opponent was taking a knee. Or maybe that just added to preexisting perceptions.
The diving at knees when the offense has taken a knee that lieu mentioned. His treatment of NFL scouts/personnel people while at Rutgers. His refusal to allow the Navy Midshipmen from doing their pre-game march during his Rutgers/Navy game. His treatment of his own players (just ask Kellen Winslow about it) And the latest crap about his manipulating the captain vote and pissing off Revis. He’s an arrogant prick who isn’t a good enough coach to pull it off.
Discipline issues are on the coach - though I’ll add that the Bucs have been drawing flags for perfectly clean hits as much as illegal ones. And Freeman’s performance last year shows he has the ability. I don’t know who to blame his regression on, but part of it is having great throws wiped out by other people’s penalties.
Very true. I do put a lot of that on his shoulders.
His performance last year wasn’t all that great. Sure he piled up the yards thanks to the worst pass defense in the league, but he was the 20’s in passer efficiency rating. Josh Freeman certainly has the physical ability. But you and I have disagreed about the ever important 5 inches between his ears. I’m on record saying that he’d never make a good NFL QB, and, despite having a game or two here and there, I think I’ve been proven right.
I think a bigger part of it is just him being him.
A lot of people said similar things about Alex Smith, and he ended up a good but not great NFL QB when the 49ers finally got some real coaching.
It’s hard to separate the coaching from the QB in most cases.
It kind of reminds me of the situation with Blaine Gabbert. The guy might have ended up an average QB if he sat behind a veteran for 3 seasons and had good coaching. But he was made the day 1 starter and had a succession of some of the worst coaching in the league.
He was a good NFL QB last season by definition. Remember, he played 80% of the season without the best guard tandem in the league (only one of whom is back for the start of this season and is playing hobbled), and he’s never had a decent tight end or slot receiver - which is where the high completion percentage throws go.
I don’t see that happening with all the miscues. Sure they will probably have a few, but so will the Packers. I just can’t envision the team reverting back to that again. Clock mismanagement is a distinct possibility as it’s a hallmark of a Marvin Lewis team, although he did actually throw the challenge flag on a play that was actually challengable and won the challenge, for a change.
Giovanni Bernard is awesome. He’s got the same body as Ray Rice had when he came into the league. Gio will pack on a few pounds and get stronger. Did you see his two TD’s? The one where he plowed into the endzone showed he’s got some power, and oh my that 27 yard catch and run was sheer speed in the open field. He’s very dynamic.
And no worries about Dalton. Even if Green goes down, we still have two excellent TE’s and an amalgam of young talent at WR. We’d still be better off in that position group than say, the Patriots are right now.
I sure hope the Bengals don’t play flat. This is a huge game, a yardstick for where they are. They’ve got a lot of winnable games going forward and I want them to play as well as they can in this one against a playoff team.
Also, since DE Robert Geathers went on the IR today, you may get to see your man-crush Margus Hunt in action! How great would that be if he discount double-checked on Rodger’s body?
Hunt hasn’t been active in either of the first two games.