BuffaloRebound

2 years in a row of this. Is it just being unlucky? Or is it a product of an aging undersized defensive unit?

Agreed, but let’s be honest. The ease by which Cincy scored on the 1st drive and somewhat so on the 2nd drive put a lot of pressure on the offense to score a TD on every drive. It wasn’t until Joseph body slammed Burrow that their offense started to sputter. Absent that play and a cut to Burrows finger on his throwing hand, the Bengals probably go up by 3 scores and game is over by middie of 2nd quarter like the playoff game. Unacceptable to come out and get rolled in 3 consecutive games especially for a defensive head coach.

Kind of agree with this. McDermott needs a Daboll type as OC to balance out his conservative turtle tactics. I’m not a huge fan of Daboll but his offensive philosophy was definitely more aggressive than Dorsey’s. Despite the injuries, you still have a lot of high draft picks and veterans on the defense. McDermott should be able scheme up an adequate defense without asking the offense to move slower.

It won’t be easy to let go of McDermott. Sacrilege to suggest, but almost gotta root for a disastrous finish to season for Pegula to have no choice but entertain the thought of replacing him.

Agreed. Winning a super bowl is hard and requires some luck, but you gotta seize the opportunity when presented. Not sure we’ll ever get a better opportunity than 2 years ago and Mcdermott choked.

Most of the time these talking heads just pick a side to generate back and forth to get clicks. But they do have perspective on the whole league, and most teams that haven’t gotten to a Super Bowl fail trying to run it back with the same core of aging players. Edmunds is the only core guy they’ve moved on from and the Bears contract made it a no brainer to move on. We’re an aging team that hasn’t made it to the Super Bowl, so this years results aren’t that surprising.

I think Beane is great at his job. He’s given McDermott everything he’s asked for and gotten him a franchise QB. In spite of this McDermott has puked all over himself in the playoffs the last 4 years blowing a 16 point lead in Houston, his defense crapping the bed at KC in 2020, 13 seconds enough said, and his team getting embarrassed at home by Cincy last year. Beane is more highly thought of in NFL circles than mcdermott.

Yeah. not sure how a guy we barely used last year was gonna make any difference this year.

White is almost no brainer to cut. It saves cap space. Stuck with Miller and Knox for another year.

Burrow is elite. Considering how little our offense could stay on the field, it’s borderline shocking we didn’t get buried.

The D Line seemed stout last night and other than the 1st drive they made Burrow uncomfortable.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/McDeSe0/challenges/ McDermott is 7 for 29 on challenges over his career. A dude who’s batting under .250 shouldn’t be risking a timeout there for 9 yards.

It’s a low percentage play and especially dumb/unnecessary when Cincy hadn’t shown they could stop the underneath stuff on the 1st drive. Dorsey just ain’t ready for prime time. The shotgun run from the 1 foot line last week and going away from the underneath stuff last night before Cincy took it away shows he has no in game awareness.

Agreed. Might not be completely fair to Dorsey but something has to be done to salvage season and the offense looks disjointed on way too many possessions.

It’s a lot different when Chase is the one you’re faking it to. And Hyde has a lost a step. He had a rough night even though the D held up for the most part.

It was such a JV attempt at being creative. Murray and Shakir are at most getting 5 yards on that play. The safeties aren’t coming up because oh no Murray is running it to the outside and then wait shakir has it now. Cincy defense probably laughing their asses off after that play. Dorsey is in over his head. He’s the Gabe Davis of OC’s. 1 out of every 4 good games ain’t cutting it in the NFL.

Where is Jordan Palmer these days? Seems like he was a fixture in Josh’s development to stardom. Now nothing.

It feels that way with Davis and felt that way with Knox too. Stop forcing the ball to your least productive weapons. Option 1 Diggs; Option 2 Kincaid; Option 3 run Allen: option 4 Cook dump offs or outside runs; option 5 shakir. Everything else is low percentage.

Agreed. The D held Cincy to 54 yards rushing on 22 carries. After the first drive, we played physical and everything Cincy got was difficult. The 2 turnovers and inability of the offense to sustain drives were why we lost. The defense came to play.

Josh’s footwork in the pocket has regressed. 2020 and 2021 his feet, head, and shoulders were always aligned. Now when he goes off his first read, he looks like a raw QB holding ball away from his body and his feet stuck in the mud and it leads to some really off balance throws down the field. It doesn’t hurt him much in the check down game but it still takes yards away because he’s not getting it to the check down as quickly as he can due to poor footwork.

I’m not one to over react to a couple clips the camera catches, but the blank stares into the abyss instead of looking at the tablet and talking with your coaches and backup QB trying to figure it out on sideline is kinda concerning.

Agreed. Teams initially probably had to adjust pass protections towards him based on his past self. Now opposing offenses know you don’t have to worry about him at all.

A reverse with Murray and Shakir is scaring nobody.

How is throwing deep to Harty and then forcing it downfield to Davis protecting the defense? And the Bengals didn’t take foot off gas, they sputtered after Linval Joseph blew up Burrow. Our defense was actually extremely physical after the 1st drive and held up extremely well. Our offense stopped itself with dumbass play calls/decisions.

That’s called stopping yourself. You roll down the field on 1st drive taking the underneath stuff to Diggs, Kincaid and shakir then decide to start throwing the ball downfield to harty and gabe on next drive. Stick with what’s working until the other team stops it.