Thoughts on Bengals Game.

[newcam2012]

35 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Bills Defense has a penchant to start games slow and make even bad offenses look like the greatest show on turf for the first 1-2 drives before they settle in and start playing solid football.

 

Bills Offense also sliced through the Bengals Defense before a miscue/blown play on 2nd down in the red zone and then a timing hiccup between Allen & Beasley, who are probably still working out the kinks, forced us to settle for 3 instead of tying it up at 7.

 

Bills Defense looked equally unprepared/outschemed on the Bengals second drive before Hamlin went down on the field.  

 

Not a ton to take away from the game, aside from our Defense looked poised to give up two easy drives to the Bengals to start the game just like they've done far too many times this season. 

 

-----

 

If we see them again, you can't put Tre on an island against Chase.  Chase is too big, too fast and Burrow is completely comfortable throwing jump balls out there.  If we go one on one with Tre, it has to be on Higgins.. then bracket Chase.  

 

Burrow will take the underneath stuff alllllll day.   He will kill you death by a thousand paper cuts.  Not sure "bend, don't break" is the move against a QB with 3 star playmakers at WR and a good TE.  May have to take risks and play tighter coverage to force him to hold onto the ball and if he hits you deep a few times, so be it.  

 

We never got to see the Defenses adjustments that typically come after the first few drives, but we saw enough to know that ... once again... the game plan to start was a mess.  A far too common issue... can't be "feeling out" teams every week and putting yourself in a hole constantly. 

Very good post!

[Brand J]

Cincy also jumped on KC with a 14-3 lead before needing a Travis Kelce fumble to win the game. I do think if Taron couldn’t come back, we would’ve been in trouble with Siran at nickel. The corners were Tre White, Dane Jackson, and Siran Nickel. Elam was on the bench, Rhodes was inactive. It’s on the coaches for not cross training others to play nickel at a higher level than Siran Neal. We drafted a first round corner and we don’t play him. 

[NewEra]

27 minutes ago, Bob in STL said:

No way to tell how this game would end.  Cinci started hot and the home crowd was a big advantage for them but the Bills defense has adjusted all year long and shut down teams.  
 

I thought the PI on Tre was holding.  
 

I liked the Bills drive and the mix of run/pass.  I think we can score a lot of points on them.  

Agreed.  And barely that.  Charvarious Ward does that to every WR he covers on just about every play.  I watched him in detail Vs the raiders.  What Tre did was a penalty…… but it’s also a play that guys get away with on almost every play.  The officials discretion is the only thing that really matters with regards to the rule book most of the time

[Dan]

I posted this in another thread, but it makes more sense here: 

 

“One impression I will say I had watching the first 3 series... the Bengals came out on fire.  They were being extremely physical, hitting hard and seemed determined to try and intimidate the Bills into submission with hard hits and quick scores.    In just 3 series we had 3 players injured.“

 

My initial thought was.. if the Bills survive the first quarter, the adrenaline wears off and then the Bills would take control.  It would still have been a tight game, but rarely do teams maintain that level of intensity for 4 quarters. 
 

My other thought.. the busted play near the goal when Allen dirts the ball because the Bengals blew it up.   It seems we do that a couple times a game.  On a screen?   Is the Bills’ offense that predictable?  Is there a line call that tips the defense?  Do we just suck at screens?  This isn’t the only time where it looks like the defense was in the offensive huddle. 

[GoBills808]

My thought is Josh Allen was going to absolutely nuke the bengals

[zow2]

26 minutes ago, FrenchConnection said:

Bengals came out with their hair on fire. They usually go cold for stretches in games when they attempt to "establish the run" and Joe Burrow gets out of rhythm. That would have happened at some point because it always does with them. 

 

I pretty much agree.  Buffalo came out tactical and measured... and Cincinnati came out wanting to be physical and pound us.  It reminded me of NHL hockey when your hear coaches always say, be physical and "finish your checks".   Well, the Bengals were finishing their checks so to speak... and very borderline I might add. 

I think Buffalo would have eventually grabbed the momentum and taken advantage of Cincinnati's aggressiveness. 

[newcam2012]

42 minutes ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

Bills stupidly went man on the first play (maybe tried a corner blitz) and we all heard the same thing in the lead up to this game - the second you go man against Chase or Higgins, Burrow goes deep.

 

First play I knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as the Bills went into formation, no safety shaded over the top.
 

We had another play where the defense looked disheveled, Milano ended up having to cover a WR in the slot, motioning there late.

 

Clearly the Bengals plan was to find #27 and go there.

 

We had the Hamlin play where he moved towards the line and Hurst ran right past him. 

Bottom Line: Defensively the Bills don’t have to live like this with Tre White. Leslie Frazier said it in his press conferences, Tre won’t be the same this year. But the Bills making Rhodes inactive left them thin at CB and I don’t understand their decisions with him. Benford is coming back as well.

 

I question whether this Coaching staff will actually take Tre off the field in spots, because he’s there on reputation now. The Bills don’t pivot, they’ll just keep putting him out there, and Burrow will get lauded for the Boyd TD, another where Tre gets smoked the entire route.

 

 

 

Offensively, Josh was playing without a sleeve, so I don’t want to hear anything else about his elbow. Buck mentioned it again. 

 

All we heard about was DJ Reader wrecking things and that didn’t happen. Cook was ripping into the second level, Allen on a couple of occasions was tripped up just before getting big yards as well. 
 

Bengals fans talked trash about Logan Wilson and he got torched across the middle by Diggs. 

 

The second down play call at the goal line, just watching it once, I didn’t understand what the Bills were trying to do and immediately I said why not run Josh there? They roll Allen out to the short side of the field and nobody is there?

 

Beasley should have caught the 3rd down ball, he did all the hard work and broke his corner off cleanly.

 

Bottom line offensively - Bengals got ZERO pressure on Allen. They didn’t stop the run either. Bills moved the ball at ease. 
 

 

 

The offensive styles were the major difference of what we saw.

 

The Bengals were fast, dynamic, and explosive. 8 plays a TD and likely another score in the process. The Bills D looked lost, out classed, and porous. Sure we've seen it before but nothing indicates this D was going to slow down the Bengals O.

 

The Bills looked much more methodical. Mixing in the run and pass. The Bengals D would have struggled stopping the Bills O. However, I just felt like the Bills O had little room for error. Tougher to go on long methodical drives and score time after time. Thus, the Bills settled for 3 points. 

 

 

[John from Riverside]

I didn’t like the way the Bengals offense moved so easily either, but this is happened with other teams this year so I wasn’t particularly worried
 

I love the way our office responded by mixing both the run and the pass cook is really starting to get it going and you can see it on the field cole should’ve caught a difficult but catchable pass to finish off that drive once again it ended in three but I was not particularly worried if that time

[Straight Hucklebuck]

5 minutes ago, JayBaller10 said:

Cincy also jumped on KC with a 14-3 lead before needing a Travis Kelce fumble to win the game. I do think if Taron couldn’t come back, we would’ve been in trouble with Siran at nickel. The corners were Tre White, Dane Jackson, and Siran Nickel. Elam was on the bench, Rhodes was inactive. It’s on the coaches for not cross training others to play nickel at a higher level than Siran Neal. We drafted a first round corner and we don’t play him. 

This is 100% right.

 

Great post.

 

Elam runs a 4.39 and was all SEC.

 

Our coaches always are talking about how the best players earn playing time, but Neal playing slot???

 

Rhodes made inactive? He’s a 8+ year veteran.

 

The Bills are still playing like it’s 2017 in their secondary. 
 

Tre in man first play of the game? ALL the Bengals reporters this game said the same thing, you run man against Chase or Higgins, Burrow doesn’t hesitate or do anything else, he immediately throws deep.

 

Tre is going to cost us Playoff games if he is out there 100% of the time and we keep benching Elam, making Rhodes inactive.

 

Our Coaches never change, but against a team like this, we might need to play Dime and get more speed on the field. 
 

Of course you might give up more runs, but that was Vikings Jefferson all over again. 

 

 

[newcam2012]

1 hour ago, NewEra said:

The bengals had 8 plays on offense…..

 

an nfl game has multiple twists and turns.  Game plans change.  Coaches adjust.  We can’t tell much of anything based on what we saw.  

Disagree. I think we can tell a lot from what we saw in the game. 

 

I'm pretty sure that Bengals fans and players feel much better about their chances of beating the Bills. They were up 7-3 and likely going to score again. 

49 minutes ago, Airseven said:

 

We can tell that the Bills had few answers for the Bengals passing attack. Johnson and Hamlin went down and the Bengals were targeting the Bills' supposed best corner. This isn't the Bears who were gifted their scripted drive.

Bingo!

[Straight Hucklebuck]

13 minutes ago, Dan said:

I posted this in another thread, but it makes more sense here: 

 

“One impression I will say I had watching the first 3 series... the Bengals came out on fire.  They were being extremely physical, hitting hard and seemed determined to try and intimidate the Bills into submission with hard hits and quick scores.    In just 3 series we had 3 players injured.“

 

My initial thought was.. if the Bills survive the first quarter, the adrenaline wears off and then the Bills would take control.  It would still have been a tight game, but rarely do teams maintain that level of intensity for 4 quarters. 
 

My other thought.. the busted play near the goal when Allen dirts the ball because the Bengals blew it up.   It seems we do that a couple times a game.  On a screen?   Is the Bills’ offense that predictable?  Is there a line call that tips the defense?  Do we just suck at screens?  This isn’t the only time where it looks like the defense was in the offensive huddle. 

I don’t understand the Bills with 5 years of experience with Allen don’t have a designed Allen run call built into every possession <8 yards and in.
 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Straight Hucklebuck

[newcam2012]

50 minutes ago, Airseven said:

 

We can tell that the Bills had few answers for the Bengals passing attack. Johnson and Hamlin went down and the Bengals were targeting the Bills' supposed best corner. This isn't the Bears who were gifted their scripted drive.

I saw a slim path for a Bills victory the way the game was playing out. I don't see how the Bills secondary would have stopped the Burrow and his pass catchers. 

 

Allen would have had to played the game of his life for the Bills victory. 

[Straight Hucklebuck]

3 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Disagree. I think we can tell a lot from what we saw in the game. 

 

I'm pretty sure that Bengals fans and players feel much better about their chances of beating the Bills. They were up 7-3 and likely going to score again. 

Bingo!

Yeah, we know newcam2012.…..

[Caesar]

20 minutes ago, PatsFanNH said:

The interception was a long long pass and they were not in the red zone at the time of the pick. TD Called back because the only reason Burrows was able to get rid of the ball was the huge hold on Judon.. also was a long pass as well.  The FG was a 55 yarder hardly a chip shot.  So unlike the first half they didn’t move the ball with lightning efficiency.
 

lol watch the play again the ball was right in Washington chest he should have caught it, they were lucky he tipped it to Meyers but it wasn’t a Hail Mary pass like you said. 

 

 

What game are you talking about?   There was no  "long long pass" interception this game?  Seriously, if you are going to make stuff up add a disclaimer.     Im not sure I even want to debate this awful set of lies....

2nd & 14 at NE 18

(4:19 - 2nd) (Shotgun) J.Burrow pass short middle intended for T.Boyd INTERCEPTED by D.McCourty at NE 15. 

4th & 4 at NE 25

(9:06 - 4th) E.McPherson 43 yard field goal is No Good, Wide Left, Center-C.Adomitis, Holder-D.Chrisman.

See the pic, not close to Washington's chest with TWO defenders sticking there arms in to knock the pass down.   Question: Do you always blatantly lie like this on this message board?  Do you have ANY credibility whatsoever?  


 

Edited January 3, 2023 by Caesar

[Royale with Cheese]

2 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Disagree. I think we can tell a lot from what we saw in the game. 

 

I'm pretty sure that Bengals fans and players feel much better about their chances of beating the Bills. They were up 7-3 and likely going to score again. 

 

Seriously?  8 plays determines a game?

Did you not see what happened to them against the Pats?  They scored 22 in the first half.  How many did they score in the second half?

 

I can understand why you think that this because of the Ravens game.  We were down 20-3 and couldn't stop the Ravens in the first half and couldn't stop them in the second half either.  Those hills are just too steep to climb.  Man, I really wish we would have beaten the Ravens.

[dpberr]

I get the impression the defense throws a vanilla coverage out there deliberately on the first drive to gather information about the offense, since the offense is likely working off a pre-designed script of formations.   It's just too much of a pattern that the opposing team always works their way down the field easily on the first drive to think it's not deliberate.  

 

 

[newcam2012]

51 minutes ago, NewEra said:

We can tell NOTHING from EIGHT PLAYS.  
 

You can think whatever you want.  
 

When an offense scores a TD on its first drive and is driving for another score in 8 plays that speaks volumes to me. 

[Royale with Cheese]

4 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

I saw a slim path for a Bills victory the way the game was playing out. I don't see how the Bills secondary would have stopped the Burrow and his pass catchers. 

 

Allen would have had to played the game of his life for the Bills victory. 

 

Yep.  I don't think we've every won a game in which were down in the 1st quarter...ever.  You know Champions say....it's not how you finish, it's how you start.

[ngbills]

Will never know. Game could have gone many different ways. However, the Bills O and Allen looked dialed in. That is usually a good sign so my guess it would have been a close high scoring game 41-38 or if the D figured things out a Bills blowout 42-21.

[BullBuchanan]

14 minutes ago, GoBills808 said:

My thought is Josh Allen was going to absolutely nuke the bengals

Sure didn't look that way.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Wish we knew what the play call and the responsibilities were on that second down. Seemed more than just the Bengals blew it up.

3rd down incompletion was a bad pass not a drop. A good pass and Cole scores probably untouched. It was a great route and good play design. Josh has to deliver a catchable ball. He did not. Every ball that touches a hand is not a catchable ball and not always a drop. 

[Royale with Cheese]

1 minute ago, newcam2012 said:

When an offense scores a TD on its first drive and is driving for another score in 8 plays that speaks volumes to me. 

 

Yep.  The Bengals scored on all 4 drives in the 1st half against the Pats and were up 22-0.  That spoke volumes as well since the Bengals kept putting up the points on the Pats after half time too.  

[JohninMinn.]

1 hour ago, The 9 Isles said:

Meh. The Bills always give up one or two of those hot knife through butter drives but usually sure right up. 
 

I think the Bills first drive was indicative of exactly what McDermott wants on offense, a balanced grind you down, frustrate the opposing linemen and use up the clock to keep the defense fresh. 
 

I think it would have been a great game considering to two teams abilities. 
 

 

Cook was going to be a factor.

[Royale with Cheese]

I simply am astonished that there are people who think that game was already over in the first quarter down by 4.  WOW, that is amazing to me.

[Bangarang]

Defense started off like they were going to have 40 dropped on them.

[newcam2012]

42 minutes ago, Scott7975 said:

 

Of course this was going to be a tough matchup.  Thats what happens when you play a super bowl contender.  There is no way to tell how the game would have went if they played it in full. Both teams would have made adjustments through the course.  I highly doubt Cinci would have scored every drive.  I dont think we would have either.  The game would have come down to who made the least mistakes.  Maybe even who gets the ball last.

Very true but at least you can admit the game wasn't an ideal start for the Bills. Especially, playing on the road against an elite team, elite QB, and a dynamic WR core. 

 

Sure no one knows the final outcome but the beginning surely wasn't encouraging. Can we agree on that? 

[GoBills808]

9 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

Sure didn't look that way.

Did to me

 

[Royale with Cheese]

1 minute ago, newcam2012 said:

Very true but at least you can admit the game wasn't an ideal start for the Bills. Especially, playing on the road against an elite team, elite QB, and a dynamic WR core. 

 

Sure no one knows the final outcome but the beginning surely wasn't encouraging. Can we agree on that? 

 

Yes we can agree on that.  So what...its a 4 quarter game.

Last week, the Burrow was 28-36 for 284 yards and 3 TD's in the FIRST HALF against the Pats.

They won on a fumble.

[NewEra]

22 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Disagree. I think we can tell a lot from what we saw in the game. 

 

I'm pretty sure that Bengals fans and players feel much better about their chances of beating the Bills. They were up 7-3 and likely going to score again. 

Bingo!

8 plays bruh. 8.  We blitzed on their 2 biggest plays…..  and that likely wouldn’t have continued if continued to get beat.  We blitz less than anyone….. just stop with this absolute NONSENSE

 

Things would have changed with regards to our D.  Our offense looked great. 
 

 

[Bill Grundy]

I thought our one drive was pretty good and we looked to have all aspects firing. Their offence looked scary but I think we’d have adapted. Can’t read anything into it, really. I think we might have ground them down. 

Edited January 3, 2023 by LondonBill

[BillMafia716ix]

Although it was short sample size. We were getting no pressure on Burrow. Definitely a game where the loss of Von Miller hurt

[NewEra]

9 minutes ago, newcam2012 said:

Very true but at least you can admit the game wasn't an ideal start for the Bills. Especially, playing on the road against an elite team, elite QB, and a dynamic WR core. 

 

Sure no one knows the final outcome but the beginning surely wasn't encouraging. Can we agree on that? 

Yes…..that’s about the ONLY conclusion that can be drawn from EIGHT plays.  I’ll say it again…..8 plays.  If that doesn’t mean anything to you, than idk what to say. 
 

I remember when the oilers were driving at will, scoring TD after TD.  And lost.  

 

But……. 8 plays.  Sure.

[HappyDays]

My one positive thought is that James Cook continues to look like a really good player. I'm not going to draw any conclusions about the game itself, just thought that was a good trend to see continue.

[teef]

17 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

I simply am astonished that there are people who think that game was already over in the first quarter down by 4.  WOW, that is amazing to me.

just look who they are.  does that shock you at all?

[Amaru523]

How many times this year in the GDT, after the opponent scores early did everyone proclaim the Bills suck, the defense is awful, forget the SB, game over, only to see the Bills end up winning? Almost every game.

 

There was still 50 minutes left, the game was most likely going to be a shootout, I wasn't worried at all by the start, because we've seen this movie before. The Bills are really good.

[mbowman14]

10 minutes ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

Wish we knew what the play call and the responsibilities were on that second down. Seemed more than just the Bengals blew it up.

3rd down incompletion was a bad pass not a drop. A good pass and Cole scores probably untouched. It was a great route and good play design. Josh has to deliver a catchable ball. He did not. Every ball that touches a hand is not a catchable ball and not always a drop. 

It was going to be a run by Motor but the Corner on McKenzie didn't follow him across with his Jet Motion.  Instead when McKenzie motioned, that Corner blitzed and Spencer Brown couldn't get to him in time as they weren't expecting that blitz.  Josh sensed that handing it off would have been a 5 yard loss and kept the ball.  You can see in Diggs' reaction up top as he clearly thought it was a running play and made no attempt to run a route.  Dion Dawkins was also downfield leading you to believe it was a run.

[teef]

1 minute ago, Amaru523 said:

How many times this year in the GDT, after the opponent scores early did everyone proclaim the Bills suck, the defense is awful, forget the SB, game over, only to see the Bills end up winning? Almost every game.

 

There was still 50 minutes left, the game was most likely going to be a shootout, I wasn't worried at all by the start, because we've seen this movie before. The Bills are really good.

some posters want the coaches fired every single game.

[LanderPoke]

Bengals go through long stretches where their offense looks great then long stretches where their offense looks terrible. It would have evened out last night and would have been a close game.

[Boatdrinks]

27 minutes ago, BullBuchanan said:

Sure didn't look that way.

Yeah, you would’ve thought they were the steel curtain out there Vs Josh.. he was completely neutralized…

[Shemp]

The way it looked to me was that the Bengals were going to crush the Bills. Plus they were playing dirty AFC North football. The guy who rolled Allen's ankle, the way Taron Johnson was ground into the turf, the guy who tried to jump over White and kicked him; these were extra physical plays that looked like they were intentionally trying to hurt the smaller, injury-ridden Bills. I don't think you can let a quality home team like the Bengals slice through you at the beginning of the game like you can the Bears or others. The Bengals will not come crashing down to earth with reality like the Bears did in the second half. Burrows was picking apart the Bills D and he made it look easy.