quick thoughts on the bengals
 

1) there will be many more thoughts to come this week. i was a bit excited to watch luck back and didn't really get into the details.

2) this is what coaching looks like. this is the exact offense luck needs to run. smart and quick passes. using the rbs in the pass game as an extention of the run game. very efficient with a high completion percentage. putting the team in 3rd and manageable positions.

3) holy fuck did we see a slant pass? multiple slant passes? holy shit we have a real coach. night and day different than what the shit we saw with pagano and company. pagano was by far the worst coach that has ever coached the colts. fuck dam and anyone that argues otherwise. you could just see it today. oh wait we didn't just kneel on the ball at half? we got points? shocking that we can do that

4) this defense is trash. everyone needs to realize this. no matter what pff says (shrek) sheard sucks. he isn't good. al woods is our best dlineman and he is just ok. i find it hilarious people wanted him cut during preseason. probably morons that read pff. pff is so fucking wrong so fucking much and people just ignore that. this defense has no talent.

5) desir is better than wilson. especially wilson with a club. fix this

6) nelson is a guard. his impact is very minimal. he is also a lg. which makes his impact even more minimal. good player. bad value at 6 overall. i watched him and kelly a lot and they struggled early and settled down from what i gathered with a first watch. will follow up with more detail.

7) webb and haeg held their own to a degree. they werent great but no team can look good with 2 ot's down. this is about as good as you can expect. i credit them for the effort. no matter how bad they sucked.

8) moore sucks but the dude isn't scared to stick his face in there. i like his toughness. that said, how the fuck did he not score a td on that pick? what the fuck was he doing?

9) i was very surprised to see grant play such a huge role. the dude is a terrible #2 but he played the role today. for the most part. that back shoulder throw should have never happened

10) i liked the rookie rbs. not game breakers but contributors. i will take that.

11) turay has some good get off but we have no rush. this will only look worse.

12) the defense had some stupid penalties. some ridiculous penalties that the refs called but that happens. main point is ballard put together a shit defense.

13) that said it is fun to watch the young guys fly around. i thought leonard was picked too early and i still think he was but he looks to be awesome. looks to be a great pick. smith not so much. lewis looks like a shit pick. turay has a good get off but didn't do much

14) would have liked to have seen more crossing routes to hilton but that is nit picking.

15) the arrow is up with this coaching staff. not sure defensively but this offense is in good hands. the 2 minute drill before half was great. we actually looked like an nfl team.

16) there will be more to come. i want to watch the game a few more times and will be adding comments here

That's the biggest takeaway from me. Last year was so depressing it's nice to see coaching that has a clue. The defense is extremely shit like you said but hopefully we all knew that. When you take a look again I'm curious to know your take on the safeties. Felt like they were invisible and Hooker didn't do anything. But it's hard to tell. Thanks for the write up.

Surprised you didn’t give Hunt some props

Anybody know why Smith was playing LT? I only saw him there for one play, but Dunlap handled him

Though the first half wasn't perfect, I felt good about how we played, the second half was a totally different team. Whether it was the play calling, or just the Bengals stepped up, and we didn't, I am so sick of these poorly played second halves.

Luck looked good though, and will continue to get better as the season goes, but again he took way to many hits.

I’m starting to think Luck has a little RGIII or Trent Green in him. He’s just one of those guys who’s going to take big hits.

This team can't have dumb mistakes/dumb penalties. They don't have enough talent to over come giving the other team a break.

The D coordinator needs to accept the truth that this team doesn't have a Freeney who can whip what ever is in front of him. They will need to run some "games" in order to generate a pass rush. It's sucks, but it's true. If they continue to do what they did today, nothing will change. That is the definition of insanity.

I agree about the offense. Loved the short game we played and thought Reich did good overall with no Pagano wtf calls. Looking forward to see the offense develop as the season goes on. The D looked bad. Turay and Hunt had some good moments, but the whole unit needs a lot of work. I thought the offensive pass interference calls were bs, but the defensive penalties toward the end killed us. Luck looked good imo, he and Ebron could make some noise. Looking forward to hear the opinions of you guys that rewatch the games and evaluate the lines, etc.

#8- maybe his wife stabbed him in the leg last night!!!

TY Hilton: "At the end of the day we should’ve won ... my drop was key. So blame me. I should’ve made more plays. They couldn’t guard me, but just couldn't get in the groove."

Quincy Wilson wasn't happy with the pass interference call on him late in the 2nd quarter. "Ticky-tacky," he called it. "(Ref) said I grabbed his arm ... I just played his hands."

This goes well with Omaha's eighth point.



"I made a good play but I could’ve made it great. That’s not good enough at all. That was a quarterback. Man ... I gotta outrun him."

that will probably come after rewatch notes.

he did make some plays for sure

i actually got the gamepass with all 22 this year. i want to watch the secondary and study what they do on average. i thought i saw a lot of cover 3 today but will wait until i can watch the coaches film.

honestly have no idea with what i will do with it but the secondary is what i want to watch on defense.

haeg had to shit? i have no idea.

Also, Castonzo looks like buff Justin Bieber.

also something we have to take into account is the offense and defense will have some film on them. expect tendencies to start coming into focus in october. reich will need to account for this. which is harder than it sounds.

also luck was amazing when you factor in the rust he should have. i can't stress that enough.

also this defense has no talent. can't stress that enough as well.

Cincy has a great D-Line. Colts did a good job of slowing them down in the 1st half. But were just over matched in the 2nd half. Nelson had his hands full with Atkins and Dunlap pretty much owned whoever was blocking him.

Cincy also has a terrible O-Line our average D-Line owned them early. Al Woods was killing Price and Booby Hart sucks. Would of liked to see more of Turay and Basham on passing downs with Sheard moved inside.

This will be an even better offense with Turbin and Castonzo back.

Luck looked like Luck...more good than bad...sometimes great but still just a little bit off, still taking unnecessary risks with his body and the ball.

Where the fuck was Hooker? Hopefully he's just shaking the rust off.

Happy as shit about the play calling and game planning. Slants, screens, of all varieties. Nothing like Chud's bullshit offense. Only caveat, is that Reich got a little too pass happy.

This was a winnable game. Colts just mad too many mistakes. But, I at least have confidence in this coaching staff to improve the play as the season goes on.

This. I was distracted for some of the game but never noticed him making a play.

Meh......he was easy to notice on the one play where he was that's for sure.

So Omaha judges head coaches solely on their offensive gameplans. That explains a lot.

no

i judge coaches on how they handle in game situations. how the team operates as a whole. and this was a real coach.

pagano was not. keep defending pagano dude. everyone can see it but you. we always could.

this team was missing their starting tackles and compensated with a gameplan. that is coaching. pagano would have never let that happen.

you are wrong as always

Looked a lot like last year to me, get an early lead only to fold in the 2nd half

7 points vs their JV defense? just terrible

I knew the defense was going to suck but WTF No Burfict, Williams ejected, and Brown leaves with an injury

Fuck you Ballard with this youth movement BS this team has no fucking talent and Ballard is sitting on 60mil for what???

Just say it Ballard you fuckin pussy we're tanking because I need another top 10 pick to make this team good again

So glad you spent money on Howard , Webb, Michael, Autry, and cut any vet worth a fuck because of your fuckin ego

Get ready for another shitty season and Lucas Oil full of opposing teams fans cant wait

You don't judge them at all, because you say they don't matter.

Guess what? COACHES MATTER!

You do realize that Cincy has as good a front 4 as anybody in the league? Not to mention they go 8 deep with quality players on the DL.

You're fucking delusional if you couldn't see the night and day difference between Pagano's staff and Reich's staff in this one game alone.

Delusional is an understatement. I hope that he has someone that can get him the proper psychiatric care he needs.

dam is a lost cause.


not only is he fucking stupid, but he has such a tiny dick that he can't admit when he is wrong. deep down as a person he is trash. he has zero integrity and people with zero integrity shouldn't be allowed to breed

I don't blame this on the coaches.

Luck and Doyle, they lost the game with stupid turnovers, first and last possession.

You can complain about the D, but they give you a turnover on the second play of the game and ball inside the 10 with a chance to go up 7-0 and all the momentum early. Luck killed that, HORRIBLE decision. Doyle had two guys on him. He wasn't catching that ball even if it wasn't intercepted.

Last possession, Doyle freakin' fumbles, awful play. Hold onto the damn ball. Cost them the game. Should have still won even down in the 4th quarter, they were going to score with 4 downs to work with.

Coaching decisions to criticize? Sure. Is the D great? No, we knew that. But they played well enough to win the game and gave Luck the ball with a chance to win. And that's his job. And Reich was calling great plays on the last drive.

Doyle and Luck blew it.

And also.....

Quincy Wilson sucks. Just get him off the field. With two good hands he can't play corner. He is the new TJ Green

Pagano was actually right about him, not playing him last year. Even a broken clock is wrong once in awhile

I'm not able to watch Colts games but without looking at anything it reminds me of last years Colts my looking at stats. Rushing show Colts still can't run the football. Glad Omaha sees a silver lining.

My quick follow, though Omaha hit a lot of points already.

1. I'm mostly encouraged heading out of this. Not for this season, necessarily. This looks like a 5-win team. But there are finally men on the sideline who appear to know what the fuck they are doing. Colts are not getting a Frank Gore Wildcat offense. Colts are getting pre-snap motion. Colts are spreading defenses out and stressing linebacker depth. Colts are creating mismatches and exploiting them. It's no longer just running into the teeth of crowded boxes and hoping Jack Doyle can run a stick route past the line. There is consideration to tempo, route levels, spacing, etc. It's honestly stunning to see.

2. And I get what the defensive design is. It's not where it needs to be. We knew that would be the case. It's a bend-don't-break defense that broke a few times. To be fair, one of those was on a bullshit DPI call, and the other was because Clayton Geather is a moron. I can easily see this as a defense that adds/develops the right DL talent, though, and starts holding opponents to under 20ppg. Under 20ppg should win most games with Luck under center.

3. If I was discouraged by anything, it was that Margus Hunt and Al Woods were by far the most effective defensive linemen. Good for Hunt and Woods, but there's no way that should be the case, and it doesn't inspire a ton of confidence in the rest of the DL going forward for me. I thought Turay had a few flashes, but nothing I could quantify into tangible evidence he's a player. I though Sheard SUCKED. Like, get off this team sucked. Basham was invisible, which is status quo for him.

4. It was great to see Hines confident, involved and honestly looking like a big part of this offense. I'm fine with this RB contingent once Mack gets back. I can see the roles. I still wouldn't complain if Le'Veon Bell was added as a 2019 free agent...

5. I know it pissed off people in the game thread, but I stand firmly against ever taking an offensive guard #6 overall. Nelson won some, lost some today. But at the end of the day: Colts still couldn't run the ball (especially up the middle) and Luck still got hit a lot. You can say "yeah well that's because ____ was playing" and you're not wrong, but it just shows my larger point: one offensive guard's impact on an OL is minimal. Luck had more of a pocket to step into, so not saying this line is as bad as last year at all ... clearly it's better. Still, is it #6 overall pick impact better? I don't think so.

Where did you get that?

out of his ass

Kind of a bittersweet game. The most important thing is that Luck is back,
really back which will at least give them a chance in every game they play.
And they now seem to have an intelligent offensive gameplan.
But they lost, a game they definitely could have won. And in many
respects in the same way they have in the past- bonehead mistakes by
the defense and either failure to make plays(Hiltons drop) or critical
turnovers(Doyles fumble and Lucks pick). It all adds up to culture of
Wouda couda shouda that fermented under Pagano and still hasn't
been shed. I feel better about the team than I thought I would going
in but it's going to be a long steep climb.

I was impressed with Hines. He had a nice game. He is going to be a weapon in the passing game

Good post bert

Yeah, there's definitely a losing culture that still needs to be shed.

This was probably the most depressing for me as well. Sheard isn't going to get any better. So play the young guys on the edges on pass downs and see if they can develop.

Like I said, you judge them on offensive gameplan. Nothing you mentioned isn't about offense. Pagano was awful at offensive gameplan, as I mentioned several times throughout his tenure, and Reich was obviously very good at that today. Even compensating for missing OTs is, you guessed it, offensive gameplan.

I did. It's called offensive gameplan.

His original point #3 and follow up post.

What I've been saying all along. It would take a lot to convince me that Nelson will have a bigger impact over the course of his career than whoever the Colts would've picked with 12 and 22, and today did nothing to help that case.

So you are admitting that Pagano hired the wrong OC's and tried to make them run an archaic offense?


Have you noticed that Reich (offensive minded coach) hasn't tried to make the DC which he did not hire.... run a different de
Game decisions didn't make you scratch your head like in the pigshit era. Did you see how the half ended while we has the lead? We didn't sit on the lead and go into the locker room like pigshit would havefense than what he is used to?




TBH if Pags wasn't such an idiot and hired the right people and stayed out of their way he MAY have still had a job. But he meddled in areas he had no strengths in.