Bengals/Jaguars game thread - primetime edition

[traderumor]

The D-line has been this team's achilles heel since the Marvin era began, and they really haven't done much to improve it. There have been plenty of big lineman available early, but Marvin always passes on them. One blessing in disguise is that the Sapp deal fell through cuz the only space he is taking up these days is in the salary cap.

[traderumor]

Funny how it's much more palatable to talk Bengals football on a Reds message board than it is on a certain other Bengals message board.

Try saying something like "This team isn't quite ready for the Super Bowl yet" and see what happens.

I had to explain to someone what the word pragmatic meant, and he still wouldn't concede that it was in fact what I was doing.

Football message boards that I've frequented are a disaster. Extreme emotionalism, very little analysis, a whole bunch of smack talking between fans of teams getting ready to play each other. I tried once to start a game plan thread on bengalsinsider.com and really got only a few intelligent responses. Last time I did that.

[Yachtzee]

It does seem like the Bengals discussion here is based on reason, as opposed to emotion. Maybe it's the influence of the good people of Redszone who insist on backing arguments up with fact that seems to have weeded out the trolls to a certain degree. I'm just waiting the first post referencing footballoutsiders.com.

[GAC]

The defense just isn't there. The turn overs the first few games covered up a lot of glaring deficiencies (notably, run defense).

I agree, but the penalities are realy hurting this team. Plus, they are one of the top teams in the NFL on redszone appearances; but one of the worst in scoring TD's once they get in there.

This team is much improved, but this game was the "test". I picked it as being their first loss.

But the combined won-loss record of the Bengal's opposition going into this game was 4-12. Yes, these are teams that the Bengals should beat. That shows improvement IMO. And they can afford losses to good teams like the Jaguars. But they have to show everyone else that they can beat these other teams also at some point in the season. In the AFC, they have to show they can beat teams like the Steelers and Indy. That's the key.

When I look at the Bengal's schedule, I see the possiblilty of 3 more losses (at Pitt, Indy, and maybe at KC). That's a solid improvement. But to reach that next level, they have to be able to show they can beat those "upper tier" teams.

[wheels]

It does seem like the Bengals discussion here is based on reason, as opposed to emotion. Maybe it's the influence of the good people of Redszone who insist on backing arguments up with fact that seems to have weeded out the trolls to a certain degree. I'm just waiting the first post referencing footballoutsiders.com.

I've mentioned footballoutsiders.com a couple of times.

Very interesting stuff on there. Will Carroll even has a column sometimes.

I'm still trying to get grasp on some of that stuff, though, and it seems like they are too. Fledglings, they are.