Jump to content

Week 4 Bengals @ Browns


MrCincinnati

Recommended Posts

The battle of Ohio features two teams who are both 0-3. This is the game of the “weak”

HISTORY LESSON

The Bengals are 19-24 against the Browns when playing in Cleveland
The Bengals have beaten the Browns in their last 5 matchups, and have won at Cleveland in their last 3 matchups
Last matchup – Last season Bengals won 23-10 in Cleveland
Last Browns win – 2014 season Browns won 24-3 in Cincinnati
Last Browns win in Cleveland – 2013 season Browns won 17-6

GAMEDAY INFO

Game time will be this Sunday 1 PM ET on CBS. Here’s the TV Map:
http://506sports.com/nfl.php?yr=2017&wk=4

5 KEYS TO VICTORY

5. Joe Mixon’s Snaps – It seems Mixon has finally emerged himself from the pack last game, seeing as he had 18 rush attempts which is the highest so far for one game this season for this team. Problem is, he only managed 62 yards, which averaged 3.4 per carry, making his season average this year 3.1 now. The expectation is that he will only get better, but for a guy that everyone hyped up for the whole offseason, I was hoping for better results. The Browns run defense will be a challenge this game.

4. Run Defense – The Bengals run defense has been 25th in the league so far, but they did an excellent job at stopping Ty Montgomery. Even better news, they will be up against Isaiah Crowell who’s been bad so far this year, only averaging 2.9 per carry. Problem is, he’s had the Bengals number the last 3 times he’s played the Bengals, and last year he averaged 7.6 per carry against the Bengals in both games he played against them. Taking away the Browns run game will force them to rely on Kizer which may backfire, but the Bengals have been very good against the pass this year, so I would take my chances. Having Burfict back this game will be a game changer.

3. Kicking Questions – Sunday was not a great day for Bengals fans who were watching the Bengals game, as well as the end of the Eagles game. Seeing Elliott nail that 61 yard FG, and Bullock missing an easy FG that could of potentially gave them first win really hurts. Now granted he played well against the Texans when he went 3 for 3, but people will only remember the crucial kicks, and I don’t think Bullock is out of the woods just yet. He won’t lose his job unless he starts playing like Nugent, but I want to see him erase those doubts if Elliott was the better choice.

2. Pass Protection – The biggest question mark of this team finally showed some signs of improvement against the Packers. Part of the reason may have been because they finally gave Andre Smith some playing time, rotating him in and out with Ogbuehi and Fisher, which is thanks to Bill Lazor’s credit. Even on Profootballfocus, Clint Boling posted a very positive grade, which has been the first good sign all year. Problem is, they still struggled as they gave up 3 sacks and one of them was a game changer which caused them to miss a FG. Again, I’m just hoping for 3 out of 5 of these guys to establish themselves as reliable players, but in the meantime only Boling has done that so far.

1. Offensive Efficiency – Last game their offense did so much better which is a sigh of relief that they no longer have to be joked about not scoring any TD’s this year. Only problem was, this team scored all of their TD’s in the first 20 minutes of the game, and after that the offense couldn’t really do anything for the rest of the game. Bill Lazor did his job calling much better plays, but the execution by Andy Dalton at times (despite his numbers looking good), cost this team their first win of the year. If you can’t get it right this week, then there’s no hope.

PREDICTION

Both teams are playing for next year at this point, and both have a very good shot at get that #1 pick in the draft right now. A week ago I would have said the Browns would win this game. But the Bengals showed me more life when they almost beat the Packers, compared to the Browns who got dominated by a bad Colts team. The Bengals have slapped around the Browns in there last several matchups, and I think that will continue here, as the Bengals will look to take out their frustrations from the first 3 games.

Bengals 30 Browns 7

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MrCincinnati said:

1. Offensive Efficiency – Last game their offense did so much better which is a sigh of relief that they no longer have to be joked about not scoring any TD’s this year. Only problem was, this team scored all of their TD’s in the first 20 minutes of the game, and after that the offense couldn’t really do anything for the rest of the game. Bill Lazor did his job calling much better plays, but the execution by Andy Dalton at times (despite his numbers looking good), cost this team their first win of the year. If you can’t get it right this week, then there’s no hope.

 

I watched the last game on condensed, so i missed a lot of the commentary.  But apparently Romo mentioned at one point - "the bengals have run through their first scripted 20 plays, now we'll see how Lazor does".  They scored 3 points the rest of the game.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, MrCincinnati said:

3. Kicking Questions – Sunday was not a great day for Bengals fans who were watching the Bengals game, as well as the end of the Eagles game. Seeing Elliott nail that 61 yard FG, and Bullock missing an easy FG that could of potentially gave them first win really hurts. Now granted he played well against the Texans when he went 3 for 3, but people will only remember the crucial kicks, and I don’t think Bullock is out of the woods just yet. He won’t lose his job unless he starts playing like Nugent, but I want to see him erase those doubts if Elliott was the better choice.

 

Elliott also missed a kick.  Had he made that, the 61 yarder wouldn't have been necessary.

Perspective.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, theJ said:

I watched the last game on condensed, so i missed a lot of the commentary.  But apparently Romo mentioned at one point - "the bengals have run through their first scripted 20 plays, now we'll see how Lazor does".  They scored 3 points the rest of the game.

I just watched it too on condensed.  Kirkpatrick just missed knocking away the winning TD.  

 

Didn't see how badly Dalton missed LaFell earlier in the fourth.  He hits that, game possibly over.

Will be watching this one from the comfort of my couch. 

Bengals the better half of the carp, 35-13

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Despite being a road game, I think this has to fall under the "must win" category to avoid a potential season meltdown.  If they are 0-4 coming off a loss to the Browns, then whatever positivity of playing GB close in Lambeau and getting Burfict back is going to evaporate like a fart on the breeze.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So the biggest thing I'm looking forward to in this game is Carl Lawson vs. Joe Thomas.  All I keep hearing are excuses regarding Lawson (Trent Williams doesn't try hard in preseason, it was GB's backup OT, etc...), which are all valid.  I'd like to see how he does against an elite OT in a regular season game.  If he shows up, all the excuses go away...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, TheVillain112 said:

So the biggest thing I'm looking forward to in this game is Carl Lawson vs. Joe Thomas.  All I keep hearing are excuses regarding Lawson (Trent Williams doesn't try hard in preseason, it was GB's backup OT, etc...), which are all valid.  I'd like to see how he does against an elite OT in a regular season game.  If he shows up, all the excuses go away...

If he does well, I'm sure we'll hear "Well, Joe Thomas is getting older, he's not as good as he used to be", "He was left one on one the entire game without a back or TE to chip a speed rusher", or "It's not his fault, it was the one armed man!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...