LinvilleGorge

Brutal

The investment in the defensive front this off-season is showing up and even the terrible LBs behind them are starting to look serviceable because of it. The D honestly looks a couple of pieces away from being pretty damn good.

He doesn't have the talent to be the long-term answer as a starter but I've always legitimately liked the person and I respect the guy. He's tough and he doesn't quit on himself. He took his benching like a man and improved himself. I respect that. I just don't want to see us making the mistake of committing to him contractually as a franchise QB. That will be crippling to the organization.

Feels like the Steelers vs. the Colts last year where Tomlin was telling his defenders to take it easy on Anthony Richardson because they didn't want to hurt him because they wanted him to stay in the game. That's gotta be about the biggest slap in the face you can hear from an opposing coach. LOL

At some point it's just not working. The Bengals have made their decision to dump all of their cap into QB and WRs. It is what it is. They really should've traded Higgins. They desperately need OL and D. Burrow isn't doing them any good flat on his back and then on IR.

Yep. Nothing wrong with simply being a great coordinator.

Agreed

McDaniels looks like he'd be relieved to get fired. He's aging like a POTUS this year.

Same. I just hope they're only feeling itchy on the 5th year option. That wouldn't be disastrous. A multi-year extension at franchise QB pay would be disastrous.

30 years? THIRTY??? No way... IMO the best album of my generation in terms of a true album experience of just turning it on and letting it play beginning to end.

If this team has gotten cocky at 3-3 after being a league bottom feeder for years then... yikes. Surely there's no such thing as a trap game for a team that's been starving for wins for years.

Honestly that's an insult to The Golden Calf of Bristol. The Golden Calf of Bristol would suck for three and half quarters then suddenly turn into John Elway in closing minutes to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Fields just sucks.

Like Cam said, if you play good they pay good.

Yeah, if I knew the feeling in the building was that we're improving but we can't hitch our wagon to Bryce I could sit back and enjoy the games. But the thought of extending Bryce as a franchise QB is horrifying. If he continues to function as an effective game manager I wouldn't be opposed to picking up his 5th year option to buy us another year but hell to the no extending him as a franchise QB and it wouldn't shock me to see us do it.

I get it. All I'm saying is that we have a massive limiting factor at the most important position in the game. If we fug around and commit to that massive limiting factor we're cooked. If I had a line in with the front office and staff that I knew that they knew this and they're committed to keep their options open at QB moving forward while playing lip service to Bryce in the press, cool. I get that. But I don't have that line. Winning some games against terrible competition while our backup RB plays like prime Adrian Peterson is cool but not if it leads to a huge mistake. That's my big concern.

There are no juggernauts this year. Feels like everyone in the playoffs field is gonna have a puncher's chance. All the best teams still have very obvious flaws.

He blew it. That was gift wrapped and he may have been able to take it to the house.

OMG why are they throwing the ball? Shaq dropped a game changing INT that may have gone for a TD

They convert but Bijan steps out of bounds? You got a understand what you're trying to accomplish here. Stay inbounds.

Why in the world is Atlanta running empty backfield with 5:30 to go up 7? And they false start. LOL

Their D is a problem, particularly their rushing D. They were second to last in the league in most yards allowed per rushing attempt going into tonight. They're probably last now. And then when you can't stop the run and have to commit more defenders to the box it opens up opportunities through the air.

Yes it was. Who would've thought that would be the beginning of the end? We all thought we'd make a few adjustments and be right back and be in the mix for years to come. It just all went sideways really fast.

Especially when one of the things Ward needed to work on moving to the NFL was getting the ball out faster. He played a lot like Caleb Williams in college. He'd hold the ball forever trying to looked for the big chunk play. In the NFL most plays are designed to get the ball out fast and you setup your plays where you're trying to take a shot.

If his seat was hot enough for him to be fired 6 games in then you should've just fired him when you made the decision to draft a QB #1 overall. I don't think you go from "this is definitely our guy" to "you're fired in 6 games". Seems like there would be had to have been doubts going in and that's not a recipe for success for a rookie QB.

I don't think there's any one size fits all answer. I think you play the rookie when A) you think he's ready and B) you think there's a reasonable expectation that the overall situation provides him an opportunity to be successful, not necessarily in terms of wins and losses but just in terms of giving him a fighting chance with surrounding talent. If you rush either one it's probably not gonna be pretty. Reich never seemed like he wanted Bryce. I don't know if he was led to believe he'd have more input on the QB decision or if he just thought he'd be more persuasive but the wind just seemed to go out of his sails once we landed on Bryce. That situation is never gonna work out.