Newton starter vs Bengals, Week 1 starter TBD

[Sword]

well if theres one team to play your rookie qb against, its the bengals

and the cardinals..even jimmy in the worst situation EVAH beat them last year.

[TheRealDeal]

If they blocked me, they couldn't try to make funny comments not relating to football.

If they blocked me they would have nothing to post about

[HPPantherzfan]

i may be wrong but Im pretty sure Bush and Marshall were out that first game.

Doesn't matter, we are still a lot worse than many of us thought we would be this year, including myself.

I'm hunkering down for a long year...stocking up on lots of beer....

[GritsRgreat]

well if theres one team to play your rookie qb against, its the bengals

or the panthers...:rolleyes:

[rico6]

At least Hardy is back.

[TheRealDeal]

meh I think broke even is overly critical. The addition of the two tight ends, along with the new coaches, counters any lost quarterback play IMO. I think we're going to have a better offense overall, though it might not be as much as many of us would like.

Shockey being an upgrade is debatable.

Olsen is legit.

We also lost a #2 receiver in Gettis and haven't replaced him.

I haven't seen anything out of the new offense that gives me any more hope than last year.

[lightsout]

Here is what I am expecting for the Bengals game:

1) Play-calling a bit more realistic as far as being like a regular-season game.

2) The run game to actually be consistent, picking up about 4 yards a pop to supplement the pass game.

3) Defense to be a lot better. Not as much blitzing as we will see week 1, but more than last week. There will be drives where we won't blitz much or at all, just to continue evaluation on our DL.

4) Mare to not miss any FGs.

5) Me to be really drunk.

If all 5 of those things happen, I will feel a lot better about this season.

[TheRealDeal]

You don't want us to convert more 3rd downs?

[HeatCheck]

This is a good indication that Cam will start. I personally think there's more benefit in starting Anderson over Clausen. Cam can actually learn from Anderson playing unlke Jimmy. But Newton should be week 1 starter and I have been all for it. He has more upside than Jimmy and gives us a better chance to win.

[Grammer]

that's what we said last year with Clausen, LOL

actually this time last year people thought the bengals were pretty good. they won the AFCN in 2009 IIRC

now? they'll probably go 0-16, they don't have one decent player on that team anymore. not one

i hope luck goes there!

[TheRealDeal]

That seems like a bit of an overstatement

[Ted Stryker]

If they blocked me, they couldn't try to remind me daily of my man love for Matt Moore

If they blocked me they would haveforgotten about him already

fixed

[mav1234]

Doesn't matter, we are still a lot worse than many of us thought we would be this year, including myself.

I'm hunkering down for a long year...stocking up on lots of beer....

I'm still expecting around 4-12. I'll admit the first preseason game got my hopes a bit higher, but eh. We'll improve, that's all I can ask for.

Shockey being an upgrade is debatable.

Olsen is legit.

We also lost a #2 receiver in Gettis and haven't replaced him.

I haven't seen anything out of the new offense that gives me any more hope than last year.

True about Gettis, but Olsen more than makes up for that if we want to do some weird twisted playing weighting by expected contribution. I don't think you can debate the upgrade in the passing game from Shockey either, even if you put most of that emphasis on a coordinator that thinks they are more than just additional lineman. Also, I personally think AE's growth will have some effect this year, and while it won't counter the loss of Gettis, it'll be another plus. Overall we're still weak past Smitty at pure receivers, but overall our passing game looks much stronger than it did last season because of the addition of the tight ends and (hopefully) a better system.

Our running game may actually take a hit though - Chuds was often criticized in Cleveland for not running enough.

[micnificent28]

If they blocked me, they couldn't try to make funny comments not relating to football.

If they blocked me they would have nothing to post about

Yep he's the evil cam hater this board loves to hate. No reason to block you, you haven't done anything to me. Infact, some of the stuff you come up with isn't all poppycock. It's just if there is a thread about cam i already know what you ll say