sharkweek
09-28-2009, 03:02 AM
I'm not going to pin the blame on any one individual player or coach, nor collective unit of the team.
Sure, it might be easy to look at the defense and say they blew it, but the best defense is a good offense - you can't count on your defense being impermeable 24/7. In the sport of football, its the team that has control of the football that has the most control of their own fate, it doesn't matter how good a defense is, you can't count on the other team messing up.
That being said, the blame can't be entirely on the offense either, it more than did its job for 3 quarters.
It also might being easy to single out an individual such as Holmes or Sweed, or on the coaching staff such as Arians or Tomlin. But it was what I observed as a team that I find troubling and where I will now get into the meat of my argument...
What exactly was going on with the play calling?
The offensive drives we scored on we were throwing the ball on first and second down, and after establishing some success through the air, we finally get a defense to play more honestly against the run and we actually find success running the ball.
Then we play conservative by going for the chipshot field goal instead of going for it on 4th and goal, where if we fail we pin the Bengals super deep with a D that just forced a 3 and out. I can forgive this because Reed did need a chipper to gain some confidence but still, this decision will make two instances later in the game far worse, those being:
1. Not punting with a 4th and 3ish? right before the half to pin the Bengals deep. Ok, we're up 13-0, we want to put the game away, thats great, I like it, but we already strayed from that mentality with that opening drive, so why start then?...obviously we fail and then the Bengals drive it and manage a field goal to make it 13-3 at the half.
2. making Reed attempt a 52 yarder...I wouldn't have trusted Reed to do a 52 yarder before coming off a game with two misses. The only time I try for a 50+ FG is in a game we're desperate for the points (super low scoring) and/or its safe (end of half/game) and/or desperation. We were winning... god forbid we user our prized punter to pin the Bengals deep during a time of the game where the defense wasn't yet bleeding first downs. Hell, they should have at least gone for it on 4th down again to keep some consistency in our game time M.O. Oh, that's right, we did the field goal on the opening drive. We didn't have an M.O.
This is where things start to get messy. I've been referring to an M.O. (or lack thereof rather). On the one hand we came off as relatively aggressive on offense, but then became ultra conservative near the goal line. But then we get super aggressive and make some huge gambles in the middle of the field where failure is arguably far more disastrous.
Then comes the Pick-6. Fine and dandy. Ben shakes it off and proceeds to drive the offense down the field (mostly through the air), again, often throwing on first and second downs. Touchdown. Game, set, match, right? Wrong. Apparently someone on the coaching staff thought so, however, as we receded back into the flawed run-run-pass (if not run-run-run) shut down offense when we had far from put the game away, making it incredibly easy for the Bengals' D to get the ball back to their O, twice, where they could determine their own fate with the ball in their hands.
Well, I just had to get that off my chest a bit. I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather see us fighting tooth and nail with the ball in our (Ben's) hands until the game is definitely decided. Defense wins championships, but the best defense is a good offense, and we totally blew our offense's potential with some very inconsistent/insecure play calling.
Sure, it might be easy to look at the defense and say they blew it, but the best defense is a good offense - you can't count on your defense being impermeable 24/7. In the sport of football, its the team that has control of the football that has the most control of their own fate, it doesn't matter how good a defense is, you can't count on the other team messing up.
That being said, the blame can't be entirely on the offense either, it more than did its job for 3 quarters.
It also might being easy to single out an individual such as Holmes or Sweed, or on the coaching staff such as Arians or Tomlin. But it was what I observed as a team that I find troubling and where I will now get into the meat of my argument...
What exactly was going on with the play calling?
The offensive drives we scored on we were throwing the ball on first and second down, and after establishing some success through the air, we finally get a defense to play more honestly against the run and we actually find success running the ball.
Then we play conservative by going for the chipshot field goal instead of going for it on 4th and goal, where if we fail we pin the Bengals super deep with a D that just forced a 3 and out. I can forgive this because Reed did need a chipper to gain some confidence but still, this decision will make two instances later in the game far worse, those being:
1. Not punting with a 4th and 3ish? right before the half to pin the Bengals deep. Ok, we're up 13-0, we want to put the game away, thats great, I like it, but we already strayed from that mentality with that opening drive, so why start then?...obviously we fail and then the Bengals drive it and manage a field goal to make it 13-3 at the half.
2. making Reed attempt a 52 yarder...I wouldn't have trusted Reed to do a 52 yarder before coming off a game with two misses. The only time I try for a 50+ FG is in a game we're desperate for the points (super low scoring) and/or its safe (end of half/game) and/or desperation. We were winning... god forbid we user our prized punter to pin the Bengals deep during a time of the game where the defense wasn't yet bleeding first downs. Hell, they should have at least gone for it on 4th down again to keep some consistency in our game time M.O. Oh, that's right, we did the field goal on the opening drive. We didn't have an M.O.
This is where things start to get messy. I've been referring to an M.O. (or lack thereof rather). On the one hand we came off as relatively aggressive on offense, but then became ultra conservative near the goal line. But then we get super aggressive and make some huge gambles in the middle of the field where failure is arguably far more disastrous.
Then comes the Pick-6. Fine and dandy. Ben shakes it off and proceeds to drive the offense down the field (mostly through the air), again, often throwing on first and second downs. Touchdown. Game, set, match, right? Wrong. Apparently someone on the coaching staff thought so, however, as we receded back into the flawed run-run-pass (if not run-run-run) shut down offense when we had far from put the game away, making it incredibly easy for the Bengals' D to get the ball back to their O, twice, where they could determine their own fate with the ball in their hands.
Well, I just had to get that off my chest a bit. I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather see us fighting tooth and nail with the ball in our (Ben's) hands until the game is definitely decided. Defense wins championships, but the best defense is a good offense, and we totally blew our offense's potential with some very inconsistent/insecure play calling.