jrdeb92

I'm seeing some rose colored glass wearers, and some complete pessimists
(ok, just 1 so far - Ferk... not that that's a bad thing) after this
game. I'm somewhere in between. My take for what it's worth....

This just in: The Bengals D is for real. Don't be lulled into thinking
"same old Bungles." That may be true of the offense to a point, but
certainly not their D. Think about it - after 3 games against very good
offenses (Denv, Oak, Pitt), they've only allowed ONE passing TD (to our
very own Maddox/Ward I might add). That's a mean feat regardless of who
you've played. After watching the Bengals the last 2 weeks, I don't
need to hear "hype" about them - I've seen it with my own 2 eyes....
they are definately improving. One can only imagine how they might be
had Spikes stayed.

Now, to our D. YES it was the Bengals, but considering how we've made
pedestrians look like all-pros at QB in the past.... I'll take this
performance. Our run D seems to be just fine - I'll chalk up last week
to over-pursuit and lack of discipline. Johnson&Warrick aren't
Bruce-Holt, or Ward-Burress, but they're not total slouches either...
and Chad Johnson is a very good #1 WR. All in all, the D played well
today. Can we guage their progress by this game? Not really... but it
is encouraging.

On offense, the Steelers had a sup-par performance (the deep ball was
off all day, run game spotty at times) and yet they still racked up
close to 400 yards TO. We all know the O-line is the weak link. Here's
hoping that the second half leads to better things to come.

That's the optimist side of me. Now, time for the nasty, pessimistic
grouch to come out.......

17-10. That's it??? We should have outclassed these guys by friggin
half-time! I don't care that it was the second consecutive road game...
you CRUSH teams like this.

Can someone please shoot Gildon in the ass? I swear he's becoming a
real liability. He made his presence known 3 times during the game...
2 of them for bad things. And the one good thing - a gift INT courtesy
of Chad Scott - he did his damnedest to screw up! WTF was he thinking?

I hate to say it, but we got LUCKY today. Most of the breaks bounced
our way... we got some gift non-calls... and we had punt returners
falling down on sure TD runs. We could EASILY have lost this game. And
that's sad.... because, in truth, we should have won this game going
away - despite the Bengals improvement, and new found confidence.

Here we go again - "Cowher is 71-1-1 when leading by 10 or more." Did I
hear that right? Was it actually "more than 10?" Because, correct me
if I'm wrong, but didn't we lead by 10 just last week?!?!?! Twice?!?!?!
I'd be more interested in hearing how many of those 71, er, 72 as of
today, wins actually ended up by 7 or less - and more importantly, how
many were games where he had to regain the lead due to mis-managing the
game. Yet, here they are calling him a master. Yay.

If we're having problems at RT, and Bruener is de-activated frequently
because he only blocks - why not just make him a tackle? He couldn't do
any worse. Hell, we could even use "tackle eligible" plays. Just a
thought.

ddamxxam

I think that stat is "when leading by 10 or more at the start of the
4th quarter" which renders it almost meaningless if you think about
it.

The more interesting stat would be on "record when the score
differential is 7 points or less (either way) at the start of the
4th."

jimpgh2002

Agreed. After 3 games, it can't be considered a fluke that their
defense has been pretty stubborn.


Well, Dillon missed over 1/2 the game, so that might have helped.
Let's see how they fare against the dreaded Titans next week. McNair
has generally been a pain in the ass against the Steelers.


If TM hadn't overthrown PB several times on deep routes, I think the
winning margin would've been 2 -3 TDs. But I liked the way they held
the ball until the end of the game after the Bengals made it 17-10.


That lateral was inexcusable...luckily the Bengals didn't recover it.

I don't think Bruener has the bulk to play RT. The Steelers did
convert a TE to tackle some years ago, but not at Bruener's advanced
age. I'm surprised they kept him. He's a pretty expensive backup.

pravin

But haven't they pretty much been average against the run which means our
137 yards are not as impressive as it woulf seem.

Our secondary hasn't been as bad as last year. Even against KC, they weren't
that bad.
In this game, our secondary was good.


That stat is actually when leading by more than 10. That's why losses like
the devastating loss to Philly where the onsides kick was badly refereed are
not counted in this stat.