1-2-1 How good are we?

[Bengals1]

I don't think the Texans are that bad, they've had a very tough schedule so far.

After watching the Broncos beat the Jets the other night I'd say we're better than both of them.

Bad enough that they just fired Bill O'Brian. Damn thats harsh.

Maybe we could trade them Zac Shula...?

[Mag]

Right now, we are at the top of the bottom 3rd of the league. Are we better than Dallas? If they played with this past weekend's rosters, it would be a shootout. Their OL is getting hit hard with injuries. Their D can't stop anyone. They'd probably have a slight edge, but the game is winnable. If you add Atkins back into the lineup, the pendulum would shift slightly.

If the OL can build off this week's performance, and be at least mediocre, Atkins returns, and Wayne returns, we're potentially a middle of the pack team with a chance to make things interesting. With a moderate amount of time to throw, Borrow is showing he can be elite. Hopefully that continues.

[Jmble]

Here's a stat you probably never thought you'd hear about the Bengals.

From Jay Morrison in The Athletic

The Bengals scored on every drive in the second half of the game.

With that, the Bengals have scored on 61.9 percent of all drives in the second half of games this year. (Not counting one play drives to end the half)

Since 2000, the best the Bengals have done in this category was in 2005 when the Bengals scored on 36.9 percent of second half drives.

The Bengals currently lead the lead with 61.9 percent. Following them up is The Packers at 58.8, The Patriots at 57.1 and The Chiefs at 57.1

That's the good news, the bad news is that the Bengals are only scoring Touchdowns on 23.8 percent of second half drives. It will comes as little surprise that Randy Bullock leads the league in Field Goals (not including last night's games).

[Jmble]

I'm attaching the entire article I mentioned above. There's some other good stuff in here for those who want to read the whole thing.

Almost immediately after the Bengals secured a 33-25 victory against the Jaguars by topping 500 yards of offense for the first time since 2016, the question began showing up on my Twitter feed: When was the last time this team scored on every possession of the second half?

Thank you to everyone who suggested I start the search, but I already had jotted it down while writing my Bengals Pick Six column as something to touch on in Final Thoughts, which, honestly, should surprise no one given my affinity for stats.

So let’s do this. Here are 34 stats, quotes, notes and grades — one for each carry the Bengals logged on the way to 205 rushing yards — beginning with a little dive into drives:

1. Surprise, surprise, surprise. You don’t have to go back all that far to find out the last time the Bengals scored on every second-half drive that didn’t involve a game-ending. It happened in Week 16 of 2017, when they went touchdown, field goal, field goal, touchdown to come from behind against the Lions at Paul Brown Stadium and then took two knees on their last possession to kill the final 53 seconds in a 26-17 win.

2. It was pretty anticlimactic to find out it hadn’t been all that long since the last time it happened, so I decided to see how many other occurrences there were since 2000, which is when the league began keeping detailed data on drive stats.

3. There was a similar situation in Week 13 of 2015 when the Bengals scored on their first three possessions of the second half before turning the ball over on downs at the Cleveland 29. Marvin Lewis didn’t want to kick a field goal and run up the score in a game the Bengals already were winning 37-3 with 3:19 remaining.

4. Marvin Lewis, what a softy.

5. There was a close call in Week 13 of the disastrous 2010 season when the Bengals scored on their first five second-half drives, but they only had 31 seconds to work with on their sixth possession after giving up the lead. They ran two plays that went nowhere in a 34-30 loss to the Saints at PBS.

6. Before that you have to go all the way back to Week 15 in 2003 when the Bengals went touchdown, field goal, field goal and touchdown before taking two knees to drain the final 73 seconds after recovering an onside kick in a wild 41-38 victory against the 49ers at PBS.

7. But wait, there’s more. In Week 5 of 2001, the Bengals scored two touchdowns and two field goals after halftime before taking a knee to bleed the final 36 seconds in 24-14 win against the Browns at PBS.

8. That’s the extent of them, but let’s keep drive time going. Taking away one-play drives at the end of regulation or overtime this season, the Bengals have scored on 13 of 21 second-half possessions for 61.9 percent, which is well above their next best mark since 2000, which was 36.9 percent in 2005.

9. That 61.9 percent mark also is best in the NFL in 2020, just ahead of the Packers (58.8), Patriots (57.1) and Chiefs (57.1), all of whom were scheduled to play Monday night.

10. However, when it comes to the percentage of touchdown drives in the second half and overtime, the Bengals are at 23.8 percent (5 of 21), which ranks 20th.

11. That’s not ideal, but it’s also a big improvement from last year when we were talking about the Bengals having 42 consecutive second-half drives without a touchdown.

12. Obviously, the stark difference between scoring percentage and touchdown percentage means the Bengals are kicking a lot of field goals. And that’s reflected by the fact that heading into the Monday night games, Randy Bullock led the league in field goals with 12.

13. Bullock also was tied for first among all players in total scoring, sharing the top spot with Indianapolis kicker Rodrigo Blankenship with 45 points, just ahead of running backs Alvin Kamara and Dalvin Cook with 42 each.

14. One of the bigger stories to come out of Sunday’s game was the insertion of Alex Redmond into the troubled right guard spot. Head coach Zac Taylor was understandably reluctant to comment on Redmond’s play after the game. Asked again Monday after watching the film, he offered his assessment.

15. “He fit in well,” Taylor said. “He had good chemistry there with Trey (Hopkins) and with Bobby (Hart) and brought a physicality there. It wasn’t perfect and he would be the first one to tell you that, but there was some things that he did a nice job of.”

16. Added offensive coordinator Brian Callahan: “It wasn’t perfect. He had mistakes, just like they all do. There’s no perfect game up front. But the aggressiveness that he played with, it helped. I think it helped the guys next to him, too. It was a good showing for Alex yesterday overall. Especially when you’re talking about running the football, it kind of lends to his strengths some.”

17. Pro Football Focus gave Redmond a middling grade of 54.6, which was second-lowest among Bengals offensive players who were on the field for at least 10 percent of the snaps.

18. Wide receiver A.J. Green, with his one catch on five targets for three yards, graded the lowest at 52.8. The other three in the bottom five were wide receiver Mike Thomas (54.6), center Trey Hopkins (55.7) and left guard Michael Jordan (56.7).

19. Wide receiver Tyler Boyd (90.9), quarterback Joe Burrow (80.8) and wide receiver Auden Tate (78.5) graded as the top three for the second week in a row. Running back Joe Mixon, who went from hospital to hero, was fourth at 76.6 and tight ends Drew Sample and Cethan Carter were tied for fifth at 76.2.

20. Sample’s grade is particularly impressive given that he had to overcome the hugely negative play of letting a touchdown turn into an interception on the third-and-goal play from the one-yard line when Jacksonville linebacker Myles Jack ripped the ball away for an interception in the second quarter.

21. “It really should have been a touchdown,” Callahan said. “We’d like to have Drew come up with that, but Myles Jack made a great play and it was really not much more than that.”

22. Burrow deftly addressed the play in his postgame press conference. He straddled the line between making it clear he thought Sample should have made the play without throwing his teammate under the bus after being asked about going back to Sample a number of times after that play.

23. “I’m not going to let a play that someone did or didn’t make affect my decision-making,” Burrow said. “I have faith in all our receivers, so if the defense shows me one thing, I’m going to throw it to the spot I’m supposed to and our guys are going to make plays for me. I have faith in all our guys.”

24. That was one of two key short-yardage plays on Sunday. The other had #Bengals Twitter in an uproar over the team being in shotgun formation on a gutsy — and successful — fourth-and-inches decision on its own 35 early in the second quarter.

25. Asked about the theory behind being in shotgun on fourth and short, Callahan said he didn’t want to go into it and give anything away. But he did get into details on the team’s philosophy on using — or, in this case, eschewing — the quarterback sneak.

26. “I don’t want to say there’s a narrative. That’s the wrong word. But there’s a lot of conjecture about how effective quarterback sneaks are. I think what gets lost a lot of times on quarterback sneaks is they are usually only run against the right looks. So they’re effective when they are run that way. A lot of the times defenses, and we’ve had a few sneaks already, are well aware of our desire to do that and they can do things to help take those away on occasion. We went through this a little bit last year as far as in the ‘gun. The effectiveness of the shotgun runs in short-yardage can be pretty good overall, and especially when you have the threat of a zone read with the quarterback.”

27. Mixon’s three-yard gain on the play made the Bengals 6 for 6 on fourth down this year. The six conversions are tied with the Giants for the most in the league, and the Bengals are the only team with at least four attempts with a 100-percent success rate.

28. The Bengals have converted 10 consecutive fourth downs dating back to last year.

29. The NFL sent a memo to teams last week cracking down on the extra hits on quarterbacks, so that might explain the reaction on the Bengals sideline when Jaguars linebacker Cassius Marsh Sr. hit Burrow after he released the ball on the team’s fifth offensive snap.

30. It wasn’t the first time a late hit on Burrow wasn’t flagged, and Monday The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. asked Taylor if that’s something teams should just expect with a rookie quarterback or if it’s an officiating oversight: “It’s a great question,” Taylor said. “We’re trying to see what we can do there. It’s a good question.”

31. That the shot from Marsh Sr. came a week after Burrow got blasted by Eagles defensive tackle Malik Jackson on a hit that did draw a roughing the passer penalty, although surprisingly did not result in a fine.

32. The Jackson penalty was one of 25 roughing the passer calls this year heading into the Monday night games. There were 37 roughing the passer penalties last year through Week 4. There were 38 in the first four weeks of 2018.

33. Within hours of scoring their first win of the year, the Bengals got a splash of cold water when they were installed as 14-point underdogs at Baltimore next week.

34. It’s only the third time in the last 12 seasons and 13th time since 1978, when the tracking of spread data began, that the Bengals have been underdogs by at least 14 points. They have covered in each of their last three and nine of their last 10.

[Bengals1]

It's because Zac is making those adjustments Marvin claimed were largely mythical.

[orange_black]

https://twitter.com/Kmalbanese/status/1 ... 7753331712

I"ll say it again.

this team is better than even WE know.

[Jmble]

Here's another stat tweeted out by PFF

Highest-graded QBs on intermediate throws (10-19 yards) ahead of MNF:

1. Joe Burrow - 95.4
2. Russell Wilson - 92.8
3. Patrick Mahomes - 92.6

[MeatHeadbengal]

Thanks Jmble,

There are some great take aways from that article.

1) This shows Zac makes second half adjustments and is doing what he needs to do to get guys in positions to win. I know some ppl here are very negative on Zac but this can't be ignored.

2) Joe Burrow is a true leader and could be one of the all time greats at the QB position. He's showing some amazing leadership and understanding. He's only 4 games into the season and everyone here has to be surprised with how well he's playing.

3) Sample may be ready for a break out year, which would be a pleasant surprise and a huge help going forward.

4) I didn't realize there would be so much uprising over going into shotgun on the 4th down. When I was watching in real time I was thinking we needed to jump into the gun. They had 3 heavy weights lined up over C G G, and I'm thinking you gotta spread that out. They moved to shotgun making those guys move. Either way it was a gutsy call and I liked it, another + for Zac.

[MeatHeadbengal]

Here's another stat tweeted out by PFF

Highest-graded QBs on intermediate throws (10-19 yards) ahead of MNF:

1. Joe Burrow - 95.4
2. Russell Wilson - 92.8
3. Patrick Mahomes - 92.6

Just don't do deep throws haha!

[MeatHeadbengal]

https://twitter.com/Kmalbanese/status/1 ... 7753331712

I"ll say it again.

this team is better than even WE know.

Sadly until these grades translate into wins it's hard to make that argument.