The fumble: I want to use this to point out a few things. For all the knocks that BB gets on this forum, some people need to realize a couple of things and this play is a perfect example to show what separates the truly elite coaches in this league from the rest. First off, this is a Bengals play that probably looks good on paper, and probably was drawn on a napkin somewhere in a restaurant and looks exciting, but when you put it into play, it really is not effective at all, and is even more disastrous when you don't really practice it, as was the case here. It is sloppily executed because first off you recognize that something is up because you have an illegal formation right off the bat, in the first frame, so you know there is a motion or adjustment coming because nobody is stupid enough to incur illegal formation unknowingly and cost themselves 5 yards. And in the second frame, you see that their plan is to flip the formation, and the Patriots D is well trained so they don't even flinch, because the illegal formation has tipped them off, because Spikes and Mayo flip without hesitation (2nd still), and they read low hat to recognize a strongside run and get a great flow to it. The Bengals OL pulls left, but the "new" LG and LT immediately mix up their assignments and allow Wright to one-gap shoot the strongside B gap unchecked, because they are already concerned with stuffing Spikes and Mayo who are already flowing before Palmer has a chance to hand off (3rd still). Wright doesn't knock Benson's block off, but he is able to get a hand in there to slow him down, just enough for Ninkovich to blindside him and that is what sets up the fumble. This is a carelessly and not well thought out play. It looks good on paper but contains such an unnecessarily complicated decoy to set up a simple play, something that BB will never do. Also it clearly was not well rehearsed, which is again something that BB will not do, so sometimes his genius is in what he doesn't do.
