OK, enough of all this happiness. We've forgotten some absolute TRUTHS.

[Dragda]

You can never over estimate the importance of having Crable on the practice squad.

 

[Deus Irae]

Of course there's room for improvement. That's generally how it goes with a defense this young. But the talent is clearly there at many of the key positions, and frankly the defense was light years better than I had expected. If someone had predicted we'd be up by 24 at the half and Cedric Benson would have 6 carries for 0 yards, I would have assumed that person was drunk.

Why?

1.) The Bengals had scored fewer than 20 points in 9 of their last 12 games prior to yesterday, so there should be no surprise that they struggled scoring in their first game of the year.

2.) The Bengals drafted a receiving TE in the first round of the draft and signed T.O. Throwing the ball a lot makes sense as a general rule, although.....

3.) Crappy coaching by the Bengals led to far too many passes in the first half and nowhere near enough runs. When they did run, they often guessed wrong, as in the case of the Benson fumble, when the Bengals ran into a blitz and ended up going against an 8 man rush. Once New England stopped blitzing and settled into the cover 3, the Bengals were much more successful running the ball.


Anemic offense + transition from running game to a more pass oriented system + lousy coaching = Sunday's Bengals.

 

[JackBauer]

Why?

1.) The Bengals had scored fewer than 20 points in 9 of their last 12 games prior to yesterday, so there should be no surprise that they struggled scoring in their first game of the year.

2.) The Bengals drafted a receiving TE in the first round of the draft and signed T.O. Throwing the ball a lot makes sense as a general rule, although.....

3.) Crappy coaching by the Bengals led to far too many passes in the first half and nowhere near enough runs. When they did run, they often guessed wrong, as in the case of the Benson fumble, when the Bengals ran into a blitz and ended up going against an 8 man rush. Once New England stopped blitzing and settled into the cover 3, the Bengals were much more successful running the ball.


Anemic offense + transition from running game to a more pass oriented system + lousy coaching = Sunday's Bengals.

Because Benson is a good RB, and our run defense has/had question marks all over it.

It's to be expected that once they reverted to their softer defensive alignments that they'd be more vulnerable on the ground. Maybe I'm remiss but I don't remember seeing Big Fat Vince out there nearly as much in the second half...

...which makes sense. You let them nickel and dime you on the ground, which wastes time, and gradually precludes an opportunity for a comeback win.

 

[mgcolby]

Because Benson is a good RB, and our run defense has/had question marks all over it.

It's to be expected that once they reverted to their softer defensive alignments that they'd be more vulnerable on the ground. Maybe I'm remiss but I don't remember seeing Big Fat Vince out there nearly as much in the second half...

...which makes sense. You let them nickel and dime you on the ground, which wastes time, and gradually precludes an opportunity for a comeback win.

I recall a coach telling his defense once in a meeting leading up to a superbowl that if they let a certain Hall of Fame running back rush for over 100 yards, he guaranteed they would win the game.

 

[Ring 6]

Because Benson is a good RB, and our run defense has/had question marks all over it.

It's to be expected that once they reverted to their softer defensive alignments that they'd be more vulnerable on the ground. Maybe I'm remiss but I don't remember seeing Big Fat Vince out there nearly as much in the second half...

...which makes sense. You let them nickel and dime you on the ground, which wastes time, and gradually precludes an opportunity for a comeback win.

They tried to run and the defense stuffed it. They didnt become pass heavy until after they were far behind.
The run defense was tremendous, and anyone whining about a few decent runs against a nickel either has an ax to grind or doesnt know football.

 

[Ring 6]

8 passes, 6 runs then it was 17-0.
And those 6 runs gained 6 yards.
That was FOUR drives

 

[BradyFTW!]

The Bengals run the ball very frequently, but that doesn't mean that they do it extremely well. It reminds me a bit of the Atlanta game last year, because that was another time where everyone thought that the Pats had stopped a great running team, (great because in the previous year it had amassed lot of ground yards).

The 2009 Bengals were a lot like the 2008 Falcons: they got career years out of pretty good tailbacks that they imported, and they ran the ball a ton. That did not make them elite rushing offenses, so drawing conclusions on that assumption was flawed. It was flawed last year coming out of the Falcons game, and it's flawed now coming out of the Bengals game. That said, I saw some things that I really liked, most notably Pat Chung being awesome against the run. That will help a lot, and does have me less concerned than I was.

This game doesn't erase the serious question marks that we have at DE and OLB, though. We should feel better after yesterday, but let's not pretend that the problems are gone altogether. Conversely, anyone who's complaining that the Pats gave up 3 TDs after basically going into prevent defense needs to get a grip. Same for anyone complaining about how the Pats actually had to punt that one time in the third quarter.

 

[AzPatsFan]

Belichick teams frequently perform marginally the first time they see a new QB or a novell offense or defense. Then look what history says about the second time they play. Wrecsk's blitzes stunned the Pats last year. With a little film they destroyed the not so novell blitzes the second time, that they met.

Look at the Wildcat, that Miami uncovered against the Pats. They beat the Pats badly. Then in the rematch they were destroyed. The Jets are markedly weaker, thePats are stronger and more familiar with Wrecks' blitzes.

Prediction: Utter destruction.

 

[AzPatsFan]

You can never over estimate the importance of having Crable on the practice squad.

Murrell was cut; can the Crabel be far from promotion ?