Thoughts on the game

I didn't see it--I listened to it over the internet (Cinncy announcers). Seemed like Ramsey really went all out to hit the deep throws, and he finally connected on a few, which is good news. But the INTs were pretty terrible, and the one from the 13 took points off the board. THat's exactly what we did last year, and it killed us. We cannot keep losing the TO battle--no team can do well with a negative TO ratio.

Seemed like Brunnell does well in scramble/hurry-up mode, though he didn't get much help from his receivers. BUt he couldn't hit the TD down close, and got bailed out by a pass interference call. Nemo sounded like he showed some real power at times, though the fumble at the end really hurt. The battle between him and rock is a tough one.

Patten sounds like the real deal--he made some great catches to get the offense going. 3 catches for 109 yards. Nice stat. WIsh Moss had been able to get into the endzone on Ramsey's last drive--then he'd have 2 TD passes, and I think I'd feel a lot better. Getting three instead of seven there was disapointing. WHere was Cooley in all this?

The first team D dominated Cinncy. They did not move the ball until the second-stringers got in there. BUt then they really went to town--I wonder if Williams went back into his "evaluation" mode at that point. Still, Rodgers had an early impact--the TD play he got burned, but in the first-team D he played his role, including having some nice hits. Washington sounded like he was everywhere on D. Couldn't tell how Marshall did, but early on the D was kicking ass. Nice to have Daniels and Griffths out there together as well.

Nemo scored the TD and picked up a big third-down short yardage play. Rock had some big gainers, but got stuffed on a 4th down play.

I feel pretty good about it, but we can't keep turning it over. That's killing us. My guess is that most of Ramsey's problems are that he's really pressing right now. But he cannot throw INTs like that in Gibbs offense. Gibbs will not stand for it, IMO.

Now, why didn't Campbell play? Wonder if Gibbs is trying to see if Brunnell really has it? I didn't find him that impressive, but there were some drops. Hard to tell with the 2-3 stringers in there.

Wonder what y'all thought?

im prety d runk dude

i don't hold a bias against brunnel now. If he can win and ramsey can't i will take the one that can win. But tonight i saw ramsey throw nice passes, but then again make poor decisions, i think that he looked more comfortable but guys, everyone said just throw down field, just please throw down field, for the love of football and all of its fans and all of its history throw the damn ball downfield. Why? because that will open up the run. our calls were answered and gibbs made strides tonight that no one here could have predicted after seeing the game last week. We now know that we can bomb that shit down field if we need to make the opposing D to back off. This means a garanteed 1500 yards for portis and a posibility for much more in my opinion. We can throw deep, that is great and now we can run. Nothing to worry about, only thing is that ramsey needs to get it in the right place every time he throws it b/c those INTs were rediculous.
Defensively we did good on first teams
Nemo did very well but did fumble
Antonio brown did better this week on returns and most ended near the 30 which is pretty good.
David patten gets my player of the game, 110 on 3 passes. THat is rediculous. and there wasn't a bomb of 70 yards, it was a consistant 30 yards or so for every play.

I just saw some highlights, bottom line I would really like to know what Ramsey is looking at or thinking on those INT's? I don't get it, what is the guy looking at? the defenders had position the whole way and he throws right to them. My thought all along is that he just need's some stability, and prtection before he really step's up, but those 2 INT's have me scratching my head, they were very disheartning to say the least.

one int was a disgustingly bad decision by ramsey, the other was an overthrow that could have hit moss, but the window was so small that i'd call it a pretty bad decision too.

rock's failing on 4th and 2 was the o-lines fault, rock still looks good though, nemo did too beside the fumble... hell, bessides the ints ramsey looked good too :P 2 passes into tight spaces, completionss of 25(td), 30, 33, 46 yards... his feet weren't doing the happy dance like last game and he didn't stare down receivers (that i noticed, on the td he looked off thrash to open him up... good play). The stare own thing is something ramsey's typically been bad at throughout his short career.

the bomb tossed on rodgers happened because he was exhausted (and it was very obvious)... now that he'll be doing full conditioning and practices that shouldn't happen again.

I'm convinced we're 4 deep at RB... I see no problems with our game there, oline has looked better, rbs have looked really good (until combs comes in... that guy has to go. He dropped a massive turd last week and followed it up with another bad showing). Hopefully we can keep both of them.

Boschetti is our 4th DT, I don't think there's really much of a competition there anymore...

no real 1st team penalties... wilds looked good and better than rufus brown or AJ have so far, I think he'll be a good #4. ST also went man coverage on a top3 WR again and won... maybe he could be a cb in emergencies since we have more starters at safety. I rather have taylor, clark, bowen/preilou then AJ, taylor, clark ;)

brown is a GOOD returner. He didn't break anything big, but no fair catches and always got above average yardage. meanwhile our coverage team was solid again; thrash has to be the best gunner ever ;)

We didn't dump off behind the 1st down markers this game, the scheme looked legit, bombs, outside runs, etc... I don't think we have to worry about a repeat of 2004 for now.

overall i think this was a good step up... besides ramsey (on again, off again) everyone looked pretty good (minus some scrubs).

One thing i did mention in the chat was ramsey threw 2.5times per rush (20 to 8) and brunell threw 1.7 per (19 to 11) which helped brunell pass a bit easier early on (5/6 play his first drive were runs and cinci wasn't expecting it). That in no way excuses the ints or anything, just thought it was interesting.

Ramsey made some nice throws and some really bad ones.

I still don't think it's anything to panic about. Gibbs was calling mostly pass plays while PR was in there, and Ramsey seemed to be intent on throwing deep, perhaps that was the plan.

I really liked the article by Mike Wise (http://www.thewarpath.net/showthread.php?t=7352)in the WP today, it sums up how I feel very well. I think the fans in general need to chill the hell out.

Some other notes on the game:

Carlos Rogers had some really nice plays but was also toasted for a TD. All in all a typical rookie performance. I'm sure Williams liked the fact he got burned, he got a little welcome to the NFL treatment.

I think we're really going to like Patten and Moss. Patten had a nice catch in traffic and another nice foot dragging grab near the sideline. Once Ramsey and the WRs get a better rapport going watch out.

Antonio Brown has some ankle breaking moves! He's really going to be something special as a returner and help us out with field position.

The defense is a minor concern, we're missing alot of guys and Williams doesn't seem to be running anything too exotic. He seems to be strictly evaluating at this point.

The battle between Rock and Nemo is really heating up. Nemo plowed over a couple of defenders and Rock seemed to have a nice burst getting to the outside. The fumble brought Nemo back down to earth a bit, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Brunell looks sharp. His passes have zip and his trademark accuracy seems to be back. It would be interesting to see what he can do with the first team but I think Gibbs needs to stand behind Ramsey.

Overall I was pleased that we were able to hit some big plays with the first teamers in there. Ramsey was up and down, but there are other factors to keep in mind, like a lack of running game, no Portis, etc. I think he's going to be fine once the entire offense comes together. Brunell is an interesting option though... where are all the Brunell haters now? ;)

On a side note, Palmer struggled and was also up and down, I wonder if the Bengals are looking to bench him?

I didn't see the game, but I am encouraged by Ramsey showing an ability to hit the deep pass this time. Then again, against Carolina he made great decisions but a few throws were off. Now against Cinci, it sounds like the throws were on but the decisions were off.

I'll check out the replay on NFL network before I pass any real judgment.

Despite the bad decisions, it's nice to see big chunks of yardage in the passing game. It'd be real interesting to see how Portis would add to the mix, once he's healthy.

Anybody know how healthy the Bengals' D was for this one? I was just wondering if they were missing people, or if Ramsey's performance was against their first teamers?

I thought overall the offense looked really sharp, other than the poor decision making by Ramsey on those turnovers. We should probably keep in mind also that not only was there no Portis but there was no Cooley either (at least I never saw him).

I liked the separation the receivers got, but also the placement of the passes (along with the receivers' speed) allowed them to add several yards after the catch.

I thought Brunell looked really comfortable out there, especially out of the shotgun.

I'm a bit more concerned about the defense than the offense. I'm just worried about our depth right now at defense.

Matty, this is Palmer's second year as a starter after watching Kitna in his rookie season. Palmer looked shaky in the first few series against a still depleted Redskin starting defense, but warmed up a bit as the first half continued on. If you're trying to correlate his performance with Ramsey's, you needn't bother. Palmer, while younger with not as much experience as Ramsey, isn't projecting himself as such the way Ramsey still is.

Overall, I think Ramsey had a better game than he did against Carolina, with 9 completions for 190 yards. That's a very nice yards per pass percentage. The problem is that when Ramsey's off, he's WAY off, throwing to guys in opposing jerseys.

At this point in Ramsey's career, I think most of us, including Joe Gibbs expect more than that. Ramsey still hasn't settled down, and it's showing. Somebody opined that Ramsey simply cannot seem to handle pressure. But this is the preseason, when he's basically been awarded the starting job, and he's still playing as if he's a wide-eyed rookie trying to atone for himself on just about every play. That makes him restless, trying to go for the jugular instead of missing open receivers underneath and in the intermediate patterns. On two occasions last night, those exact scenarios played out, and he threw two interceptions that completely took the wind out of the team on their way to certain scores.

I'm not calling for Ramsey to be benched. Just the opposite -- he needs all the playing time he can get. I still say though that we really should see Brunell start against the Steelers next Friday. But I would say that even if Ramsey had a flawless game. Give it to Brunell against the Steeler first teamers, and get Ramsey some confidence while playing against Pittsburgh reserves.

And don't take this observation as "panic". It is what it is -- an observation. But to say that 'everything's fine' and 'all is well' would be stretching. That's all.

Anybody know how healthy the Bengals' D was for this one? I was just wondering if they were missing people, or if Ramsey's performance was against their first teamers?

I think that is real important to know! That is the thing about preseason, I bet there were a ton of poeple in Atlanta last preseason looking for the panic button when they got SHUT OUT by our defense .... little did anyone know they were playing one of the top three defenses in the entire league, who knows how good the bengals are going to be this season on D!!! Who knows how good Carson will be, if he ends up throwing 30 TD's and 15 picks, you can bet our D is going to be good!

Patrick is a real enigma right now, that first TD throw was amazing! He threw it on a roll out in between 2 Defenders, on the $$ and in the endzone .... but those picks were head scratchers?

I love Rock, I think Nemo is still the better bet, despite that fumble. But Rock did have some impressive runs, and was picking up big chunks.

Brunell is looking good, real good, he has played almost flawlessly against 2nd, 3rd stringers, i'm so curious to see him agasint 1st teamers ...