Too bad we don't still have Leon. Who wants to see a "Triple Reverse" with Brad Smith, Leon Washington, and David Clowney? lol
I think you missed the part where I said "if someone is as wide open as last week". In that case, an interception would be next to impossible.
From the Bengals' Site Zimmer vows better GEOFF HOBSON Posted Jan 6, 2010 aaPosted: 7:55 a.m. If the Bengals truly set up Saturday?s AFC Wild Card game so they could play the Jets, one of the primary reasons is because they?d prefer to dare rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez beat them rather than a Joe Flacco or a Matt Schaub. Sanchez never got the chance Sunday night, of course, when all he had to do was hand off as the Bengals allowed their most rushing yards in the six full seasons since the 2003 finale with 257. And, actually, Sanchez didn?t even have to be in the play because a total of 90 of the yards came out of the Wildcat formation from wide receiver Brad Smith. It was the Jets No. 1 rush offense vs. the Bengals No. 2 run defense, but it looked like the Bengals were in seven-on-seven without three of their stoutest run defenders in tackle Domata Peko, SAM backer Rey Maualuga, and safety Chris Crocker. So there is some gamesmanship going on between Cincinnati and New York this week. Did the Bengals play Sunday night?s 37-0 blowout against the Jets in The Meadowlands for real? Or did they treat it like Chad Ochocinco said: Like it was a preseason game? And while Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer insisted his team prepared, he also prepared his team for this week with, ?I don?t know if we can stop these Jets. They?re pretty good,? he said after Tuesday?s practice. And, ?We kind of dared him last week and he still did it. They ran the ball very well against an eight-man front so we may have to put nine and 10 men up front.? If the Bengals wanted to be vanilla Sunday night, they succeeded because they weren?t able to stop the run. Zimmer figures they were in the nickel package maybe twice and he says the Jets only got to see their blitzes on film. ?We?ve got some good ones if we can ever use ?em,? he said. But you can believe that if Zimmer wanted to be preseason vanilla, he certainly didn?t want his team to execute minicamp fundamentals. A man so proud that he didn?t want to impose on anyone the night his wife died so suddenly and young back in October, had that pride cranked up Tuesday. ?I don?t know if we?re a great defense, but we?re a solid defense and we didn?t play that way Sunday night,? he said. ?But if you go back and look at our performances throughout the year when we did have (a bad) performance, we followed with a pretty good one.? It is a great defense in Bengals annals. It finished fourth in the NFL for the Bengals? highest finish since the 1983 club led the league. It is also their first top five finish since then and just the fourth in history. And even more important than the numbers, Zimmer has instilled his pride in a defense that was once perennial league doormats and a punchline around town. ?We?ve got a good game plan,? Peko said. ?They got round one. But there is going to be a round two.? Although Zimmer is less than pleased about what transpired Sunday (?They physically whipped us,? he says), he?s confident his unit will play a lot better Saturday simply because of this season?s track record following bad performances. After giving up 472 yards to Houston (385 coming from Schaub), the next week the Bengals picked off Bears quarterback Jay Cutler three times and held Chicago to 279 yards. After giving up two touchdown passes at the end of each half in Oakland, they gave the Browns just 111 yards passing the next week. And after the Vikings gouged them for 142 yards rushing and 30 points the defense went to San Diego the next week and kept the red-hot Chargers offense relatively in check compared to everyone else by limiting them to 70 yards rushing and holding an offense that finished seventh in the league on third down to five out of 11. ?We are a confident bunch of guys that in the game last weekend, we kind of got kicked in the tail,? Crocker said. ?Now we have to amp it up. Now we know what we have to defend.? They have to defend Smith in the Wildcat and they have to defend first and second down so they can make Sanchez play like a rookie quarterback instead of a caretaker quarterback. The stats say the return of Peko and Crocker should help enormously. Peko (knee) has missed the last five games, a stretch in which the Bengals have allowed 134.4 rushing yards per game. In the 11 previous games, they had allowed 82 per game. When Crocker reaggravated his ankle against the Vikings Dec. 13, the Bengals led the NFL in third-down conversions. After he missed the last three games, they finished 16th. ?It should help,? Zimmer said of the cavalry. ?But if we don?t tackle, it won?t matter.? They didn?t tackle Sunday night and Zimmer is calling on that pride. ?We?ll be on point. We?ll be all right," he said. ?These guys will accept the challenge. They might beat us again, but we won?t back down.? Smith is now a major concern. He broke the sixth play of the game for a 57-yard run off a direct snap, the longest run against the Bengals this season. He followed it up with the second longest run, a 32-yarder for a touchdown off a fake option pitch. All of which surprised Zimmer since teams have not tried to spring The Wildcat on the Bengals all that much in his two seasons as coordinator. ?Because we?re pretty sound and solid and are usually in the right place. That just opened up a can of worms for us. We (brought it) upon ourselves,? Zimmer said. ?On those plays, it?s like the college deal. They?ve got one extra blocker, even on an eight man front. They make nine gaps so you have to have something for it. ?We?ve played it really good (in the past). That?s why I was surprised. I wasn?t worried about it. I am a little now.? On the 57-yarder it looked like youth betrayed them when Crocker?s replacement, rookie Tom Nelson, overran Smith and missed a tackle in the middle of the field. On the 32-yarder, Smith was aided by missed tackles from the usually reliable pair of SAM linebacker Rashad Jeanty and Chinedum Ndukwe. ?It?s mano on mano,? Crocker said. ?It comes down to getting off blocks. ... I think what happened is we missed some tackles early and then guys started to get out of their gaps trying to make plays.? Crocker, pumped about playing his first playoff game in seven seasons in the league, thinks his experience is going to help back there in recognition, but Zimmer is very impressed with what the Jets have up front. Particularly in center Nick Mangold and guard Alan Faneca. ?They?re as good as football players as there are in this league and after playing them I have much more respect for them,? Zimmer said. ?They really got after us with those two. Faneca and what?s the center?s name? ... They should be All Pro, not just Pro Bowl.? Which is where Peko comes in. And Peko says that?s where Zimmer comes in. ?He?ll fix it. He?s on it,? Peko said. ?We?re ready for Round 2.? Zimmer was able to find a silver lining. He thinks it helps that the Bengals are playing the Jets again. He thinks it helped the Jets, too, but he feels better because he thinks he knows more about Mangold, Faneca and the Jets zone blocking scheme, as well as Sanchez and the receivers. ?I treat it like a division game,? Zimmer said. He?d like those numbers. In six AFC North games, the Bengals allowed an average of 87 yards per game on the ground.
sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/simmons/ "Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal, Mike Lombardi, Aaron Schatz and Chad Millman break down the opening round of the NFL playoffs from every angle." listen to that podcast. for those of you who dont know about bill simmons, he is a huge patriots homer and he was bashing the opening 3 point spread of the game for much of the podcast (b/c of sanchez). then he finally speaks to a stats guy in Aaron Schatz (Pro Football Prospectus) and he breaks down that the gals adjusted run D (adj for teams played, teams playing from behind etc) is only ranked 22 in the league. the jets adj run D is ranked 8
Key to the Game From the above article: And, ?We kind of dared him last week and he still did it. They ran the ball very well against an eight-man front so we may have to put nine and 10 men up front.? Ten in the box? I've seen it before in the NFL. It's rare, but Zimmer just might run blitz the hell out of the Jets this Saturday. I could see the Bengals load up the box with ten perhaps even 5 or 6 times with run blitzes. They are going to do everything possible to make Sanchez throw. Crocker returns, but still, the Bengals are weak at the safety spots. Keller could be the wildcard, not the wildcat in this game. Peko also returns after missing 4 games, and he is the anchor to Cinci's run D. I really think this game will fall on Sanchez's shoulders. The Bengals are going to attack, relentlessly and recklessly to try to force Sanchez into mistakes. It's no secret, the Jets biggest weakness is having a rookie QB who hasn't held up well when the Jets have been forced to throw. This game could be scoreless at half time. I just don't think throwing 15 times in this game will be enough to win. Sanchez will have to respond and burn the Bengals, hopefully early in the game, so we can stick with the ground game.
I did not. I remember the play you're referring to vividly, and the DB was only trailing by a few feet. Brad Smith throws that ball a little behind the receiver and you're talking about a possible INT. Do you think it's worth the risk, when we've already got a QB throwing 1.3 INTs a game? Truth is, we've been going into games the whole second half of the season with teams knowing we're going to run, stacking the box, and run blitzing us - and we've still pounded it down their throats. All I'm sayin' is, if it ain't broke.
we shoudl let BS pass this week. It's not fair that MS is the only one allowed to throw INT's this year.
I will try and download the game to rewatch. I didn't see a replay at the stadium but I recall Cotch being wide open with no one around. I agree we should pound the rock as we have been, I just think we can take advantage of an over-aggressive defensive plan with a quick BS throw if the same situation presents itself.
Uh, the double reverse doesn't work in the NFL because it takes too long to develop against the increased defensive speed at this level. It's much riskier for that reason than allowing a former QB to throw the ball if the defense overpursues while he's running the Wildcat.
The Bengals need to learn how to shut the hell up. All they do is talk smack, and quite frankly, they aren't any good at it.
I heard on the radio following the game that Schotty prepared two full gameplans last week: one for Sunday and one for Saturday. I'd imagine the success of the WC in the Sunday gameplan was supposed to open up other aspects for Saturday. I doubt we'll see much passing out of the WC, but the point is that Cincy has to spend this week catching up to our offense, only to see a new offense unleashed this weekend.
I think you're missing my point. I'm not saying it wouldn't succeed, I'm saying the risk outweighs the reward. Perhaps if we're up by three scores in the second half, I might see how doing something like this could be beneficial. But otherwise, we have an entirely average (to be kind) passing game. We cannot allow ourselves to be put in a catchup role, where we're forced to throw the ball, which is right where we'll be with turnovers early in the game. Since we've been extremely successful running the football, even with teams stacking the box, why not continue it? Until they show they can stop it, I see no reason to trade a proven formula for high risk gadget plays with a former college QB who's thrown one pass this season. I could only imagine the outcry we'd see on this forum if the Bengals got a score off one of these types of turnovers...
why do the Cutsey annoying plays that everyone hates Schotty for now want to called all the time with added Madden, NCAA bullshit thrown in? Everyone stop the stupidity.
I said this in another thread. Right now Brad Smith's biggest roll may be as a Decoy. Just have him on the field
No, I'm not missing your point. I think you're overstating the risk involved. As I said, if the defense overpursues, I feel very confident in Brad Smith's ability to throw the ball. I'm not talking about asking him to line up in a traditional QB role. I'm talking about him heading out there, knowing that the Bengals are geared up to stop the run while he's on the field, and having the green light to throw the ball if the defense keys in on him and leaves a receiver wide open. Yes, he's a FORMER college QB. That's still better than LDT or Ronnie Brown, two RBs who pass with great success in similar situations.
Brad Smith was just icing on the cake last week and I doubt is what we are depending on again to succeed. good, plan away Bengals, you stop him we are certain to lose the game.
I sincerely hope the first offensive play for the Jets goes as follows. BS lines up under center, Jones or Greene is the back. Play action pass to Dustin Keller. For 30 yards.
