DawgTalkers.net Forums The Archives 2017 NFL Season Looking Back: Browns 10 Ravens 24 Other Games

I like Watson as a person, but man he looked overwhelmed out there. Not being put in a great position to succeed or develop. Really struggled with his reads. Bengals showing that double A gap blitz pre-snap really seemed to fluster him. Great runner and athlete though. Needs to work on his progressions. Slightly improved as the game went on.

Hopkins' hitch route helped him out for sure. Man,that guy can ball.

Forgot to add that I'm really going to love going to work tomorrow with all the Bengals fans there. For all the (deserved) grief I got last year...

Much love for JJ Watt. He is doing a great thing for his community.

I didn't watch much of the game, but what happened to the Bengals? They were the best team in the division like two years ago. Yikes.

Their line is Swiss cheese.

I know. It's just crazy. They were set up for success with good young core. Now, after two weeks, they look like they need to start over.

How could they just let their offensive line fall apart? Everyone knows that Dalton is terrible when pressured.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/news/fa...-under-pressure

http://grantland.com/features/andy-dalton-cincinnati-bengals-pressure/

Great for us though.

their o-line is young, young, young.

j/c..

For the most part, the games the NFL trots out for these Thursday Night games are awful (save for the first week when everyone is well rested).

cincy did us no favors last night. man, their offense is bad

Sad to think this could be the last year of Marvin Lewis.

Cincy didn't even look like they cared on that final drive.

Agreed! Astounding amount of money raised. Very classy player who gave the Bungles absolute fits last night. Just one more reason to love the guy's game.

I'm so glad we didn't draft Watson, he can't seem to push the ball downfield at all. He only averaged 3.6 yards per passs last night, wow! Several of them should have been picked off and how do you scramble 50 yards for a TD when the Bengals have 7 dropped back deep? They were jogging trying to catch him, looked like they could care less if they won. Bengals look like the Titanic slowly sinking and I think it will end Lewis and Dalton this year, Texans have no QB again rough season ahead for both teams.

He got a lot of praise and attention for his long TD run and their victory, but I didn't think he looked that good. His arm is a question to me.

j/c:

Cincy looked bad. Dalton looked like garbage. These things please me. I mentioned in another thread - while I realize that we have Houston's first two picks, I was rooting for Cincy to lose. I do not understand rooting for a divisional rival, unless them winning would put us in the playoffs.

I realize that it is not permissible to criticize Watson as a QB on this board, and I do apologize to all of his fanbois on here, but I was not impressed in the slightest. And yes, I know he was in his first start and lacked support around him.

He looked inaccurate and I am shocked he had no picks. Could have easily had a couple. And still has a tendency to throw it up for grabs. My biggest concerns with him.

It is too early to judge him. But right now, I am glad we passed on him and I would not trade Kizer straight up for him.

I hope Watson goes on to not prove me wrong. I think he will help my team more this year by wearing a Texans jersey than a Browns jersey.

I actually thought his arm looked fine. I think he's capable of making all the throws.

Where I really think he struggled was with both pre-snap and post-snap reads. The double-A gap blitz pre-snap showing put him off his game, and his multiple near-picks showed either he did not properly read the coverage, or he just doesn't understand the NFL windows yet.

I think Watson is going to have a worst statistical season than Kizer, Kizer's throwing motion looks more natural and fluid to me, something about Watson release that looks off to me, like it stops short or something

Stop short? That's my move!

I only caught the second half, but I thought his arm looked good to me. He was throwing those comeback routes outside the hash marks to Hopkins on a rope. I thought it looked alive.

Where did this come from?

Man, that Hopkins Hitch route is just deadly...

I was just being snarky. Leading up to the draft Watson had his supporters (which is fine) but some would get on some of us who had no interest in him, saying we were just ragging on him with no reason, despite us providing reasons. It was just not possible to find anything wrong with him.

Just being cranky - not a lot of sleep lately.

I think its pretty noticeable that Watson runs at the sign of pressure and Kizer maneuvers the pocket and keeps his eyes down field.

Watson may turn out well but he is going to struggle for a while, IMO.

That I thought was obvious with His College tape and why I agreed with not taking him at pick 12.

I am happy the way things fell for us in the Draft getting Kizer at pick 52. IMO Watson should have been a second round pick. He could prove me wrong. Only time will tell.

good way to put it IMO

Ian Rapoport‏Verified account @RapSheet

The #Bengals are expected to fire OC Ken Zampese, sources say. After two games without a touchdown, Zampese is out.

Let's hope they start 0-4

Exactly. I don't care what they do next week as long as they lose in week 4.

Teams who were struggling have always looked at that Browns week as a chance to get back on track.. let's hope that trend is ending.

Bengals fire offensive coordinator Ken Zampese

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000...tor-ken-zampese

Their old offensive coordinator was much better:

Bill Lazor: How the New Bengals Offensive Coordinator Might Save Andy Dalton From Himself

https://www.si.com/nfl/2017/09/15/cincin...red-andy-dalton

When a team scores nine points and zero touchdowns in the season’s first eight quarters (all at home, no less), frustrations will boil over and heads are liable to roll. Usually it’s the quarterback’s. But in Cincinnati it was the offensive coordinator’s, Ken Zampese, who had been the QB coach since 2003 before taking over as OC in 2016.

Former Dolphins OC, Bill Lazor, is now The Guy. Like Zampese, Lazor had been coaching Cincy’s quarterbacks, and he knows what it’s like to get fired midseason. The Dolphins, amidst a tumultuous 2015 campaign, canned him that November after his 27th game calling plays.

Friday’s move was more about replacing Zampese than promoting Lazor. Few organizations value coaching staff continuity as much as the Bengals do. Marvin Lewis—who, it must be noted, is in a contract year—almost always promotes from within. Lazor didn’t join the team until last season. Unlike Zampese, he isn’t deeply rooted in the intricate, run-pass balanced system of predecessors Jay Gruden and Hue Jackson.

When Lazor was hired in Miami, coaches across the NFL wondered aloud what kind of system he would run. At league gatherings, Lazor, a soft-spoken but affable guy, stayed buttoned up. He’d been on a variety of staffs, including Chip Kelly’s in Philadelphia, as the quarterbacks coach.

Many suspected Lazor would feature a lot of Kelly’s horizontal spread concepts. He did, most notably in the ground game and with all of Miami’s pre-snap shifting and motioning. The pre-snap movement gave an offense the illusion of complexity. But the reason Kelly’s men could always do it and also play fast was that, once the ball was snapped, the scheme was quite simple.

This is what Lazor will aim for in Cincinnati. It’s unrealistic to become a Chip Kelly-styled offense midstream, and it’s unlikely that Marvin Lewis would want to play that fast. (The Bengals almost always register between 55 and 65 snaps a game.) But pre-snap motion is already a meaningful part of Cincinnati’s offense. Lazor should expand this in an effort to simplify other departments. The Bengals will have fewer plays in their game plan, but they’ll run those plays from a variety of different formations: More for the defense to digest, less for the offense to master.

Zampese, the son of longtime NFL play-caller Ernie, has long been a respected quarterback tutor. But he’s also known for being intensely analytical. There was some sense that, schematically, he tried to do too much. That’s not ideal for Andy Dalton, another known analyzer, who has a reputation for explaining every detail of every play—even the ones where athletic instincts should just take over. By keeping a litany of formations, but also scaling back the game plans, Lazor can halt some of the ever-grinding gears in Dalton’s head. At least, that’s what Lewis and the Bengals hope.

Watson was fine...he's playing with a subpar oline with his best olman sitting on his couch waiting for w new contact... He had no tight ends... And only three Wrs... On a short week....for his first start,,,

I agree I like Kizer better for the long term... I think Kizer has more upside... But Watson will be fine...

https://twitter.com/ChrisWesseling/status/908771358762426369

Hue had dalton absolutely balling.

In fairness to Zampese, the Bengals OL went to crap this year. They also don't have a lot at WR, with Green being Green, and LaFell being across him, but then injuries and young the rest of the way.

I think that there is a lot more that has gone into their offensive fall-off than just play calling.

Yeah, and Eifert isn't himself (maybe never will be again) and Ross doesn't strike me as a good WR yet, just fast.

The Bengals OL really struggled last year and they got worse during the past offseason. They're a mess right now.

Andy Dalton named AFC Defensive Player of the Week

Bradford out vs Pittsburgh ... of course