LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

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Tag: Andy Dalton

  • The Bengals Have A Win: How Do They Keep the Momentum Now?

    The Bengals Have A Win: How Do They Keep the Momentum Now?

    by Chris Ball

    Loveland, Ohio – The Bengals made their way into the win column for the first time in the 2024 season with a win last week against the Carolina Panthers. Joe Burrow continued to impress, throwing for 232 yards and a pair of touchdowns. But Burrow wasn’t the only offensive player that stood out.

    Chase Brown May Be RB1 Material

    The other component of a healthy Bengals offense that the front office sought to improve was the running game. After parting ways with longtime running back Joe Mixon, the Bengals 2024 backfield would look very different. Cincinnati split carries in the early part of this year between Zack Moss and Chase Brown, but the Panthers game showed that perhaps the Brown, the second-year back out of Illinois, might have the inside edge on the RB1 spot. And it’s not without cause.

    Brown averaged 5.3 yards per carry on 15 attempts against Carolina. He scored twice as well, and his vision and explosiveness were on display plenty on Sunday. Brown has a rushing success rate of 65.5% and is generating 0.25 EPA per rush attempt. He also leads the NFL in yards per carry. When paired with a healthy Joe Burrow and a full stable of clutch receivers, it’s one of the more complete offenses in the league.

    The Offensive Line Shined Again

    The offensive line gave him a clean pocket and did not allow a sack. This was the first time Joe Burrow has not been sacked in a game since week three of 2021. Overall they allowed just five pressures on 32 dropbacks which was the lowest such rate since week five of 2022. Keeping Burrow healthy was the main priority in signing Orlando Brown Jr. and drafting Amarius Mims. So far the men blocking up front for the Bengals have meet, and exceeded expectations. The combination of a competent offensive line and a healthy quarterback is exactly what Bengals fans have been waiting for ever since they saw Burrow sacked a league-high 51 times in 2021.

     

    The Bengals Secondary and Pass Rush Struggle Again

    Though the Bengals offense may be complete, the defense has plenty of missing pieces, as was evident yet again this past week. The defense allowed 375 total yards, with 155 of those coming on the ground. Cincinnati has given up 145.5 yards per game on the ground, 25th in the NFL, and that trend did not improve as Chuba Hubbard slashed his way to his second straight 100-yard game of the season to the tune of 5.8 yards per carry.

    Although the Bengals limited Andy Dalton to less than the 319 yards he amassed the prior week against the Raiders, the pass defense was far from dominant. Cam Taylor-Britt played so poorly he was benched. For the season he’s been targeted 15 times, allowing nine catches for 191 yards and two touchdowns, and on Sunday he looked overmatched. The Bengals had no sacks yet again and only managed two quarterback hits.

    How May Play Out Against the Baltimore Ravens

    The Bengals get precious little time to bask in their first victory of the year. This Sunday they welcome the Baltimore Ravens (2-2) into Paycor Stadium. The Ravens have played a very difficult schedule so far with games against the Chiefs, Cowboys and Bills. They lost a stinker against the Raiders but won their next two games afterwards. Baltimore looked very good against a solid Buffalo team, and its those Ravens that the Bengals will have to beat in order to keep the momentum going and to keep their postseason dreams alive.

    Offensively, Chase Brown coming into his own could not have happened at a better time. The Ravens are first in the NFL in rush defense, allowing a miniscule 57.8 yards per game. This is 18 yards per game less than the next-best team, the Minnesota Vikings. The duo of Brown and Moss, and the physicality of the offensive line, will face their toughest test of the year by far. In order to continue the balanced offensive attack and relieve pressure on the passing game, the Bengals’ backs must continue their impressive streak. If Brown finds the same sort of success he’s had against the Ravens, it’s time to declare him the unquestioned starter.

    It’s no secret that Burrow is both focused and determined, and he will have plenty of opportunities to put up good numbers this week. For all the success the Ravens have had stopping the run, they’ve allowed 257 yards per game through the air. This is the fourth-worst in the league. Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards against them and Dak Prescott had 379 yards. To be fair their secondary looked much better against Buffalo, limiting Josh Allen to just 180 through the air. But the fact remains that Baltimore’s secondary is vulnerable and it is something the Bengals can exploit.

    If they do, though, it may turn into a shootout very quickly. The Ravens average an astonishing 220 yards on the ground each game. This is 46 yards more than the next highest. The Bengals cannot survive in this game if they do not find a way to vastly improve against the run. But what makes Baltimore so dangerous is that they can devastate opposing teams through the power run game with Derrick Henry or the speed of Lamar Jackson or even Justice Hill.

    Coming into this week the Bengals front five has the lowest overall pressure rate allowed in the NFL. But they will be sorely tested, both in running the football and protecting Joe Burrow. Baltimore’s defense averages over 3 sacks per game, and they will be looking to stifle Cincinnati’s passing attack on Sunday.

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    Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

  • With the first pick secured, the Bengals will go Burrow, right?

    With the first pick secured, the Bengals will go Burrow, right?

    Willie Lutz is a former Loveland resident, a graduate of Loveland High School, and former sportswriter for Loveland Magazine

    by Willie Lutz

    Those who endured the 12-minute run from the Bengals, who looked lifeless in Miami, down 23 points on a day many at home hoped to be the final loss on one of the worst seasons of the last decade in Cincinnati, despite eight losses being within one possession. 

    After a 35-38 overtime loss at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, the Cincinnati Bengals secured the first overall pick in the 2020 draft, a pick that should bring a new franchise centerpiece, Joe Burrow. LSU’s Heisman-winning quarterback won the nation’s collective hearts with a dazzling senior season, finishing with 4,715 passing yards, 48 touchdowns, completed 77.9% of passes, and averaged 10.7 yards per attempt. With only 6 interceptions and without a loss on his Tigers’ resume, he represents the nation’s top seed in the College Football Playoff as the nation’s best player.

    If the jungle kittens don’t win next Sunday…

    If the jungle kittens don’t win next Sunday against Cleveland, they’ll have the worst record of any Bengals team ever, though a win would tie the team with the Jon Kitna-led 2002 team who finished 2-14. That finish put Cincinnati in place to draft Heisman winner Carson Palmer with the top pick in the 2003 NFL Draft.

    Certainly, a narrative exists in which the Andy Dalton-led Cincinnati Bengals crush the messy Cleveland Browns in a fitting end to the 2019 season. It’ll likely be Dalton’s last game in a striped helmet and the Browns are about to wrap up one of the most embarrassing seasons of NFL football in recent memory. As we learned on Sunday against the Dolphins, Dalton is here to win; he passed for 396 yards, 4 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and completed 33-of-56 passes, nearly leading the team to the biggest comeback victory in team history. 

    It’ll likely be Dalton’s last game in a striped helmet and the Browns are about to wrap up one of the most embarrassing seasons of NFL football in recent memory.

    Dalton will want to impress the potentially red-hot quarterback market, as many teams seem ready to move a different direction with their passers. Teams like the Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are among teams that may make a change at QB in the coming months. Potentially, Dalton could head to one of those teams in a favorable trade for the Bengals, as a move could net the team a second or third-round pick if Andy continues to impress against the Browns. 

    For Cincinnati, loss to Miami made a few things pretty clear; Joe Burrow is obviously the pick at the top of the draft and that this team needs to add more good players to the roster this offseason. 

    There is obviously bound to be plenty of pressure from a central Ohio-minded fanbase to go with Burrow’s teammate and practice opponent at Ohio State in DE Chase Young. There probably won’t be as much pressure to draft QB Tua Tagovailoa from Alabama, as the 21-year-old quarterback will enter the league with a cumbersome injury resume. 

    It’s amazing to hear so many college-aged people rave not about the player, but about the human being.

    Having graduated from Ohio State in 2019 and thus meeting a handful of people who are friends or former classmates with Burrow, it’s amazing to hear so many college-aged people rave not about the player, but about the human being. What some knew before but many learned during his incredibly touching Heisman speech, Joe Burrow has the heart of a leader and the poise of a title fighter, essentially the intangibles you’d dream of in a franchise quarterback.

    I’d recommend throwing a couple bucks for this awesome Facebook fundraiser called, “Joe Burrow’s Heisman speech: Fundraiser for Athens County Food Pantry” if you’re feeling inspired by the passer and in the spirit. 

    Before the season, I think like many people, I thought Dwyane Haskins had a higher upside and was probably a better player than Joe Burrow; it’s impossible for me to feel that way after everything I’ve seen from the senior passer’s closing season at LSU. 

    Burrow does everything you’d hope from a young quarterback all before NFL refinement.

    Navigating the pocket like a pro and keeping his eyes on a level plane while reading the defense, Burrow does everything you’d hope from a young quarterback all before NFL refinement. In Cincinnati, he’ll have the chance to work with Zac Taylor and Brian Callahan, two coaches with backgrounds as quarterback coaches from their earlier days in the NFL (of course both are under 40, so those earlier days aren’t exactly ancient). 

    “New Dey” promise

    When Cincinnati comes to the blatant conclusion that they’ll take Burrow at the top of the draft and set this franchise on a brand-new trajectory, it’ll finally deliver on the “New Dey” promise that became apart of the team’s marketing pitch following Zac Taylor’s hire. As many know by now, Burrow is an Ohio kid and a willing leader; he’s more personable than Palmer ever was and doesn’t bring any baggage to a lockerroom currently loaded with likable personalities.

    If this team drifts from Joe Burrow, they’re making a mistake that the 6’3” passer will certainly find a way to make them regret in years down the road.

    If this team drifts from Joe Burrow, they’re making a mistake that the 6’3” passer will certainly find a way to make them regret in years down the road. Sure, Ohio State when got lucky when Justin Fields decided to join the Buckeyes via transfer, filling the gap left by the Burrow departure in 2018, but even they might feel the brunt of that move if they advance to the National Championship game. In the NFL, Burrow will have the chance to make the Bengals pay once every four years, at the most minimal rate.

    The pick seems obvious to this sports-watcher, draft Joe Burrow and call it a day; it’ll give your team one of the best chances in its history to construct a contending roster. However, like many others, I think this is all just preaching to a Bengals-based choir, one including Duke Tobin, Troy, and Katie Blackburn.

    It’s winter in Cincinnati, but the sun is shining on Paul…

     

  • It’s winter in Cincinnati, but the sun is shining on Paul Brown Stadium

    It’s winter in Cincinnati, but the sun is shining on Paul Brown Stadium

    If this team drafts Joe Burrow with their first pick in next year’s draft, the trajectory of this franchise drastically changes

    Willie Lutz is a former Loveland resident, graduate of Loveland High School, and former sports writer for Loveland Magazine

    by Willie Lutz

    The beginning of the Zac Taylor era in Cincinnati isn’t bringing the sweeping organizational changes some fans might’ve hoped when the team moved on from Marvin Lewis a little under a year ago. The team is off to a 1-13 start with their new head coach, they might lose the second-best player in franchise history after taking one snap in the team’s last 20 games, and they’re still probably not going to spend in free agency.

    Further, they’ve got a lot of their cap tied into older players and don’t have a ton of obvious young talent on the roster to try to extend. Trusting Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap, and Shawn Williams to carry this team for the next decade isn’t going to cut it.

    Key draft picks like tackle Cedric Ogbuehi, center Billy Price, and tackle Jake Fischer were trusted to be the future of this team’s line, only for the three to get benched over and over again, with Price trending towards the third in the group to be off the team before the decade flips. We won’t even get a chance to see this year’s 11th-overall pick Jonah Williams play a snap until 2020.

    They’ve also had issues with buy-in, as veteran linebacker Preston Brown gained weight throughout the season, eventually getting cut from the team, and starting left tackle Cordy Glenn pretended to be so injured that he couldn’t play, only to be called on his bluff by line coach Jim Turner who eventually found a way to put Glenn on notice with a one-game suspensions.

    All of that and I can still say, in the words of Dave Lapham, it’s a great day to be a Bengals fan.

    Some of the ugliness of the first few weeks was mitigated and the football started to get more watchable (for lack of a better term).

    The sky was falling in Cincinnati through the first eleven games of the season. After the team took its trip to London, did some bye week soul searching, and revaluated what they wanted to do with their offense, some of the ugliness of the first few weeks was mitigated and the football started to get more watchable (for lack of a better term). After clearing the hurdle with their first win of the season by taking the top off a rocky New York Jets squad, this team played a better four quarters of football than the Cleveland Browns when they visited First Energy Stadium two Sundays ago, when the men in stripes took a 19-27 loss in the battle of Ohio, a game where Andy Dalton certainly outplayed Baker Mayfield.

    Around the trade deadline, players lamented the thought of any of their teammates heading to other destinations almost as much as their own departures.

    Right now, I much rather be the Cincinnati Bengals than the Cleveland Browns, if for no other reason than culture alone. The Bengals’ locker room raves about the internal communication, something that was incredibly important in Zac Taylor’s initial statements about the job. Around the trade deadline, players lamented the thought of any of their teammates heading to other destinations almost as much as their own departures.

    Trust me, if you’re the Bengals, you’d rather lose that game by 8 than be on the same boat as the Browns, who are drowning under their own ego clashes after coming into the year with mixed playoff and somehow Super Bowl expectations. No one thought the Bengals would be good, but at least this team doesn’t have a star player asking other quarterbacks to lineup a trade for their talents after games.

    When Andy Dalton was benched, the team rallied around Ryan Finley. When Andy Dalton was renamed the starter, the team rallied around Andy with excitement you wouldn’t expect from a winless team who ranked 32nd in the league in just about every statistical category.

    Not to mention, this team is really starting to play some good football. Not without their stupid mistakes, of course, but the combination of Joe Mixon getting going in the rushing game and the defense starting to kick some tail, they’ve become a pretty tough team to beat over the last five weeks. 

    If this team drafts Joe Burrow with their first pick in next year’s draft, the trajectory of this franchise drastically changes.

    If this team drafts Joe Burrow with their first pick in next year’s draft, the trajectory of this franchise drastically changes.

    In sports, there is no worse place to be than in the middle. That’s why the Miami Dolphins are bottoming out, that’s why the Philadelphia 76ers did the process, it’s why the Baltimore Ravens took Lamar Jackson in 2018. You can choose to be average or you can choose to be extraordinary, but extraordinary is always going to take more work. Eventually, franchises are forced to take a hard look in the mirror and decide what they want to be; usually, the answer is a title contender.

    Could the Bengals have gone to Zac Taylor and given him a playoff-level roster headed into week one? Sure, but then all you’re doing is betting on Andy Dalton to take you into January, which has resulted in the same thing over and over again, a playoff loss.

    Bottoming out for one season to take a franchise-changing player is a tried and true formula, even with varying results.

    Bottoming out for one season to take a franchise-changing player is a tried and true formula, even with varying results. While teams are increasingly striking gold atop the draft, there’s still a Ryan Leaf for every Peyton Manning.

    However, with what we’ve seen from LSU quarterback Joe Burrow this year, it looks closer to the latter than the former. If Burrow is the next quarterback of the Bengals, he should be thrilled for the opportunity to succeed in Cincinnati. On top, his coach will be Zac Taylor, who spent a large portion of the beginning of his career, including with the 2018 NFC Champion Los Angeles Rams, as a quarterback coach. Further, in the Bengals locker room, there’s a lot of interesting young talent teams around the league would clamor over, even if that’s not resulting in wins at the moment.

    Whatever passer winds up in the Bengals backfield next season is going to be in a situation to succeed.

    In his first year in Cincinnati, Burrow (or any quarterback the team drafts) will have incredible weapons like John Ross (who’s made a significant leap in limited year-three reps), Tyler Boyd, A.J. Green (we assume), Auden Tate (another guy who made a leap), and Joe Mixon coming out of the backfield.

    Clearly heading towards a quarterback selection in the 2020 NFL Draft after Ryan Finley showed as an incapable starting option, whatever passer winds up in the Bengals backfield next season is going to be in a situation to succeed.