Agreed..... And now that the Jets/Bills game somehow set both of them back, the AFC is really wide open. If you asked me last week which teams I thought were the best bets for the 1 seed I would have said KC, Cincy, Buffalo, Jets, or Chargers. The Jets are the only one with a win..... And they don't have a QB.
This is an interesting point, but I don't know if it applies to players at all positions. I was thinking about Travis Kelce the other day and trying to determine when his career will start winding down. The guy has now played in 9 NFL seasons, but if you count his 18 postseason games, that's another full season worth of wear and tear. And this is at a position that takes an absolute beating. Ironically enough, the QB is probably the safest position from a rules standpoint and wouldn't be at as much risk in preseason games, whereas linemen and receivers are probably at a heightened risk. Just something to chew on.
Agreed that there are varying levels of risk...but in the end, the point is...week 1 of pre-season with a month+ to figure it out, or week 1, 2, 5 of the regular season...or week 17 going into the playoffs...
Zach Wilson got his second chance earlier than he thought he would. He better make the most of it.
I'm with you dude. Watson looked like crap throwing too for the first half. Cleveland's defense was just winning more often, and they have something we don't on offense, a dominate running game. It was raining, it was loud in Cleveland, no practice, rust being knocked off. It was a perfect storm of disaster. We didn't overcome like Cleveland did, because they didn't have to overcome as many items. Hopefully, we do a better job of planning for Sunday. Slight chance of rain Sunday in Cincinnati also. So they better get that out of the way as an excuse real quick.
That is still not accounting for Burrow's horrible play. We can make all t he excuses we want for Burrow and whose fault it is, and Taylor is for sure one of those on the checklist, but Burrow shit the bed plain and simple. He is a damn good QB though and I expect him to rebound this week. I have a feeling he will have a very good game. Does that mean we will win, not really, but I think Burrow does a real good job this week and we keep the score close down to the end of the game. Whoever has the ball last will probably win this is my guess. I really hope we win, because starting off 0-2 on the season and 0-2 in the division is a tough way to begin a Superbowl run.
Even if he puts up a mediocre record, he will be earning that "veteran experience"
Burrow missing time, yet again, does not help. He's been around long enough, though, that the production should not have been as subpar as it was.
I mean, the first play was a perfect illustration of a team that wasn't prepared on offense. The Bengals ran a concept that they ran last year with some success. Irv Smith (used to be Hurst) has to pull across the field to take out the defensive end and Burrow executes an RPO. Except Smith was late getting to the block and Burrow got destroyed. I am not an offensive coordinator so I have no real idea of what was available or what was supposed to happen. But from my viewpoint, that is either on Burrow for not handing the ball off to Mixon - The d-end overcommitted to the pass. Or it was on Smith because he was late getting to the end. But here's the thing.... Burrow didn't play all preseason because of injury. But neither did Smith.... To run that play live on the first play without having executed it was a disaster.
