Game Thread: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

[DanBengalfan]

So, if we lose, no one is allowed to talk about it.

 

[alf8478]

I’m in town for the game. I seem to remember someone else saying they were going to the game as well.

 

[DanBengalfan]

have fun, not "get arrested" fun, but "wee" fun.

 

[alf8478]

We got this

 

[DanBengalfan]

I thought this would be a terrrible game... I mean, it is bad, but we're winning, so I'm not crying about it.

 

[DanBengalfan]

If anyone knows a kid who needs to learn how to kick a field goal, he needs to watch Evan-Mac tape
unreal.

 

[cincygrad]

How was the experience, Alf? Stadium looks awesome on TV - Was it good?

 

[cincygrad]

Pretty ugly stuff for most of the game. The narrative from the postgame interviews was that the Bengals intended for it to be ugly.... Thought they could wear them down with the run and win late. So, I guess we're a bunch of geniuses?

Kudos to the Bengals for playing D again. I think some of it was the the Raiders - They've lost their way.... But the Bengals made it tough on them and aside from that one drive where they fell asleep, they were lights out most of the day. The biggest thing I noticed was that we missed less tackles. I suppose PFF or some other site will tell me if this is true, but it certainly looked like it from my television.

6-4 with 5 out of our last 7 at home. None of those teams have losing records. Should be fun.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

Pretty ugly stuff for most of the game. The narrative from the postgame interviews was that the Bengals intended for it to be ugly.... Thought they could wear them down with the run and win late. So, I guess we're a bunch of geniuses?

Kudos to the Bengals for playing D again. I think some of it was the the Raiders - They've lost their way.... But the Bengals made it tough on them and aside from that one drive where they fell asleep, they were lights out most of the day. The biggest thing I noticed was that we missed less tackles. I suppose PFF or some other site will tell me if this is true, but it certainly looked like it from my television.

6-4 with 5 out of our last 7 at home. None of those teams have losing records. Should be fun.

Have to keep beating teams with winning records. If we make the playoffs with our remaining schedule, we earned it. If not, we probably wouldn't have done anything in the playoffs anyway. This is the part of the schedule we find out what this team is about.

 

[Cincyfan78]

The best runs were when they got guys pulling and when they had cut-back lanes. running straight ahead or out of only big formations didn't work well at all. I think the slams in the 1st half got them to over-pursue in the 2nd half where they ran a few cutbacks.

I still don't know why they don't run more out of the 3-4 wide sets in shotgun. You can almost predict the run plays out of the big formation with 90% accuracy.

Also saw at one point the Raiders started the game with 9 passes in which none went to an actual WR. Hard to win games if you don't get your WR's involved in the passing game.

Kudos for Apple on a big INT, even if he did try to fumble it away...lol

Biggest take-away from the game was this:

The Raiders spend all that money on the field, and the turf looks like dog shit. That's embarrassing. Guys from both sides were slipping and sliding all over the field. Put some damn field turf in.

 

[cincygrad]

The best runs were when they got guys pulling and when they had cut-back lanes. running straight ahead or out of only big formations didn't work well at all. I think the slams in the 1st half got them to over-pursue in the 2nd half where they ran a few cutbacks.

I still don't know why they don't run more out of the 3-4 wide sets in shotgun. You can almost predict the run plays out of the big formation with 90% accuracy.

Also saw at one point the Raiders started the game with 9 passes in which none went to an actual WR. Hard to win games if you don't get your WR's involved in the passing game.

Kudos for Apple on a big INT, even if he did try to fumble it away...lol

Biggest take-away from the game was this:

The Raiders spend all that money on the field, and the turf looks like dog shit. That's embarrassing. Guys from both sides were slipping and sliding all over the field. Put some damn field turf in.

I have to imagine the Raiders passing game was in response to the Bengals tape against the Jets. They really went hard at the underneath stuff, looking for us to miss tackles and allow easy, sustained drives. I realize they are down some wideouts, but it was painful to watch for them..... I mean, they would have 3rd and 6 and pass it for 2 yards. Really bizarre for a team that swears it has a qb that is good enough to be a franchise guy.

Agree about the turf. Mixon slipped several times - He said he finally changed his shoes to put on some longer spikes and it cleared it up. Even their guys were slipping and they've played there a lot.

 

[Cincyfan78]

I have to imagine the Raiders passing game was in response to the Bengals tape against the Jets. They really went hard at the underneath stuff, looking for us to miss tackles and allow easy, sustained drives. I realize they are down some wideouts, but it was painful to watch for them..... I mean, they would have 3rd and 6 and pass it for 2 yards. Really bizarre for a team that swears it has a qb that is good enough to be a franchise guy.

Agree about the turf. Mixon slipped several times - He said he finally changed his shoes to put on some longer spikes and it cleared it up. Even their guys were slipping and they've played there a lot.

I mean, it looked like a golf-range out there with some of the divots in the turf. Embarrassing, IMO, to have all that money spent and to put out turf that looks like something you'd find at a low-rent H.S. or youth level field.

 

[cincygrad]

I mean, it looked like a golf-range out there with some of the divots in the turf. Embarrassing, IMO, to have all that money spent and to put out turf that looks like something you'd find at a low-rent H.S. or youth level field.

What's funny is that they actually have field turf underneath the tray of grass.... UNLV plays on field turf for their games.

I find it amusing that the two teams that have grass in domes are the Cardinals and the Raiders. You know what is easy and economically feasible? Growing and maintaining professional level grass in the desert. Why?

 

[CrashDavisSports]

I had mentioned that to my wife yesterday as we were watching the game. I said, what in the hell is wrong with the turf? It is just flying all over the place. Players slipping on cutbacks, etc. Bengals made that mistake too the first several years at Paul Brown Stadium. Field turf has improved the quality of the product on the field in my opinion. Plus, as Grad said, why put real grass in two desert stadiums that have retractable domes? Just turf that shit and be done with it.

 

[Cincyfan78]

I have to imagine the Raiders passing game was in response to the Bengals tape against the Jets. They really went hard at the underneath stuff, looking for us to miss tackles and allow easy, sustained drives. I realize they are down some wideouts, but it was painful to watch for them..... I mean, they would have 3rd and 6 and pass it for 2 yards. Really bizarre for a team that swears it has a qb that is good enough to be a franchise guy.

Agree about the turf. Mixon slipped several times - He said he finally changed his shoes to put on some longer spikes and it cleared it up. Even their guys were slipping and they've played there a lot.

To your 1st point...Bengals were logged for just 5 missed tackles.

Best showing of the year.

 

[Cincyfan78]

Also - McPhearson is going to connect on a 70 yarder some day. His leg is unreal. I don't know what his accuracy will eventually end up being, but he's got the leg to connect from 70 and likely with consistency (as far as distance, not accuracy) if they wanted to try it multiple times.

 

[Cincyfan78]

More on Leggatron - 1st kicker in NFL history to connect on 6 FG's of 50 yards or more in his first 10 games to start a career.

 

[CrashDavisSports]

More on Leggatron - 1st kicker in NFL history to connect on 6 FG's of 50 yards or more in his first 10 games to start a career.

Taylor definitely understood the importance of his leg and accuracy when willing to give up a mid level draft pick on a kicker. You say first kicker to hit 6 50+ yard FG's in his first 10 games? Hasn't he already missed two 50+ yarders as well? Taylor has not been shy about putting his rookie kicker out there to kick long FG's to add to the scoreboard instead of playing field position. He missed that one 57 yarder against Green Bay as well. It went just right of the goal posts, but it was still more than halfway up the goal posts when it went by missing to the right.

In my opinion, as long as his accuracy improves slightly and he gets big opportunities, I think his confidence will grow and you are looking at the next Justin Tucker.

 

[cincygrad]

Aside from that weird extra point, which I imagine was just a flukey mistake, his kicks looked awesome in Vegas. This was only his second time getting to kick in a dome this season. I think it's always cool to see a kicker kick in a dome because the wind, cold, and the field conditions (okay maybe this case is a little different) aren't issues. His kicks were uber long and all relatively straight.

 

[alf8478]

How was the experience, Alf? Stadium looks awesome on TV - Was it good?

It's quite a building. It's huge. Big concourse, tons of concessions and bathrooms. There's a pre-game "Beer Garden" on the strip between the Luxor and Mandalay Bay which is a great idea. Its free, there's a bars and food stands, it opens at 9am (local) and they have the early games on. Then they close the major road that crosses the highway to walk to the stadium.

Pretty rowdy inside, as expect with Raider fans. I was shocked with how many Bengals fans were there, it was at least 1/3 Bengals fans. The Raider fans near me, despite their swearing were actually pretty down to earth. They hate Carr. Like worse than we hated Dalton.

Overall, if you have the chance, I would totally recommend going.

I also went to see the Golden Knights game the night before. Now that was quite at atmosphere. The sound system was louder than most concerts I have been to.