Reds and Bengals, and then you had to get up this morning.
Life is good. Sometimes it could be better.
Get used to the Bengals playing inconsistently. It’s a trademark of young teams with young quarterbacks. One week, they look like they have it all figured out. The next week, they go to Chicago and steal an L in a very winnable game. And for 50-plus minutes, look bad doing it.
Cheer up. TJ Watt hurt his groin Sunday. No one has said how long he’ll be out, but if he plays v. The Men Sunday, it’ll be a surprise. As Dave Lapham once said, “a loose groin is a happy groin.’’ Watt’s groin wants to kill somebody.
Without further ado. . .
TEN THINGS
1. The Bears gave the NFL the blueprint for beating the Bengals. Beat them up front, make Joe Burrow get the ball out (too) quickly. Zac Taylor talked last week about the aggressive Bengals. That team didn’t show up Sunday until it was too late.
2. Rookie wideout Ja’Marr Chase wasn’t shy pointing that out, postgame. Enquirer: Chase said the Bengals should have been more aggressive in stretching the field as the Bears took a 20-3 lead. “We could’ve been (doing) that bro, honestly,” Chase said. “We waited (until the) last-minute to take shots. We knew they were sitting the whole game. I was telling Joe. Tee knew. We’ve got to capitalize on the stuff we see early in the game.”
3. Burrow echoed the feeling, saying he needed to “throw the ball over their head. At least make them feel like you are going to be able to do that.’’
4. I don’t know how thrilled Taylor and Brian Callahan are about a rookie questioning their game plan, but the point is well taken. The “aggressive’’ Bengals played kinda curled up most of the day. All props to Joe Mixon, but they didn’t draft Boyd, Chase, Higgins and Burrow so Joe could run off tackle 20 times. The game plan worked in theory, I guess. In practice, it was coma-inducing. Sooooo. . .
5. The line is a weakness again. It’s such a weakness that on Sunday, it all but neutered the quarterback. The game plan essentially said, "We can't block well enough for Joe to succeed.'' You could suggest the Bears front had something to do with that. I’d say it wasn’t a big problem for Matthew Stafford, whose first pass of the game last week went for a 67-yard TD against that D. Taylor and Burrow made the Bears defense seem like it was borrowed from 1985. It wasn’t. Too much respect given.
6. It isn’t just that Burrow has been sacked nine times in two games. It’s that he’s in trouble much of the time. Passing games are delicate things, even moreso when you have a QB making only his 11th start.
7. And we haven’t even talked about what happens if a starting lineman gets hurt.
8. This is what forever kills the Bengals, and part of why fans stay cynical about them. They’re OK with being OK. The O-line is OK. It needs to be better than that for Burrow, whose generational talent simply cannot be taken for granted.
9. And by the way, the tackling was poor.
10. And Andy Dalton was very good before he got hurt. Better than the guy who took his place in Cincinnati.
11. And any player who gets flagged for taunting is selfish and not paying attention. Inexcusable.
Now, then. . .
TALK ABOUT CURLING UP. . . The Reds have lost 16 of 24. Their most reliable starting pitcher since April looks to be gassed. See you next spring, Jesse Winker. Jose Barrero, centerfielder.
When I suggested Cincinnati had a big edge in snagging WC2, I did it believing it would feast on the predominance of lesser teams on its schedule. I was wr. . . wr. . . not completely right about that. Losing 2 of 3 to LA’s traveling band of Hall of Fame pitchers isn’t a big deal. Losing 2 of 3 to Cubs, Pirates, Marlins, Tigers is.
I’m not sure it’s worth mentioning anymore that the Club still has six games with the woeful Buccos and four with the last-place Nationals. The Reds are 3 behind St. Louis. They have 12 games left, Looie has 14. If the Cards go 7-7, the Club has to go 9-3 just to tie them.
You see this team winning nine of 12?
The Cardinals keep winning, even as their starting pitching lacks. At this point, maybe it’s institutional memory. They sunk San Diego over the weekend with big hit after big hit.
I gave DBell big credit when the Reds were rolling, for a laid back attitude that seemingly helped keep the clubhouse upbeat and together. Now, I wonder if a different approach might have served him better in the last month. A manager can’t drastically change who he is, of course. Players would see through that.
But the We’re OK approach hasn’t been the right tone for a team that hasn’t been OK for a month.
And we haven’t even talked about the Kyle Boddy departure.
ABOUT THE KYLE BODDY DEPARTURE. He left on his own, without saying goodbye to anyone still working for the club. Ditto hitting coordinator C.J. Gilman. Interestingly, current GM Nick Krall hired Boddy, not former GM Dick Williams.
Boddy was the pitching guru who, together with pitching coach Derek Johnson, was going to revolutionize the way the Reds developed pitchers. Boddy had an aborted 2020 spring training and not even a full year this year to do what he was hired to do. Who knows what Derek Johnson makes of this.
I have no idea if losing Boddy and Gilman is good or bad. I do know that an organization that absolutely needs stability and a plan for developing its players has played musical chairs with its development staff for the past three years.
TRIP REPORT. . . I hadn’t been to Chicago for a decade at least. I’d forgotten how wonderful the lakefront can be when the weather is good. Miles of shoreline, acres of parks. Great walking. (19,000 steps Saturday night, 18,000 more Sunday.)
I’d bought a ticket to visit the Art Institute of Chicago (Edward Hopper, incredible) but an airline screwup on Saturday kept that from happening. I’m not leaving here today until later, so I have time for lunch in Wrigleyville. Stayed at the Essex on South Michigan Ave., a 20-minute walk to Soldier Field. The best way to deal with Chicago’s insane traffic is to not deal with it. Great walk along the lake, to the stadium.
That was the good part. The bad?
(FIE ON!) THE AIRLINES, in this case United. Had an 11:30 AM flight from CVG Saturday. Ended up leaving at 4:30. They said a “piece of one of the engines’’ had broken off. Uh-huh.
There was no other plane, or estimated departure time. I was leaving CVG to get in my car and drive to Chicago when I got a text from United saying we’d be leaving at 2:15. I reversed course, went back through security and. . . they pushed back the departure to 3. Then to 4:07. Then to 4:30.
Then I got to Chicago and hopped the train at O’Hare. . . and it broke down.
By then, I didn’t know if I were Steve Martin or John Candy. (Guess the movie reference, win fabulous prizes.)
I checked into the Essex at 7pm, Central, a mere 9 and a half hours after I left my house.
DID YOU KNOW THIS? At least where I stayed, they only make up the rooms once every 3 days. They cite COVID as the reason. I guess they can’t get enough people to work these days. I’m sure they lowered their room rates to account for the savings in wages paid.
MEANWHILE, MAHOMES AND JACKSON played a game about which we in the ‘Nati can only dream. . . and I still hate it during the SNF intros when players tell us where they went to high school or, worse, grade school. Show some gratitude to the college that allowed you to audition for a career while you stayed eligible and left school early. Thank you.
TUNE O' THE DAY. . . Soul never gets old
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