We continue our divisional draft & roster review series, switching from the NFC to the AFC North!
Once again, I’ll give a quick scouting report on every single player selected, talk about each team’s class overall & at the end of the video, rank those four against each other!
Tag Archives: Cincinnati Bengals
How the Bengals outsmarted the Bills:
In the highly anticipated matchup of Bengals-Bills in the Divisional Round, Cincinnati earned the resounding 27-10 victory by being the more physical team up front and crafting gameplans on both sides of the ball that were more effective at attacking the weaknesses of their opponents. Let’s break down what exactly they did from a schematic perspective!
NFL Power Rankings heading into the fourth quarter of 2022:
We’ve now played 13 of 18 regular season games, which puts us exactly at the three-quarter mark of the season at this moment in the middle of the week. And just like I did after the first month of the season, I thought it was time for me to rank and tier all 32 NFL teams yet again.
As I always say – these are power rankings, based on what I perceive teams to be right now, rather than listing them by record and basically creating a standings table. Some squads may have started off slowly but are starting to hit their groove, while others have fallen off, as the season has progressed. Funnily enough, numbers one and 32 are still the same today as they were for me back on October 5th, but there’s been plenty of shake-up between those two.
Here’s my list:
Burrow vs. Mahomes: Part III
After winning a late-season thriller & then overcoming a 21-3 deficit in the AFC title game, the Bengals are now set to play the Chiefs for the third time in less than a calendar year.
How are both sides different schematically compared to when they last met, who has the upper hand in certain matchups & what can we expect on Sunday?
You can check out the full video at youtube.com/@halilsrealfootballtalk
What’s wrong with the 0-2 Bengals?
After breaking onto the scene and representing the AFC in Super Bowl LVI, the Cincinnati Bengals have struggled so far in 2022 and are still looking for their first win. I decided to dive into the tape, in order to analyze their issues in pass protections, how offensive tendencies have been holding them back and why they’ve only scored 27 combined points through two games.
AFC North Draft & Roster Review 2022
Continuing our divisional draft breakdown series, where we move on from the NFC to the AFC North!
Once again, I’ll give a short scouting report on every player, talk about their fit on the roster & how that works with the other moves they’ve made in the offseason.
Be sure to follow along, as we work our way through the league, alternating between NFC & AFC!
Super Bowl LVI preview:
I think it’s fair to say that this isn’t the matchup we expected coming into the season. When sportsbooks initially released their Super Bowl lines, only two teams – the Lions and Texans – had longer odds of winning the Lombardi trophy than the Bengals and you would have yielded a 100-to-one payout or better, had you put money on them. And as of the middle of December, sitting there at 7-6, they were on the outside of the playoffs looking in, among a crowded field of contenders in the AFC. The Rams on the other hand were on the fringe of the top-five in terms of championship odds, but there were some serious doubts about them as well at points, entering December at 7-4 and having a few wins late in the year, which were far from convincing. Yet, these two groups are now set to meet in the big game, knocking off last year’s champs in either conference along the way.
There are a bunch of storylines to follow, such as former Rams assistant and now Bengals head coach Zac Taylor trying to beat his former boss in Sean McVay, Andrew Whitworth facing a Cincinnati team that he was a part of for 11 years and now has a chance to reach the ultimate goal against in his final time on the field possibly at 40 years old, a re-merging superstar in Odell Beckham Jr. meeting the team he suffered a torn ACL against that ended last season for him, two former number one overall picks at quarterbacks trying to outduel each other and even the battle of kickers, with a highly confident rookie and a first-time Pro Bowler, who’s had some issues lately.
Let’s break everything down from a schematic perspective on both sides of the ball, certain matchups to pay attention to and how they may affect the outcome, along with identifying one X-factor on offense and defense for each squad and then coming to a conclusion with a final score prediction.
I think it’s fair to say that this isn’t the matchup we expected coming into the season. When sportsbooks initially released their Super Bowl lines, only two teams – the Lions and Texans – had longer odds of winning the Lombardi trophy than the Bengals and you would have yielded a 100-to-one payout or better, had you put money on them. And as of the middle of December, sitting there at 7-6, they were on the outside of the playoffs looking in, among a crowded field of contenders in the AFC. The Rams on the other hand were on the fringe of the top-five in terms of championship odds, but there were some serious doubts about them as well at points, entering December at 7-4 and having a few wins late in the year, which were far from convincing. Yet, these two groups are now set to meet in the big game, knocking off last year’s champs in either conference along the way.
There are a bunch of storylines to follow, such as former Rams assistant and now Bengals head coach Zac Taylor trying to beat his former boss in Sean McVay, Andrew Whitworth facing a Cincinnati team that he was a part of for 11 years and now has a chance to reach the ultimate goal against in his final time on the field possibly at 40 years old, a re-merging superstar in Odell Beckham Jr. meeting the team he suffered a torn ACL against that ended last season for him, two former number one overall picks at quarterbacks trying to outduel each other and even the battle of kickers, with a highly confident rookie and a first-time Pro Bowler, who’s had some issues lately.
Let’s break everything down from a schematic perspective on both sides of the ball, certain matchups to pay attention to and how they may affect the outcome, along with identifying one X-factor on offense and defense for each squad and then coming to a conclusion with a final score prediction.
NFL teams most likely to go from worst to first in 2021:
We have spent a lot of time on analyzing what NFL teams have done this offseason to improve their roster, detailing every single draft pick, discussing the most improved position groups and pointing out the biggest remaining needs for every single squad. Now it’s time to project how these moves will impact the outcome of the 2021 season, in regards to how much the bottom teams have improved and their chances to turn things around.
So here I listed the teams, that just finished fourth in their respective division, and ranked them based on the likelihood of winning it this year. I will describe the team itself, including some of the changes on the roster and coaching staff, talk about the challenges they will face inside their division and take a look at the schedule a little bit, in order to determine their chances of hosting a playoff game come next January. I also added a percentage at the very end, that I would give them of doing so.
Let’s get into it:
Continue reading NFL teams most likely to go from worst to first in 2021:
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