Drunk Johnny

Bottom line is in the third quarter, down by only three at the half, and getting the second half kickoff, going four three and outs was game over. I know injuries were very tough to overcome, but the Patriots and Brady lost 4 of the top 5 receivers from the previous year last year for the WHOLE YEAR, and made it to the AFC championship. At some point Daulton has to step up and MAKE plays. Now granted the play calling was pretty bad today, but at some point your leader needs to make something positive happen. The defense played pretty good considering they were basically out on the field the entire second half, but with no help from your offense, it gets pretty dishartening. The Bengals are stuck with Daulton, so the best they can do is try to build as much as they can around him so he can "manage" the game. I am not bashing him as a person, I am sure he is a very good guy, but he has taken the team as far as he can. As far as Marvin, I think he is doing a good job with the cards that are dealt to him. Just remember the days of Bruce Coslet, Dick Lebeau, and everyone's favorite Bengals coach, Dave Shula. Yes it can get a lot worse.

What is the old saying, "if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, its a duck". FSU has not seen this type of speed and diversity of Oregon's offense all year, and I think this is really going to cause issues. Vegas doesn't miss very often, (or it would be a ghost town, and not have some of the most lavish hotel's in the world),and the 9.5 point spread for the Duck's, going to be tough for the Nole's to advance. Not saying the Duck's in a blowout, but I do think they will move on to the palace in Dallas to play for the gold.

Private schools do have the advantage of the players being well supported, but it is not like Cooper has an enrollment of 100 girls like a Dayton, Bellevue, or Ludlow. I am surprised that Cooper, who probably has between 400 to 500 girls, doesn't have more girls interested in playing basketball. I am not sure if there is lack of interest, girls playing other sports, or the grade school/ middle school programs not being supportive enough to develop players. Cooper has a very talented team, but I was surprised at the core of the team is mostly freshman and sophmores.

I must be drinking the kool aid, but I like the Bengals in this one. The Bengals didn't play even close to a good game against Pittsburgh, and had a chance to win it before the Green fumble. Cincinnati has come a long way from the 27 to 0 beatdown earlier in the year against the Colts. They have found a running game, the defense is playing much better, (although they must get more of a pass rush), and I don't think the Colts are playing their best football right now. Also, Cincinnati has played pretty well on the road. If they Bengals don't have AJ Green it will hurt, but I still think they have enough to get their first win since the first Bush was in office. Bengals 20, Colts 17.

I was surprised that the Bengal's DLine could not get any pressure of Big Ben. He had way too much time to sit back and play 7 on 7, with the Bengals pretty much letting him do it. You can't blitz every play, but do have to pick your spots and get him out of rythem. Bottom line, it came down to turnovers by the Bengals, and Bad Andy showed up. Let's hope Bad Andy is done for the year, and good Andy comes out for the playoffs.

Two turning points in the game for the Bengals. The first was the 80 + yard run from Hill in the first quarter. After the pick 6, it was the old here we go again for the Bengals, but that run re energized the whole team and got them believing. The second was the facemask call on the Broncos reciever near the beginning of the fourth quarter. That whiped out a 25 yard gain and took all the momentum away from the Broncos who were only down by 2 points at that time. A big shout out to the defense, outside of the third quarter, played as good as it gets. Also the special teams really gave the Bengals a big boost exept for the kickoff to start the second half. Hue Jackson called a masterpiece. Not everything worked, but in the first half the Bengals played keep away from Manning with long drives and timely screen plays. Daulton didn't play exceptional, but did enough (short passes, and zone read runs) to keep the offense moving. Big win!!! Keep building on this.

It's time for the Bengals to step up and make a statement. I don't expect them to win both, but they have to at least show up and make the games competitive. This is a good test to see how far they have progressed this year. If they get beat like they have in the past in prime time games, its better off that they don't make the playoffs. Don't think I can stand three beatdowns in a row. Either way, keep Marvin and stuck with Andy. If anybody wants to complain about the quarterback here, look at Arizona. They have a Super Bowl calibar team, and NO qb.

One of the toughest things Manziel has to learn is when he drops back to pass, and if his first read is not open, to start trying to make a play with his feet. I think he found out very quickly that defenses in the NFL are much faster than in college. His career will be very short (no pun intented) if he drops back, quick look and tries to make some kind of backyard play. I am not sure if they can convert him into more of a pocket passer, and if not, just another of a long line of NFL quarterback bust for the Browns.

If this is Gresham's contract year, he is not doing much to make his stock go up. I really think the Bengals will not try too hard to keep him. He is a very good talent, but I don't know if he will ever reach his potential, and he more fits the mold of the Bengals back in the early 2000's. Lots of characters, but not much character.

I think the Bengals have a very good secondary, but if the DLine cannot get any pressure on Manning and he has 4 or 5 seconds to scan the field, the DB's will not be able to cover that long. (No team against Manning can for that long). Hopefully Kirkpartrick can build off last game and the Bengals bring their A game against the Broncos.

This is a bad matchup for the Bengals. Broncos receivers are very good, and the Bengals have really struggled with the pass rush in recent game. I don't include Cleveland because that was Manziel's first game. If they rush only four, Manning will sit back and pick them apart, and if they blitz, not sure if DB's can hold up. The only chance the Bengals have is to basically play keep away on offense, and run the ball as much as possible to keep Manning on the sidelines. Also, lets face it. Have the Bengals even given anyone a game in prime time the last 5 years or more. Who Dey! The good news is, the following week if they beat Pittsburgh, they can still win the division if the Raven's don't win out.

This would be the wrong direction for Michigan. Kiffin has done nothing as a head coach, (Tennessee and USC), and they some talent before he got there.

I agree something is going to have to give next year with a DB putting a hand on the receiver and getting flagged. I would guess there are more defensive illegal contact calls than offensive holding called. At least one thrown every drive it seems like. I don't know if they want to turn it into a video type game scoring, but the defense is so limited on what it can do now, not sure how they can stop offenses. Also, the kick off has basically been taken out of the game in college and pro. Very small percentage of kickoffs brought out of the end zone. I know it is a safety thing, but it does hurt the overall strategy of the game. Harder for teams that gave up a score to get momentum without a big kickoff return.

I am not saying he isn't a good man or a good coach. I am not trying to villianize him or say he isn't good for the Holmes program. However, if Holmes was up by 70 in the first half, and one of the starters got one of the 52 steals or whatever in the game, and went for a layup and blew her knee out and was done for the year, would all the Holmes faithful be so supportive. Also, how much better can you get playing against girls that don't have the talent to give much of a challenge. There is plenty of time in practice to work on layups. The point is just because any team can beat another team by 90 it doesn't mean they should or need to. I stand by that.

A very good point dribbledrive. Just a week ago Holmes was holding the ball for almost a full quarter against GRC and scored about 4 points in a quarter. Put up a total 55 in double overtime. Now they pressure a team that can't come close to competing with them and put up 85 points in a HALF! Just because you can beat a team by 90 points doesn't mean you do it. It is called sportsmanship. This one goes on the coach. He may be a very good coach, I don't know, but it is on him to make the score respectable. Outside of padding stats this game did nothing for either team. Speaking of football, do you think Highlands couldn't have beaten Holmes this year 100 to 0. They probably could, but when Highlands got up 36 to 0, they played the 2nd and 3rd team players, called convserative offensive plays and got out. No the kids that were playing didn't take a knee at the beginning of the second half, but I don't think they were throwing 50 yard bombs every play either. You can't tell me all of a sudden Holmes had 85 points at the half before they knew it.

Where is the Mustang report on this one.

I think Holmes could have called the dogs off earlier. (No pun intended.) I have seen games like this in the past that could have gotten to this point, but there are things teams can do to not turn into this. I.E. no pressing, pull the starters after a certain amount of lead, several passes before a shot. It doesn't have to get to this score. I think if you are up by 35 in the first half the starters can safely come out. I don't think either team benefited from this kind of game.

I think you could sum the Ncc effort up in one word. Scrappy. The Breds constant defensive pressure caused several turnovers, and hit enough shots from beyond the arc to maintain the lead throughout the 2nd half. The Half time score was 32 to 20 Ncc. Dixie made a push in the third period to cut it to 37 to 30, but too much pressure and quickness, the Colonels couldn't come any closer. Tibbs had 18 points for the Colonels, but ending up fouling out with 2 minutes left to go in the game.

What about Ludwig? Is he still on the rooster or could the Reds find a way to trade/waive/ or just part ways with him?

With many people saying Etown is the best in the state in girls basketball this year, (and I am not disputing this), did anyone see this game and have an update of how strong Blackman is. Did Etown just have one of those games where nothing went their way.

Dixie's D line is getting a big push up the middle. Will be interesting to see if T can continue to short pass their way down the field all game to keep drives going.

It will be shown online at khsaa.org and just look for the link. All the finals are scheduled to be shown. Not sure about cable.

This seems to be a scare story to get everyone up in arms over the dangers of football. Is there a risk of head injury in football, no doubt, but there are risk in getting out of bed in the morning. I have played and coached football for over 20 years, and have only seen two or three players that had to stop playing due to head injuries. Also, of all the players that I played high school and college with, I have not heard of one player having brain trauma. A sample size much larger than 24. By the way, back in the 70' and 80's when a player got blown up, it was called intimidation. (Not saying it was right, but they didn't throw a flag and no one was ejected). With the emphasis on keeping your head up "see what you hit", and targeting out of the game for the most part, I agree this story is more about some sleeze ball lawyer wanting a big money grab.

I don't care how nice you are, if you are 6 - 6 every year people will grow tired very quickly. I don't know if this was a bridge hire in Husker land and will go after someone else in a couple of years, or the Adminstration couldn't stand Pelini and just wanted him gone reguardless of who they could find. He was 9 - 3 this year and they wouldn't even let him stay to coach the bowl game. Sounds like someone way up the food chain in Nebraska was just wanting him out.

All I can say is the new OC better bring in some offensive lineman that can hold up better against the SEC d lines and linebackers. You can have the best game plan in the world, but if two or three defensive players are in the backfield at the snap almost every play, not going to get much accomplished.