Zimmer in playoff game

[fredtoast]

Originally Posted by bengals85

He only needed to dump off to the right ends and Foster because they weren't forced to block once in the game. Why keep foster and Danials into block when the opposing defense is only rushing 4 guys. Schaub was not touched once in the game and your defending the defense. If linebackers are your weakness than a great defensive coordinator would find away to make them better

1. If blitzing was the simple answer to every problem then every team would blitz every play. The fact is that blitzing opens up holes in the coverage that can cause lots of problems.

2. NO defensive coordinator can make a defense work without good players. There is no magic fairy dust to hide weaknesses in the defense.

[eoxyod]

His defense netted giving up 12 points. Not his fault at all. We had a fine gameplan. Hold them to FGs and see if tge offense can score ONE TD

[Funkysylvanelf]

When the opposing offense convert almost half of their 3rd down, I'm not sure you've played great.

[Go Cards]

The offense lost the game.

But holding them to field goals is a facade. Houston dropped easy TD catches and settled.

Plus it was exposed in the previous weeks by other teams that pressuring Schaub was the way to beat Houston.

Hence why Houston changed their game plan to short drops and dump offs knowing this may come. We did not adjust and if not for Halls individual play it was ugly.

All this being said, Zimmer is still the best coach by far the Bengals have on staff.

It was a debacle on both sides and just a bad match up for Bengals imo.

But ultimately the entire offense lost the game, with assistance from Maualuga.

[Fan_in_Kettering]

Giving up only 19 points to the Houston Texans is playing solid defense on any given Sunday.

Giving up only 19 points to the Houston Texans when the Bengals' offense does absolutely nothing and leaves the Texans in great field position during the entire game is nothing short of a freakin' miracle. Mike Zimmer was pretty much forced to play cover-two and only rush the front four because the Texans were abusing the Cincinnati linebackers -- especially Rey Maualuga -- on every offensive possession. If the linebackers started to cover receivers well then Gary Kubiak went to the ground with Arian Foster. There were reasons the Bengals lost that playoff game -- but Mike Zimmer wasn't one of them.

[Abspara]

Originally Posted by Vikairius

Defense was not the problem.

Our inability to convert on 3rd down, lack of explosive plays, and consistency was the problem.

Rey Maualuga < texans te's

That embarassment of a LB should retire from the league in shame because of how he plays.

[Vikairius]

Originally Posted by OSUfan

Oh defense was a problem. Our LBs not being able to cover TEs and the short field was a problem.

Originally Posted by Abspara

Rey Maualuga < texans te's

That embarassment of a LB should retire from the league in shame because of how he plays.

I say the defense was not the problem and all I hear is it is all malaluga's fault. It is his fault we only put up 6 points offensively? It is his fault his squad was on the field for 2/3 of the game? I am no Rey fan and hate how he has become fat and slow and afraid to hit the gaps and instead be hit in space but he did not lose us the game and to make such lame accusations is asinine. Was Rey's play poor? Yes, but without pressure most Lbs are going to fail covering Daniels and foster. Our offensive gameplan was not spectacular and relying on Jermaine Butters to convert and open up the offense was stupid.

[OSUfan]

Originally Posted by bengals85

He only needed to dump off to the right ends and Foster because they weren't forced to block once in the game. Why keep foster and Danials into block when the opposing defense is only rushing 4 guys. Schaub was not touched once in the game and your defending the defense. If linebackers are your weakness than a great defensive coordinator would find away to make them better

Wow....really?

He was dumping it off so that our dline could not get pressure. Is it really that difficult to understand? I would not think so but hey. You did watch the season didn't you? If so you would realize that we generally rushed 4 guys. We rushed 4 guys and were second in the league in total sacks.

Our best coverage LB was on injured reserve. Remember a guy named Thomas Howard? Had he not been injured then you probably would not have seen Rey still playing the middle in that game. You can only do with what you have at the time.

So how is it that you make Rey better? Would love to hear you explain this since you obviously think Zimmer is a putz despite his constant top 10 NFL defenses. Maybe you should give him a call and explain it to him.

[OSUfan]

Originally Posted by Vikairius

I say the defense was not the problem and all I hear is it is all malaluga's fault. It is his fault we only put up 6 points offensively? It is his fault his squad was on the field for 2/3 of the game? I am no Rey fan and hate how he has become fat and slow and afraid to hit the gaps and instead be hit in space but he did not lose us the game and to make such lame accusations is asinine. Was Rey's play poor? Yes, but without pressure most Lbs are going to fail covering Daniels and foster. Our offensive gameplan was not spectacular and relying on Jermaine Butters to convert and open up the offense was stupid.

You may want to re-read what I posted. You will notice I stated our defense was "A" problem then explained why. So ASSINING would be taking from that statement that it means it is the reason we lost the game. Can you please point out where I stated defense was the reason we lost the game?

I never stated anything in regard to our offense as our offense was not the topic brought up by the OP.

[THE PISTONS]

Originally Posted by bengals85

I re-watched the playoff game. The #1 thing I noticed about the game about our defense was that the pass rush was completely non existent. Mike Zimmer brought more than 6 guys in a blitz only 3 time the entire game. The rest of the time it was just the front 4 or maybe a solo blitzer from time to time. It almost as if Zimmer was afraid of getting beat. In every big game we play it seems like he always runs and hides with his play calling. Yes the front 4 has gotten consistent pressure on their own the entire season but things change in the playoffs. Texans completely out coached us and completely out gameplanned us two years in a row.

Yep. The Texans moved the ball on us and we really didn't get pressure.

What kept the score down was Andre Johnson dropping a wide open TD pass and a few drops/mistakes by the Texans.

[bcolby20]

Originally Posted by fredtoast

No things don't change in the playoffs. Every team we faced all year had 5 O-linemen against our 4 d-linemen.

this. i am not sure where the guy you quoted was going with that, but indeed, we have faced 5 OLinemen all year long, in every single game.

like everyone else already said, we didn't want to give up the big play. all year long we got steady pressure with only our front 4, so it's not really a shock that we didn't blitz half of our defensive snaps against Houston.

[FootballBender]

Originally Posted by berserkerone88

We spent a good portion of the season getting pressure from only rushing 4.
Texans isolated Geno and forced the other 3 DL to generate the pressure.
They didn't.

Yep....and this is why I think M.J. doesn't get a record breaking deal. He was non-existant. And it's too bad...he has the size of JJ Watt but really isn't all that intimidating like Watt. We all know, MJ got a lot of sacks because of Atkins.

[TheCincinnatiKid]

It did seem like our defence was playing a bit more reserved, maybe to try and stifle the short routes the Texans love. Either way we gave up too many yards, plays and got zero pressure. Were on the field for way too long too, but thats a mix of the offensive failings and the length of the Texans drives.

Ultimately though, Zimmer's D (rather fortuitously) gave up 19 points. They gave the offence every chance to win, and the offence did not pull through.

[OSUfan]

Originally Posted by FootballBender

Yep....and this is why I think M.J. doesn't get a record breaking deal. He was non-existant. And it's too bad...he has the size of JJ Watt but really isn't all that intimidating like Watt. We all know, MJ got a lot of sacks because of Atkins.

MJ has the size of Watt? No pun intended but what? Watt is 2" shorter and has 25 lbs on MJ.