This was a very frustrating game to watch. I've been on blood pressure meds and have been monitoring it daily. It was slightly high before the game, but after it was 172 over 127 and I feel like I'm gonna blow a gasket!

I'll start with the good. Trevor made excellent strides tonight. He did about as well as we could ask. He didn't force any throws, he took what the defense gave him, he used his legs to make plays and when he got in trouble, he threw the ball away like a veteran QB would do. This is the QB I saw at Clemson. So many people were quick to call him a bust, but guys like Justin Herbert are the exception to the rule. Most great QB's struggle early on. Trevor really looks like his learning from those early struggles and he's showing tremendous improvement. As long as he keeps this up, I don't care what the wins and losses look like this season. I just wanna see consistent improvement. 

The run game was really good. Robinson ran hard, kept his legs moving and did a great job against a very good Bengals run defense. We need to keep relying on the run game. The more balanced we are, the less pressure is on Lawrence to try and do it all. 

The run defense held up well. I thought they did a pretty good job for the most part. 

For the most part, Darrell Bevell called a good game. It's like he finally listened to the fans and stopped trying to make Trevor drop back and throw deep on every play. We used the run game, used quick, short passes, used Trevor's legs to make plays and mixed in a few deep passes to keep the defense on their toes. This is what we need to do moving forward. That will keep us in games. What I didn't like is that terrible goal line call that got stuffed at the half yard line. Why call a play fake which took too much time developing when we were on the half yard line? That was idiotic! We needed a half yard. We have a 6'6" QB for God's sake. Run a straight up QB sneak. Lawrence could've easily stretched that over the goal line. The run lane was there, but when he rolled and faked it, the hole had closed up. That call may have cost us the game. This was a very winnable contest. That offensive play was the difference. 

Can we please, have one guy that can actually cover a TE? For God's sake! Other teams do it. Why can't we? C.J. Uzomah is the epitome of the term "average TE." He is only a real factor in about 1 to 2 games per year and we made him look like Travis Kelce. This defense is a mess against the pass! Tyson Campbell is terrible! On deep passes he doesn't even try to turn his head around and track the ball anymore. He looked totally lost on that long pass to the Kid Rock lookin receiver. I live in the Cincinnati area and I didn't even know that guy played for the Bengals. Chase and Boyd abused our secondary all night. Something has to change. Our offense showed great strides, but the defense keeps making the same mistakes over and over. 

I was extremely worried before the season even started that we didn't do enough to upgrade the pass rush and here we are. Another game where the opposing QB had virtually all day to find his targets. It's maddening! We dial up blitzes over and over and they NEVER work. That zero blitz near the end of the game made me want to punch a hole in the wall. I knew it was gonna come back and bite us and it did. We do not have the personnel to call that play. No one can get to the QB and no one can cover. When you sell out like that, you leave receivers completely wide open. In this case, Burrow read the blitz, got the ball out cleanly to the TE and the game was essentially over. I saw it coming a mile away. Maybe that crap call would work on a below average QB, but Burrow is very good. He sniffed it out right away and made us pay dearly. 

Can we please just admit that Chaisson was a wasted pick? Once again, he was a complete non-factor. He has one sack since drafting him and that occurred over a year ago. He never makes any plays and gets hung up on blockers on almost every snap. Tonight he had only 1 tackle for the stat line. It's time to end this experiment and replace him at OLB with someone else. Anyone. We cannot keep allowing opposing QB's to sit in the pocket, untouched. We've already proven that we don't have nearly enough (if any) talent in the secondary, to allow the opposing QB's so much time to find open receivers. 

Why did I see Josh Allen drop into coverage so much? He's our only consistent pass rusher. Have him rush the QB on every passing play. Who is running this dog and pony show? 

I gotta go to bed now. My head hurts.

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Agree with most of this. One additional observation. Without Poz or Telvin out there, Myles looks lost. And calling the plays for defense has set him back. Drop Chaisson to spot roles, move Jack to OLB there and put Quarterman in the middle with Wilson. Russsel can back them up.

Arnold looks like a good upgrade at tight end. However, he seemed to disappear in the second half. Still, all three of the other TEs caught a pass. So that was what? 6 or 7 passes to them in all? That was improvement right there.

I don't think it's the coaching as much as the lack of quality players. The old saying of you can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear rings true here. Better FA and draft picks are still prime objectives for the front office. That starts with better scouts and improved vetting of players.

Your mantra of progressive improvement this season is the expectations I hope for as well.

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Honest question. Would someone please tell me when this organization’s last good draft was?

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Honest question. Would someone please tell me when this organization’s last good draft was?

Have been checking out past draft’s and I now understand why this organization isn’t winning…smh

2016. Jalen, Jack and Yan.

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I'll say this.

It's gonna take time. One offseason wasn't going to reverse the course of the entire roster or the franchise. The D was miserably flawed last year, and it appears that keeping the same core unit of pass rushers has done nothing to change that aspect of our game.

For the sake of your health, might be wise to DVR or watch on delay so you can pause things and take a break when the game gets you riled up. Don't do damage to yourself cheering for some laundry, man. Ain't worth it.

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Honest question. Would someone please tell me when this organization’s last good draft was?

We've had good drafts. Problem is, we can't seem to hold onto the talent.

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101 yards in the 2nd half by the offense. Jones and Arnold both MIA in the final 30 min. Defense on the field too long. It's remarkable that the game was as close as it was.

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"Remember Red, Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."  - Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption