Strafford

Broncos Seahawks Lions Really struggled to pick a third team this week, but have gone with the Lions without any real confidence. Hopefully Cutler is rusty if he starts. I couldn't go my Bengals, even though the Ravens are having a struggle, and who knows what the Dolphins will do, down two lineman and in turmoil.

Hmmmm....thinking music... Nope I'm Stumped. Any chance of getting another clue?.....

I think we are now up to 6 season ending injuries. Next man up is becoming a bit of a health risk, a bit like going over the top in the first world war... in a totally sporting sense.

As a Bengal I have seen all number of ways to lose a game...eeeek. Atkins is done. Our two best defensive players in Atkins and Hall gone for the season...ouch. For on hour or two I was sitting in a corner rocking backwards and forwards. Thankfully I have now recovered

Sadly the Bungles came to not play yesterday. Bad Andy returned, dropped passes, poor run defence, questionable play calling and unfortunately the Bengals injury curse struck again. Almost everytime we sign a good player to a big time contract they go down with a serious injury within a year...sigh. A.J Green better prepare himself for rehab early next year when he signs up for his big time contract. I would suggest booking a hospital room early...one with a view For all that we were rubbish we still nearly won. A rubbish playcall on our last set in regulation, just before we kicked the field goal to take the lead, probably cost us a great comeback win...oh well we move on. I had a bad feeling about this one, just as I did before the Browns game, so I decided not to pick them. One slight positive Chiefs Saints Colts

The Chiefs unstoppable The Browns really do have a pretty good defence this season. Patterson's run was great, he should be a good replacement for Harvin with a bit of development and without the character issues. Macca has been spoiled with the QB's at Green Bay. To me Rodgers is the man.

Yep beast mode. Dez seemed to have a meltdown on the Boys sideline Not sure exactly what happened there, considering his comments during the week, media twisting his words or not, Bryant would have been under a fair bit of pressure.

Whodey they think gonna beat them Bengals...no-body Pretty complete performance by the Bengals. Dalton looked like a gunslinger, but I'm scratching my head a bit as he hit AJ for two fifty plus passes in the air without a trace of his previous arm strength issues. Still had one inexplicable interception that will give the Dalton haters something to hang their hat on. Bengals fans are a funny bunch. I can see Dalton's weaknesses, but he has a lot of strengths as well. He won't be elite, but we can still win a bowl with him if the haters don't overwhelm him by impacting his confidence. You don't have to have elite arm strength to win a bowl, although it certainly helps:) The Master you really don't want the Jets version of defence, unless you have two elite man to man corners who are fully fit. Milliner?Island just isn't the same as Revis island. The Jets pass rush was woeful and we just torched their secondary. Buyer beware with corners from the Alabama Crimson Tide, our first round guy Kirkpatrick has struggled and Milliner looks worse and was benched. Short turn around against the Dolphins and we have some injuries.

I did get that impression mate I apologise for disparaging the great man even if it was in jest I am the last one to be having a go at a guy with memory problems, and although I have taken a few whacks in my time, I haven't taken anywhere near the punishment he has. I'm an American football nut. Truth be told I even prefer it to modern Australian rules. I have umpteen books on the American game, but it has been a gradual process to being my fav sport, the timezone being an obvious impediment, as not being able to see many games live is a bit of a downer. Sadly as we all know work must come first. Playing Madden has probably helped in the process as sad as a bloke nearing fifty playing video games may be Although in my defence aren't we all still kids at heart and isn't the average age of video gamers in the 30's these days?

Tongue firmly in cheek on my part mate Yep the headline was misleading, but was being used to lead into the broader issue of concussions in American football, which of course would only be magnified in countries such as the UK who see the NFL as competition. For all that I agree that there is some quality sports journalism in the US there is also as much rubbish there as there is in Australia. The around the league writers on the NFL site are woeful on the whole for example and I've listened to their podcast a couple of times and I swear you could gain us much insight into the game by having a convo in a pub with two Australians who had only ever watched one game. At times it seems as if the US sneezes we catch a cold, in so many areas, politics, culture, sports etc. So many things in the AFL are blatant rippoffs from the NFL.

Favre also also just said he can't remember his daughters childhood. That isn't a good sign. Although I am presuming he wasn't an absent father I know I shouldn't joke about such a serious issue.

The Master brought up an interesting point in the move towards the 3-4 base defensive scheme in the NFL probably as a reaction to the passing attacks. Which I think is an interesting debating point in relation to the merits of the 4-3 in comparison. In the AFC North we have the Steelers the poster child for the 3-4 and the Ravens who run a hybrid. The Bengals we do love our 4-3. Personally I hope more teams start running the 3-4, as I know the Bengals under Mike Brown who isn't really into change, and has only just recently discovered that having more than one scout is a good idea for one example, will not change and will stick with the 4-3. Thus the Bengals will have less competition finding the players best suited to the 4-3, which I believe helped the Steelers for many years finding those late pick gems when they were one of the few teams running the 3-4. Not so easy these days is it Steelers with more teams moving to the 3-4? As an added bonus the Bengals run game which isn't that flash even with the addition of Gio Bernard can only become more effective, because there is no way there will be enough really good nose tackles to go around and they are vital to the schemes success. I could be totally wrong of course

People love forwards, especially big forwards kicking goals. Surely the AFL realises this. Multiple players kicking 100 plus goals per season could only be good for the game and ratings in my view. They have changed some rules to penalise backmen, but flooding, zones etc are the real killers.

Lack of respect for Marvin and the Bengals Not that I disagree, although Marvin has been pretty good for the most part since that first game. Yeah we should have beaten your guys, but we were probably lucky to beat Macca's Pack as they suffered a few key injuries early and we had a few other things go our way. So I guess it all evens out in the end. There are arguments both for and against either scheme I guess, although neither is really used in its pure form. The Bengals at times use what you could be described as 3-4 formations. Probably the biggest disadvantage with a 3-4 is finding that elite nose tackle that is so key to it's success. It is probably easier to find 3-4 defensive ends as compared to the 4-3 variety and they don't cost as much coin, but finding that nose tackle is tough.

Kinda ironic that a device for player protection has become part of the concussion problem. If it wasn't for the fact that the hard hat has become an iconic image associated with the NFL I could have see them ditching it for the softer style of head protection worn in the AFL. Guys wouldn't be leading with their heads then, although perhaps blowing my theory out of the water was what happened in the AFL after they tightened the rules on head high contact, players started leading with their heads to pick up free kicks...

Hey the Bears can't be too bad you have beaten the mighty Bengals, although our other loss is to the Browns Not sure on the change of defensive scheme. Rob Ryan wasn't that great at the Boys and a 4-3 really works for the Bengals as a base defensive scheme. As you have mentioned your injuries and an older unit may be more the problem rather than the scheme ?

There is that, plus a few trolls on both sides of the various arguments, who just love stirring the pot when emotions are high. Just like you I am hopeful the MFC is on the right track as well

Enjoyment of the NFL is something we have in common, but you would think supporting Melbourne would be as well. I have certainly found the NFL thread much more civil than the main board:)

Looks like Cam had his superman suit on. No wonder the Panthers are so undisciplined, their coach was behaving like a pork chop on the sideline and they were winning easily:)Geno certainly can take it up to us. Under Lewis we are under .500 against rookie QB's. It seems we need plenty of gametape to come up with a plan, non of this adapting to circumstance business:) We also struggle against against guys who have only played a handful of games as well. Thus Hoyer got us and the Bills bloke nearly did as well. We should win, but if Geno can get the ball out quickly and negate our pass rush our secondary is vulnerable. On the defensive side the Jets are really good and if they can shut AJ down we will struggle. Not because we don't have other guys that can catch the ball, because our completion rates are much better to targets other than AJ, but just because it is what we do. Against the Browns despite it not working we still continually threw to AJ for 7 completions from 16 targets. Bit of tunnel vision for us at times. Just like Macca I am taking it one week at a time, we have beaten some good teams, but a plus 13 points differential after winning 5 of 7 games doesn't indicate an elite team yet. Couple of fun facts Andy Dalton is the most accurate QB for throws under 5 yards so far these season and the AFC North doesn't have a running back averaging over 4 yards a carry. Ray Rice is averaging under 3 on over 80 attempts. What has happened to our division?

Good move mate. Something positive no matter what happens I reckon we all would be pretty happy if the teams of our fellow NFL fans get up, with the exceptions of when they play your own team or if that team is a mortal enemy of course. As much as I appreciate the prestige associated with our tipping comp the happiness of our little group of NFL fans is more important.

Niners Packers Seahawks Would have taken the Panthers, but Cam worries me, as he could play lights out or sulk My apologies to Cowboy and Gorgoroth, but if I'm wrong I'm sure you will give it to me. With Ponder in last chance saloon I could certainly see him playing a big one and wouldn't that complicate the Freeman master plan Cowboy? Edit Just saw your picks Cowboy...ouch.

There should be a lot of capable guys throughout this draft. It perhaps doesn't have the star power of the Luck RG3 draft, but the talent runs deep especially if those underclassmen nominate. The trick is for teams not to take them too early due to desperation for a QB. Some of the expectations put on these first round QB's is just crazy, because many of them shouldn't be taken in the first round. If you take them later you can sit them for bit and teach them properly. A lot of these guys aren't thinking for themselves in college games and wouldn't dare sneeze unless their coach told them to let alone make adjustments at the line or make more than one read So many of these QB's are just chewed up and spat out rather than be developed properly. Look at how many of the best QB's in the comp actually sat for a bit before being thrown in. Yet the coaches and front offices still persist in throwing guys to wolves who aren't ready. Does my head in. The most successful QB's at the Bengals have all been 2nd round or later, with a number of duds taken in the first. Rant over...

Your guys are a bit stuck now, they can't start Ponder just in case he does well and they are dtermined to move on from him. The problem is Freeman was struggling in an offence he had studied for months, it was nuts to think he could pick up another scheme in less than two weeks. It seems a bit similar to the crazy decisions the Browns and Raiders were making before they made leadership changes. Do you mean Johnny Manziel? Is so I agree he is a twerp. If he wanted to he actually could stay in school for another two years after this as he is a redshirt sophomore, as is Marcus Mariota from Oregon who I think will be a gun. If they do come out early this class could be awesome. Pretty much a QB to suit any team. Lots of read option guys and traditional drop back passers such as Teddy Bridgewater who will probably go number 1. Very deep draft for cornerbacks as well, which is fortunate for the Bengals as we probably need two, although a miracle could occur and Kirkpatrick with more opportunity could show something. It has a few quirks the American system. This declaring for the draft early stuff really complicates things and makes any long term planning for NFL recruiters tough, just because you don't know who is going to be available until quitelate in the process. Also the rules around when recruiters can actually contact prospects is really strict and would make it especially tough to assess character isues.

Tough luck with Bradford mate. Hopefully someone can step up.

Seems to be a bit of panic in the leadership Cowboy. Talk about setting Freeman up to fail. Looks like a really tough schedule for your guys ahead as well. Unfortunately being a Bengals fan and with our past struggles I know only too well what you are going through and as we both know ...it sucks. Hopefully with regime change next season the wheel will turn. This a deep draft for QB's so even if Freeman doesn't work out either, you will have the chance to draft someone who has the tools to succeed.