Week 1: Game Balls vs Bengals

[Eddie Jurak]

1. Keion White. 2.5 sacks, a firced fumble, and disruptive on other plays. With Judon traded and Barmore injured, he is arguably the big play guy on the team and he delivered.

2. Rhamondre Stevenson. 25 for 120 yards, the lone TD, and gained the first downs on the final drive to put the game away.

3. Jacoby Brissett. All he did was be a game manager, but last year we didn't even have that. Made some good decisions to run the ball (picking up 34 important yards on the ground). Got lucky on the one boneheaded throw he made.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

Mayo & the Coaching Staff - Team came prepared to play, didn’t do anything really stupid, no horrible situational calls. Just steady and cool. No panic.

I’d prefer they’d pass on a 1st down occasionally.

 

[Ferm Sheller]

Kyle Dugger for the 7 point strip.

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

Me.

Bengals don't impress me. Patriots defense and plodding offense is going to win this thing.



20 - 16.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

Mine go to the OL. Kept Brissett upright and got themselves a 100+ runner in Stevenson.

 

[cshea]

Mayo- Happy for him

Stevenson

 

[scottyno]

Offensive line for great run blocking

Brissett for making great plays to bail out the terrible pass blocking, only sack was on that 3rd down near the end of the half where he wanted to keep the clock moving

Dugger for back to back touchdown saving plays

Rham for massive running all game

White for dominating the LOS all game

 

[Ale Xander]

Mayo

Also me for not posting and jinxing it

 

[Bowhemian]

Rham, OLine, Mayo

 

[Devizier]

Well, that was surprising:

Rham
Keon White
Dugger

 

[reej]

RHAMONDRE

caps intended

 

[Eddie Jurak]

Honorable mentions:

• The OL, which did a decent job. Okorafor seemed to get benched after 13 plays, replaced by Lowe.
• Special teams generally. Schooler had some great coverage of punts, Slye hit 3 FGs, forced and recovered the fumble. Only blip I saw was that it looked like punt team was in slow motion for Baringer's first punt and it could have been blocked.
• The remaining Joneses (Jon and Marcus) had some key hits.
• Dugger (forced fumble recovered by Marcus Jones).
• Austin Hooper had a couple of big catches, one of which was a tough one.

On the dowsnide, I didn't see anything from Gibson that impressed me and I was surprised at how uninvolved Pop Douglas was.

 

[Rico Guapo]

Coaching Staff
Rhamondre Stevenson
Keon White

edit: HM to the OL.

 

[P'tucket rhymes with...]

1. Keion White. 2.5 sacks, a firced fumble, and disruptive on other plays. With Judon traded and Barmore injured, he is arguably the big play guy on the team and he delivered.

2. Rhamondre Stevenson. 25 for 120 yards, the lone TD, and gained the first downs on the final drive to put the game away.

3. Jacoby Brissett. All he did was be a game manager, but last year we didn't even have that. Made some good decisions to run the ball (picking up 34 important yards on the ground). Got lucky on the one boneheaded throw he made.

Second all of these. Keion White is my new Patronus.

 

[Ed Hillel]

This was basically the Patriots of the past few years, but without Mac Jones fucking it all up. Game ball to Not Mac Jones.

Not Mac Jones made all the dumb penalties go away, too.

 

[FL4WL3SS]

Rham was absolutely MVP with defense (White) and coaching staff coming in honorable mention.

They will need a spark on offense in the coming weeks, they can't ride Rham to wins like this. Hopefully this gets they OL going (surprisingly average today).

Maybe they stabilize the offense for a few weeks and then Maye can provide the spark around week 4.

 

[NortheasternPJ]

This was basically the Patriots of the past few years, but without Mac Jones fucking it all up. Game ball to Not Mac Jones.

Not Mac Jones made all the dumb penalties go away, too.

It’s amazing what happens when you don’t have a back breaking horrible play at the worst possible time every game.

 

[FL4WL3SS]

It’s amazing what happens when you don’t have a back breaking horrible play at the worst possible time every game.

It's such a knock on effect, the entire offense played with confidence today, there was no quit. We saw many games last year where players were quitting on plays and series because they were discouraged.

Hopefully they can build on this.

 

[DJnVa]

Honorable mentions:

• The OL, which did a decent job. Okorafor seemed to get benched after 13 plays, replaced by Lowe.
• Special teams generally. Schooler had some great coverage of punts, Slye hit 3 FGs, forced and recovered the fumble. Only blip I saw was that it looked like punt team was in slow motion for Baringer's first punt and it could have been blocked.
• The remaining Joneses (Jon and Marcus) had some key hits.
• Dugger (forced fumble recovered by Marcus Jones).
• Austin Hooper had a couple of big catches, one of which was a tough one.

On the dowsnide, I didn't see anything from Gibson that impressed me and I was surprised at how uninvolved Pop Douglas was.

He had 3 targets, only Hooper and Osbourn had more. I’d imagine the game script kept that low.

He had as many targets as MHJ. Yikes.

 

[Salva135]

It’s amazing what happens when you don’t have a back breaking horrible play at the worst possible time every game.

I can't tell if these are truly anti-Mac posts or coded "we could have done this with BB" sentiment.

 

[CoffeeNerdness]

BB probably would have re-signed Elliot and kept giving him entire series.

 

[BusRaker]

Lack of a goat is my game ball. Sound football with no turnovers. And Rham was awesome and avp getting him one on one's with the bengals D was a recipe for success. I'm going to say at least 4 times their entire D line was on one side of the field and rham was isolated on the other with the pigskin.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

This was basically the Patriots of the past few years, but without Mac Jones fucking it all up. Game ball to Not Mac Jones.

Not Mac Jones made all the dumb penalties go away, too.

Truth. Mac Jones at times struggled to get the team set and run the play, leading to penalties.

 

[ifmanis5]

No Mac. Seriously, fuck that guy into the sun.

 

[Silverdude2167]

I can't tell if these are truly anti-Mac posts or coded "we could have done this with BB" sentiment.

I mean yes...run the ball, don't turn it over and and play good defense...not exactly something we haven't seen many times before.

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

It’s amazing what happens when you don’t have a back breaking horrible play at the worst possible time every game.

Last I said that with any other QB besides Mac Jones they're a 9-8 playoff team.

Nothing I saw today changed my mind on that. Brissett is league average at best, but when you get average QB play instead of the worst QB of all time, you can win games like today's.

 

[SeoulSoxFan]

To Zack Taylor. The Bengals are 1-10 through the first 2 weeks of the season in the Taylor era.

 

[gammoseditor]

Joe Cardona for forcing the fumble.

Christian Gonzalez for keeping Chase quiet.

 

[Gash Prex]

1) Mayo - prepared team and professional operations in all three phases

2) Rham - Huge plays all game. Ran through contact and made open field plays.

3) White - 2.5 sacks - big impact all game and answered some questions about replacing Judon.

HM: Brisset and Dugger

 

[Kliq]

Hard not to give credit to Joey Slye, after the disaster of the kicking game last year.

 

[greek_gawd_of_walks]

Let's keep it simple:

Keion
Rham
Brissett ( doing what every NE QB couldn't do the last few years-- turn the ball over, although he did his darndest on that end zone toss)
Special teams (schooler, cardona and slye)
Peppers

 

[Salva135]

1) Mayo - prepared team and professional operations in all three phases

2) Rham - Huge plays all game. Ran through contact and made open field plays.

3) White - 2.5 sacks - big impact all game and answered some questions about replacing Judon.

HM: Brisset and Dugger

These are my choices. Regardless of what Mac may or may not have done today, this team didn't make stupid mistakes and played consistently for 4 quarters on the road against a consensus top AFC team.

 

[Salva135]

I mean yes...run the ball, don't turn it over and and play good defense...not exactly something we haven't seen many times before.

There's only one layer of the multiverse where all of these coaches and players converge to create this outcome, so I'm not going to worry about this nonsense of using "Mac/No Mac" as a control variable.

 

[mikeford]

Not Mac Jones
Dugger
RhaMANdre

God it's nice to not actively hate the team because the QB is such a dipshit loser with a shit attitude.

 

[brendan f]

Dugger. That puch out at the goal line was the defining play of the game.

 

[richgedman'sghost]

BB probably would have re-signed Elliot and kept giving him entire series.

Elliott was decent last year but wasn't noticeable because of the suck around him. He actually has scored a td in his return to Dallas already.
My three stars are Jacoby, Duggar, and the OL. It"s amazing what a team can accomplish with competent not great but competent QB play.
,

 

[Reverend]

Drake Maye.

Great studying the game from the sideline, like a pro.

 

[Harry Hooper]

Pleasantly hard to narrow this down given the broad range of contributors today:

1) Coaching staff for good prep and lack of chaos
2) Much-maligned offensive line
3) Defense in toto

HM: Brissett, Rhamondre, Dugger, TEs, special teams, White, and more

 

[Pandemonium67]

Dugger and Jonathan Jones for big D plays. Gonzo for keeping Chase in check.

 

[Was (Not Wasdin)]

I didn’t have “dominant special teams” on my bingo card, so special teams.

 

[tims4wins]

Game ball for the most misleading stat of week 1: both teams ran for 4.4 per carry.

One team could run it, and the other team couldn't.

 

[Ed Hillel]

Dugger and Jonathan Jones for big D plays. Gonzo for keeping Chase in check.

I'd love to see the stats on this, because even when they threw to Chase, it seemed most of the time Gonzalez was somewhere else on the field. I don't think they threw his way much at all.

 

[mulluysavage]

Thornton - on pace for 34 receptions!!!

 

[Garshaparra]

Dugger. That puch out at the goal line was the defining play of the game.

<MichaelCole>SUPERMAN PUNCH!</MichaelCole>

Most teams will not poop all over themselves as the Bengals did today. But very happy to take a hard-nosed, smart win on the road. Many off-season choices contributed big:

- Rham gets re-signed, and comes through with good runs more often than not, including those huge 4Q 1st down runs to cinch it.
- Dugger gets re-signed, stops 2 TDs in coverage, and clobbers several guys across the middle.
- Slye beats out Ryland, and comes through with 10 points. And the new kickoff rule proves entirely inconsequential, as he just puts em in the endzone and the Bengals start at the 30 repeatedly.
- White steps into the huge shoes of both Barmore and Judon, and delivers dominance.
- Brissett made very few mistakes, just the one endzone corner route that Henry broke up. He kept drives alive with his feet and arm, and took tough hits and kept on playing.
- Hooper comes through both as a blocker and receiver, including a diving stab for a 1st at a key time.
- And of course, Coach Mayo bringing a prepared, unafraid team to Cincinnati.

 

[Salva135]

It's definitely the smartest football I've seen in years. It looked like the team had a game plan on both sides of the ball. You can blame Mac all you want but the last few years this team looked unprofessional in all three phases, and you couldn't identify that as a BB team in any way.

I don't know if the Bengals really are just that slow to start, but coming into foreign territory, playing smart and efficient football, and shutting down one of the top QBs in the league and his favorite elite WR was a hallmark of the Patriot glory years.

 

[cornwalls@6]

It's definitely the smartest football I've seen in years. It looked like the team had a game plan on both sides of the ball. You can blame Mac all you want but the last few years this team looked unprofessional in all three phases, and you couldn't identify that as a BB team in any way.

I don't know if the Bengals really are just that slow to start, but coming into foreign territory, playing smart and efficient football, and shutting down one of the top QBs in the league and his favorite elite WR was a hallmark of the Patriot glory years.

So looking forward to another year of your exhaustingly bad takes. It’s almost as though defense stopped being one of the three phases for “years”.

 

[Reverend]

Pleasantly hard to narrow this down given the broad range of contributors today:

1) Coaching staff for good prep and lack of chaos
2) Much-maligned offensive line
3) Defense in toto

HM: Brissett, Rhamondre, Dugger, TEs, special teams, White, and more

That’s like over 20 game balls.

 

[DJnVa]

I'd love to see the stats on this, because even when they threw to Chase, it seemed most of the time Gonzalez was somewhere else on the field. I don't think they threw his way much at all.

It seemed like all of his catches were like 6 yard shallow crosses. He had 6 for 62, but 28 was on one play, so 5 for 34? I'll take that all day.

 

[Justthetippett]

It's such a knock on effect, the entire offense played with confidence today, there was no quit. We saw many games last year where players were quitting on plays and series because they were discouraged.

Hopefully they can build on this.

I do think there's a major psychological effect when your QB is both physically and mentally overmatched. Both Mac and Zappe fit this bill. Jacoby is who he is, but at least he makes NFL throws and decisions.

Rham
Jacoby
Duggar
White
Mayo

 

[8slim]

White
Dugger
Stevenson

HM:
Slye
Mayo

Defense won this game (duh). And hat tip to the O who scored on 4 of 10 drives, double the rate of their 2023 output.

Happy for Mayo and the staff. He earned his Gatorade bath. The next 7 games are daunting so glad he got his first dub on the board.