http://forum.go-bengals.com/index.php?/topic/78152-rams-bengals-capsule/
Rams-Bengals Capsule
ST. LOUIS (4-6) at CINCINNATI (8-2)
Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, Fox
OPENING LINE -
Bengals by 7
RECORD VS. SPREAD - Rams 4-6, Bengals 8-1-1
SERIES RECORD - Bengals lead 7-5
LAST MEETING - Bengals beat Rams 20-13, Dec. 18, 2011
LAST WEEK - Rams lost to
Ravens 16-13, Bengals lost to Cardinals 34-31
AP PRO32 RANKING - Rams No. 22 (tie), Bengals No. 4
RAMS OFFENSE - OVERALL (31), RUSH (7), PASS (32).
RAMS DEFENSE - OVERALL (12), RUSH (16), PASS (9).
BENGALS OFFENSE - OVERALL (7), RUSH (12), PASS (9).
BENGALS DEFENSE - OVERALL (16), RUSH (13), PASS (15).
STREAKS, STATS AND NOTES - Rams making only second visit to Paul Brown Stadium, where they lost 19-10 in 2007. ... Rams have dropped last three games. Fumble set up
Justin Tucker's last-second field goal in Baltimore last week. ... Game matches two of NFL's top defensive tackles. Rams'
Aaron Donald and Bengals'
Geno Atkins have seven sacks each, tied for league lead by interior linemen. ...
Rams rookie RB
Todd Gurley has rushed for 766 yards and six TDs in past seven games. He's scored TD in each of last five games. He leads NFL with four runs of at least 45 yards. ... Rams are second in NFC with 30 sacks, led by Donald (7) and DE
Robert Quinn (5). ... Bengals have dropped last two games that came down to closing minutes. Cincinnati hasn't dropped three straight games since 2012. ... Bengals QB
Andy Dalton needs 262 yards passing to join
Peyton Manning as only players in NFL history to throw for 3,000 yards in each of first five seasons. ...
RB
Jeremy Hill needs two TDs to become first player in Bengals history with at least 10 TDs in each of first two seasons. ... TE
Tyler Eifert leads NFL with 11 TD catches, most ever by Bengals tight end. ... Fantasy Tip:
Giovani Bernard set club record with 128 yards on eight catches in Arizona, most yards receiving by Cincinnati running back. He also rushed for 18 yards and leads team in yards from scrimmage (891).
http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/rams-bengals-capsule-112515
----------
Rams good run/good defense team. Last passing.
How do we counter?
--------
http://bengalsjungle.com/forum/showthread.php?5445-L-A-er-St-Louis-Rams-Cincinnati
L.A....er, St. Louis Rams @ Cincinnati
How bad is the Rams' Offense?
They are hoping Case Keenum can get through his concussion so he can start?
--------
Rams.....6
bengals...16
-------
Rams' players and staff will struggle focusing this week as one of their players, Stedman Bailey, lies in stable, but critical, condition, following an incident that occurred this evening.
--------
Bengals 34
Rams 0
--------
Forecast for wet conditions and raw temps Sunday.
Run...the...ball.
--------
The Bengals need to win these next two games to get their swagger back before that tough 3-game stretch with the Steelers and consecutive primetime games out west on the road. Bengals 24, Rams 13.
--------
http://www.cincyjungle.com/2015/11/...-line-tough-test-struggling-bengals-offensive
Rams defensive line will be tough test for struggling Bengals offensive line
By
Jason Marcum
@marcum89
Whitney Curtis/Getty Images
The Bengals' struggling offensive line won't get any relief this week when they face a Rams team that features one of the best defensive lines in the NFL.
Coming into this season, the
Bengals were believed to have one of the NFL's best offensive lines, as they represented an elite line the last two seasons.
While the offensive line started off the season strong, it's been been anything but during the past six games, as the line has allowed
Andy Dalton to be sacked 17 times and pressured on countless other occasions. This, after the line allowed just two sacks in the first four games and 21 in all of 2014. At this rate, the Bengals will allow 30 sacks this season, the second most they've allowed since Dalton became the starting quarterback in 2011.
The
Rams have 30 sacks this season and the Bengals' struggling offensive line will face them this week. The Rams have the
fifth most sacks of any team this season after notching 40 in 2014 (
13th most), 53 in 2013 (
third most), and 52 in 2012 (
tied for first). Simply put, the Rams have annually been one of the league's best defenses in terms of sacks under head coach Jeff Fisher.
But the man really responsible for the Ram's defensive dominance this season is the defensive tackle who many compared to the Bengals' own
Geno Atkins going into the
2014 NFL Draft. That man is
Aaron Donald, who quietly has become not only one of the best defensive linemen in the game, but is also a Defensive Player of the Year candidate this season.
Donald is up to seven sacks this season after getting nine in 2014 and is coming off a big game against the
Ravens, for which
Pro Football Focusgraded him the best interior defensive lineman of the week. Donald accounted for 10 tackles and a sack as he was destroying the Ravens' game plan. He's frequently in opponent's backfields and disrupts a game as much as any one defender in the league.
However, there's more to the Rams line than Donald. Robert Quinn is one of the game's best pass-rushers off the edge when he's healthy. In eight games this season, Quinn has notched five sacks after notching 40 from 2012-14. He also has 15 forced fumbles over his last 40 games, including three this season.
But injuries to Quinn's hip and back kept him out of the Week 11 loss in Baltimore and the Week 9 loss at Minnesota. He was originally listed as questionable going into Sunday, so there should be a good chance he plays this week. In addition to rushing from the left side opposite
Andrew Whitworth, Quinn will occasionally line up over the guard and rush toward
Clint Boling this week. Boling played well to start this season, but he has been struggling in recent weeks.
Fellow defensive end
Chris Long is no slouch either. He has 53.5 career sacks, 33 of which came from 2011-13. He has just three in 12 games over the past two seasons. Injuries have plagued Long as of late, and a knee injury cost him four games before he returned this past week. He still has enough left in the tank to take advantage of a struggling
Andre Smith at right tackle and get some pressure on Dalton.
What makes the Rams even harder to defend is they often blitz one or multiple defensive backs on obvious passing downs. Defensive backs
Mark Barron,
Lamarcus Joyner,
Maurice Alexander, and
T.J. McDonald all have at least one sack this season. Still, it's the defensive lineman who've accounted for 22 of the team's 30 sacks this season.
As much as the Bengals offensive line has struggled as of late, they're about to get maybe their biggest test of the season if the Rams' defensive line is at full strength.
--------
Scary good D-line
I have to wonder how much of our pass protection struggles, and even run blocking, is a result of no decent blocking TE’s on our roster anymore. It’s no secret Eifert is more like Graham than Gronk, and Kroft is still very raw. In years past we have had Gresham (not the best but better than anything we have now) and others like Smith or Brock who were almost exclusively blocking TE’s. We are putting far more responsibility on just our 5 O-lineman and Gio to block the pass rushers. Just my take on it.
-------
Eifert is a MUCH better blocker than Graham.
Also, I’ve been happier with Eifert’s run-blocking than I was with Gresham’s. Pass-blocking, though, was almost always a strength of Gresham’s.
I’d put our pass-protection struggles (mainly) on the declined play of Smith and the usual, poor play from Bodine.
--------
Scary D line, less than scary D
Don’t be surprised if the Bengals shred this team over the middle and with screens.
And don’t even start with the excuse of an offense they have.
--------
Donald is unbelievably good
I wanted him so bad in the draft, no chance he fell to us but THIS is one of the few players we should have traded up for. He is going to be all over Bodine I’m sure.
--------
ironically
Somehow I feel that if Geno weren’t Geno, Donald might have fallen near our spot. I think Geno made people realize that a small’ish guy could wreak havoc at DT.
-------
If
Moobs doesn’t step up his game as well as Bodine we could be seeing a turn for the worse here.
--------
You say their D line is so good,…so why are they 4-6 ? OTOH, It’s becoming apparent why the Bengals drafted OTs @ no. #1 and 2.
IMO, Whits OK, but Andre Shith hasn’t proved worthy of the no # 1 pick he was. My guess is he’ll definitely be gone in 2016, and Welcome new OTs, Ogbuehi and Dave Fisher.
As mentioned earlier, I fear Andy can be beaten by pressure when he overthrows with un-catchable balls. The Texans and Rams just showed that, as if we didn’t know before then. After the last 2 games, this one is looking like a " pick ’em " dilemma.
--------
why they're 4-6 is weird
In some games they look amazing, they beat the Seahawks and Cardinals and put up a good fight against the Steelers. In other games, like last week against the Ravens, they look awful. They have some good pieces, but clearly not able to always pull it together.
-------
well....
They almost beat Pitt because Ben got hurt.
It seems to me that if they can run the ball, they will beat you, but if they can’t, things get very bad for them. They have a very bad set of WRs and weak QB play.
Somehow this game reminds me of going to the dentist. It will be unpleasant, but you have to do it and you are glad you did afterwards. (The afterwards will be a win. I hope.)
---------
They're D-line is a lot better with Quinn playing.
And they’ve taken out a lot of opposing QBs/RBs this year.
Not to say they’re (all) dirty plays but just surviving a Fisher/WIlliams defense is a very real concern.
--------
yes
It would really, really help for the defense to show up from play 1. I’d like to get a comfortable lead so we can run the ball/throw short passes to lower the chance of Dalton getting killed. They should increase the number of WR screens, etc, this week, though I do worry that the Rams DBs will jump a lot of short routes.
-------
Their DL really is that good.
Aaron Donald is the only DT in the league who can match Geno, and Rams fans will actually have an argument when they will undoubtedly say they like Donald more. Those two are 1a and 1b (in either order you want) and no one else is even close.
--------
Over Aggressive On Defense
Get them to chase and we’ll be fine, Screens and Draws & establishing a running game will more them to to play run and reaction rather than attack the ball
-------
This game worries me
cuz of that D-line. If Gio can break away a few good runs and Dalton can make sharp, quick throws for 5-10 yard chunks at a time, that will throw them off. Both Houston and Arizona got to Dalton and you saw what happened.
--------
With the current state of the Bengals offensive line,
no one should feel overly confident versus any team in NFL right now.
Especially the rams who sport one of the best dlines in the league. Aaron Donald is gonna expose are biggest weak link on the OL, that being Bodine, and Dalton is gonna be having to get rid of the ball quicker than usual or take huge hits like last week and somehow not get injured when 300lb men fall on you play after play.
--------
This.
I don’t think there’s a bigger issue with the team right now than the offensive line. We could’ve survived the injuries to the secondary Sunday night had the o-line held up a little better.
I’m nervous about this game and only because of the offensive line.
I remember hearing that during the Pats game, they’ve tried how many different combos of starting offensive lineman. Well, I liked Brady’s protection better, so maybe sticking with the same lineup that’s failing so many games in a row is actually worse than trying so many combinations?
---------
Fisher got to that SB early in his career - and got credit for the team not imploding after ditching Houston for Nashville
But since them – not really that much 23-30 w/Rams -
Hasn’t been to playoffs since 2008 – and has the reputation of "playing to the echo of the whistle" – when that era is passed
DLine is scary but Aaron Donald does not play QB – can’t see the Rams scoring more than 20 – only averaging 17.9
The OL needs to rally – not sure if they are worn out or were just a little overrated at beginning of season – probably a little of both
----------
aaron donald
the player everyone and their mother wants.