Cincinnati's O-Line

[DocSlinky]

I've seen several posts on here that have linked Carson Palmer's & CJ's struggles and the Bengals' struggles in general to injuries on the O-line (their center especially). I had hoped that the bye week would have them coming out healthy, but their struggles obviously continue. Any Bengals' fans out there know when (or if) Cincy's line should be back at full strength?

[Retet]

I don't know about the O-line, but I am starting to think that CJ's struggles are due to the fact that he's the second best WR on his team.

[jayday]

Losing Braham was/is devastating....He is the QB of the O-line....Whenever Carson is up there audibling to one of hundreds of plays, Richie has to audible the protection/blocking scheme to go with it....Levi Jones has been battling a knee injury for most of the year....and Steinbach, Whitworth, and Ghiaciuc have been shuffled like a deck of cards for the past few weeks....It's just hard to get that continuity going when people are missing time....They look like an 8-8 team at this point unless the O-line gets healthy....



[rant]However, I think the bigger problem in Cincy is offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski....He came here in 2001 and is a leftover from the pre-Marvin era and I've never been a fan of his....He had one good year (last year), and saves his job....He is just a terrible gameday play-caller....He sat on the ball yesterday and played to not lose instead of trying to go win the game....

There's only so many times a shovel pass on 3rd & 8 is gonna work....He needs to grow some cojones and chuck the ball deep to set up the run game.....He has also apparently forgot how play-action works as it has been virtually non-existant this year....[/rant]

[Flux]

Levi Jones also left yesterdays game early with another knee injury. If he is out for any extended period of time, it is very bad news for the bengals.

The offense has just been bad. The oline is partly to blame but as jayday mentioned, the playcalling has been horrible. I also get the feeling that CJ just doesnt seem to care much at this point. He doesnt have the same spark or intensity that he did last year.

Carson is also having some game-management issues. Several times this year he has audibled, then gotten us a delay of game.