Category: Cincinnati Bengals

Franchise QBs on their way out? The quarterback carousel begins early.

Lisa Johnson
AFC South AFC East Reporter

By Lisa Johnson // @LJ1303 

We are at the mid-season mark and already we have teams talking about moving on from their supposed franchise quarterbacks.

Let’s take a look at who may be leaving their quarterbacks behind.

Carolina Panthers placed Cam Newton on season-ending injured reserve this week, leaving many to question if we will ever see Newton in a Panthers uniform again., especially since they have quarterback Kyle Allen, an undrafted free agent who has played well for Carolina in relief of Newton. He has completed 60.7 % of his passes for 1,291 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions in six games.

The Panthers have gone 5-1 in the games in which Allen has started.

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Midterm Review: the 2019 NFL’s eight “Rookie” head coaches

Kate Arhar
Senior Sports Editor AFC North and NFC South

By Kate Arhar // @ClvlndK8 

It’s hard to believe we are at the mid-point of the NFL season. As such, there were eight teams starting the year with brand new head coaches. Six of them are in their first head coaching position, while two have held the job before.

In the competition to see who made the best hiring decision, the clear – and only – winner at this point is the Green Bay Packers. Matt LeFleur has this team leading their division at 7-1. Now, perhaps it’s the Aaron Duo – quarterback Aaron Rodgers and running back Aaron Jones – who deserve some credit, but there are other teams in this group with talented players who are not even close to being .500. That means I’m giving the Packers an A on the hire. Trust me – other coaches might have found a way to screw up this team so I’ll give credit to LeFleur because he hasn’t.

Let’s take a look at the other seven teams to see how they are faring…

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The battle for the AFC North continues into week 6

Kate Arhar
Senior Sports Editor AFC North and NFC South

By Kate Arhar // @ClvlndK8

Week 5 didn’t do anything to clear up the picture in the AFC North. In fact, the waters got even more muddy.

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost a close division matchup to the Baltimore Ravens. The Cincinnati Bengals lost a tight one to the Atlanta Falcons. And the Cleveland Browns got ripped apart in front of the entire football nation on Monday night by the San Francisco 49ers.

The Ravens may be at the top of the division with a 3-2 record, but they are a long way from claiming dominance.

Let’s take a look back at the action, and a look forward to this week’s games.

Continue reading “The battle for the AFC North continues into week 6” →

AFC North: First Quarter Review

Kate Arhar
Senior Sports Editor AFC North and NFC South

By Kate Arhar // @ClvlndK8 

Week 4 was all about AFC North division matchups.

Between the hard-fought ground battle in Baltimore between the Ravens (2-2) and the Cleveland Browns (2-2), to the Monday Night Football showcase of two winless teams, Pittsburgh Steelers (1-3) vs Cincinnati Bengals (0-4), the AFC North is a division undergoing a huge transformation.

How did this week’s games impact the division standings – and what do the upcoming weeks have in store for these hard grinding teams?

Let’s take a look at the first quarter of the 2019 season for this division…

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AFC North Week 4 Preview

 

Kate Arhar
Senior Sports Editor AFC North and NFC South

By Kate Arhar // @ClvlndK8 

Divisional Match-ups are finally here in the AFC North and there are two great ones this weekend.

Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens (2-1) host the Cleveland Browns (1-2).  Then on Monday Night Football, the Pittsburgh Steelers (0-3) host the Cincinnati Bengals (0-3)

During the off-season, it appeared that there would be a battle going on in this division. However, a season-ending injury to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has left the team floundering. And first-year head coach Freddie Kitchens is struggling with discipline and penalty issues for the Browns.

Will this week’s match-ups ultimately decide the division?

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AFC NORTH – Week 1 Review

Kate Arhar
Senior Sports Editor AFC North and NFC South

By Kate Arhar // @ClvlndK8 

The Baltimore Ravens sit alone atop the AFC North after one week due to surprising losses by the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Cincinnati Bengals loss to the Seattle Seahawks was only surprising in that the game was so very much closer than anyone predicted.

The Ravens looked amazing, but is that because the Miami Dolphins are worse than advertised? And after all the pre-season hype, are the Browns really this bad?

No one was surprised to see the New England Patriots man-handle the Steelers, yet the complete beat-down was unexpected. And quarterback Andy Dalton put up better numbers than Russell Wilson!!!! How did that happen?

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News from the AFC North

 

Kate Arhar
Senior Sports Editor AFC North and NFC South

By Kate Arhar // @ClvlndK8 

Week two of the NFL Preseason has gone and plenty of questions have been left unanswered for the teams in the AFC North.

All four teams (Ravens, Bengals, Browns and Steelers) seem to have locked on to their starting quarterback. It’s going to be the position battles that most intrigue fans during training camp and the preseason. At last wide receiver Antonio Brown and his helmet issues are no longer a problem in this division! Good luck with that, Oakland!

But there were two really heartbreaking losses this week in the death’s of former Bengals running back Cedric Benson and Steelers wide receivers coach Darryl Drake.

Let’s see what’s been going on in the North….

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AFC North: preseason week one

 

Kate Arhar
Senior Sports Editor AFC North & NFC South

By Kate Arhar // @ClvlndK8  

It’s hard to believe Week 1 of the NFL Preseason is already in the books.

This season, I’ll be covering the AFC North:  Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers.

For the past few years, this division has easily been dominated by the Steelers and Ravens. This season may bring quite a few surprises!

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Checking in on the Cincinnati Bengals

Sonja Greenfield, Senior NFL Reporter

By Sonja Greenfield //@Mom23RN

We don’t talk nearly enough about the Bengals here at OurTurf, so I figured I’d reach out to the experts.  In my search, I came across Ace Boogie on Twitter.   He’s a Bengals analyst and host of New Stripe City on YouTube.  The perfect person to talk to!  I asked him 5 questions to get the lowdown on Bengals Nation.

 

 

Bengals Analyst and host of New Stripe City on YouTube AceBoogie (@NewStripeCity)

Me:  How did the Bengals do in the draft?

Ace:  I think the sense around the NFL is that the Bengals did great. I’d have to agree with this because they really attacked fixing one of their biggest weaknesses by drafting [tackle] Jonah Williams.  [Tight end] Drew Sample was a bit of a head scratcher, but overall I think they did great. They were able to fill needs, add depth, and add character. One thing that changed was that they didn’t target any players with off-field issues and went after team captains.

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AFC North: Which team did the best in the draft?

Kate Arhar
Senior Sports Editor

By Kate Arhar // @ClvlndK8

The 2019 NFL Draft has come and gone.

Since the Cleveland Browns are “my” team, I thought I’d try to take an objective look at the AFC North division overall and see who did the most to improve their roster. I said I’d TRY to be objective, but no promises…

When it comes to numbers, the division kind of stair-stepped up: Cleveland had 7, Baltimore had 8, Pittsburgh had 9 and Cincinnati chose a whopping 10 players.

As to positions, Defense has 17, Offense had 16 and there was one kicker taken. Yes, you read that right… my Browns took a kicker in the 5th round… we’ll talk more about that later…

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