Bratkowski Blames the World

I am sure every one of us has blamed someone else for something that we have done in our lives.  When we were little kids, I am sure you have blamed a brother or sister for breaking a lamp.  Hell...I am an only child and I found ways to blame someone else when I broke things.  But for most, and I emphasize MOST people, this is only a phase.  It is our adolescence phase when we do not exactly understand right from wrong and we are not forced to take responsibility for ourselves or our actions.  Again, for MOST of us...this phase lasts until we are about 10 years old.

Our fearless offensive coordinator Bob "Not My Fault" Bratkowski never seemed to grow out of this phase.  Still, to this day, he blames everyone else for the things that he is directly responsible for.  As an offensive coordinator, he is in charge of the offense.  That means the offensive line, the QBs, the RBs, and the WRs.  All of them suck for the 2008-9 Cincinnati Bengals...but when was the last time you heard Brat say..."we suck" or "we are not a good offensive team" or even "I need to figure out a way to win".  YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL COACH...IT IS YOUR JOB. 

This is the best that I have seen from him, "We're analyzing everything we've done to this point," he said. "Try to fix things that need to be fixed and make sure we're doing more of the things we're doing well." That was from today's Bengals.com article.  I would expect a comment like this from a team that has dropped one or two games, or a team that is just not executing.  Not a team that is 0-6 and doesn't have their first victory in sight.  If it were me, I would say something along these lines.  "There is no part of our game that is close to where we want it to be.  We need to shake things up.  What we have on the field right now is not working."

Now, I have never coached a professional sport.  I have never even stepped on a field as a professional athlete, but I understand how important a coach is to the team.  The coach is responsible for not only fielding the best players each and every game, but coming up with a strategy to use all of the individual talent and create a "team".  Team is the key word here.  In sports, especially football, one man will not win you a game.  It takes multiple players on both sides of the field and the coaches on the sidelines.

Can you think of any other coach who would refuse to change their playbook after losing their first 6 games?  If run-run-pass doesn't work...why not try run-pass-pass or pass-pass-pass...or take a knee 3 times and punt...I don't know.  Maybe the only way to score this year is to have your defense on the field and hope for a pick six.  I can guarantee the other team would not be expecting that.  Now I know it is not that simple, but why not evaluate what you have and come up with an unorthodox strategy?  Run some trick plays...every other team seems to do it and it works great for them.  It is extremely painful to be able to watch a game and predict, from a bar in Washington DC, what play is about to happen.  It is not like we are a junior varsity team (although sometimes it looks that way).  We have NFL caliber players.  We have pro-bowlers on the team.  But the coach needs to be the one who finds a way to morph that talent into a "W".

Motivation is also something a coach NEEDS to do.  He needs to find a way to motivate each player as well as the team.  Sometimes benching a player is the best motivational tool.  Just because someone is making a bagillion dollars doesn't mean he needs to be on the field.  Sometimes, it just means he shouldn't be making a bagillion dollars.  Sit him out for a down, a series, a game...whatever it takes for them to realize what needs to be done to help the team.  Maybe, once they realize that they are two steps away from never seeing the field again, they will get their sh*t together.  Maybe, you put in one of the younger players and he turns out to be a stud.  The only thing unacceptable to do is...NOTHING.

Viva la Revolucion

Here are some great Brat quotes from today's Bengals.com article. 
"In the effort to run the ball we have left ourselves with more third-and-longs and not converted them"...yeah, the reason we have a lot of third-and-longs is the horrible play calling.  Everyone knows You're going to run the ball up the middle two times and than try and pass.  It is like Brat is just calling plays from the shower..."the bottle of Pert Plus says rinse and repeat...lets try that".

With the club mired next-to-last in NFL offense and rushing, there is a school of thought that says what the Bengals haven't done well is establish themselves as a physical, ball-control running team and that they should go back to their identity as a big-play passing team. "No, because if you can run the ball, you're going to see more eight-man spacing," Lewis said. "So that's going to give you a chance for those deep shots you're talking about. So that (theory) would probably not be a true look at it."- The only problem here is that we cannot run the ball.  The "theory" is great...but the reality is flawed.

"I don't think we'll ever get to the point where we won't run it," he said. "But it's become more of a point what do we run and what down and distances do we run."- See above comment

"In the effort to run the ball we have left ourselves with more third-and-longs and not converted them," Bratkowski said. "Which then becomes a cycle of first down, second down, third down, throw it. Back on the field, first down, second down, third down, throw it. So you're not generating enough first downs through the course of the game to get as many runs and passes called as you like."- This just gives me a headache...no scratch that...just became a migraine.

Comments

[Lenin them score]

WDR, Please do something with this piece of garbage that fell from Brown's mouth:

"My father believed in the football program being on the cutting edge." -Mike Brown in reference to Massilon football, not the Bengals that he owns and operates.