Overture; Introduction; and Rebirth

This blog exists for two reasons:

1) Geoff Hobson

and

2) Shane Stephenson.

Shane, who will be known here as Jay Gruden's Nightcap, and I were 30 posts into a former Bengals blog, when he decided to outwit Google.  We had agreed to put advertisements on the blog in exchange for a few pennies a month.  However, our income would grow slightly (maybe to a quarter a month) if we had a lot of viewers and those viewers clicked on a lot of advertisements.  Despite signing an agreement with the monolith of Google that we would not click on our own ads, Shane was determined to up our numbers by sneaking into his computer lab and clicking . . . and clicking . . . and clicking on ads.

Shockingly, Google figured out that if every visitor is clicking on dozens of ads each visit, there are probably some shenanigans afoot.  Anyway, Google told us we could no longer run ads, and thus, our income was shut down.

It doesn't make any sense that because a blog we started without any intent to make money suddenly stopped making a couple of pennies per month would kill our momentum - but it did.  We stopped writing, and that was that.  If we had kept it up, we would have Bill Barnwell's current position as clunkiest writing football-expert on Bill Simmons' dynamic Grantland.  Instead we are here.  Stuck re-starting a blog from many years ago - this time without the subterfuge.

The other person responsible for this blog is Geoff Hobson.  Well, not so much Geoff individually, as everything Geoff represents - writers who \ do not understand football, writers who rely on old-time cliches that lack substance or insight, and writers that work directly for the owners of the team they are "covering."  To be fair, Paul Daugherty (one of my all time favorites) and Herm Edwards (who signifies everything wrong with football "talking heads") are just as responsible.

There was a time when sportswriters only needed to "write."  Understanding the game, statistical metrics, or scouting reports were unnecessary because the fanbases had no time or ability to understand the complexities of sports.  However, now, Gruden's Nightcap and I could breakdown and analyze every play on DVR and read 14 different scouting reports on Vontaze Burfict.  Sportswriting and "analyzing" actually require analysis.

So - what then - is this blog?  Well, it's an effort to actually understand the Cincinnati Bengals by writing what we actually see.  By watching these games we can understand what individual players do well and what players do poorly; what plays work well and what plays work poorly; and what Cincinnati does when they play the best.  It reaches further than, "Green-Ellis ran for a hundred yards; he had a great day."  (As both Benson and Larry Johnson showed, you can have very poor performances that garner 100 yards.)

Football is a hellish sport to analyze.  I can watch Elvis Andrus play 4 games for the Rangers, read his stats for the last 3 years (wOBA, B.A. OBP, UZR, SBs, walk rate, k-rate, etc.) and have a really deep and accurate understanding of what type of player he is.

In football the only way to understand players and teams is to watch.  Stats are almost useless.  Yes, in the extremes, the best WRs tend to lead the league in yards, and the best quarterbacks, too  But it's nearly impossible to understand what makes Patrick Willis or Leon Hall really great without actually watching game after game - and thinking about each and every play.

So that's what Shane and I are here for.  We will not write that a player is "tough" or "inexperienced" or "smart;" we will not write that the team just "didn't want it" enough because those are impossible words written by people who don't understand what it is like to play a dangerous sport at a world-class level. (We don't either; but I would assume it takes a certain amount of competitive will and pride that transcendes "quitting on a coach" or "taking plays off.")

We won't assume that because a cornerback got beat on one or two big touchdowns he had a "terrible" day; nor will we discuss how a head coach botched time management or the refs were "really screwing us" because that will be covered ad nauseum by every other jackass with a pulse.  We won't complain that we need to go for it on every fourth down or throw more just because we are not scoring points.

This is a haven from all the sports talk ESPN nonsense that attracts viewers but provides no insight.

More than anything; we need comments.  We are not scouts; and we may be missing something very compelling.  So please, point it out.

And please - Join us at the Sack.

Author:  Corey Dillon's Anger

Drink:  Brux, by Sierra Nevada and Russian River.