Cincinnati Bengals
Sunday 1:00 Paul Brown Stadium Cincinnati, OH
NEEDS TO STEP UP:
WR Nelson Agholor. Over the long run, poor WR play will only stunt the growth of QB Carson Wentz. So this game will be a direct indicator of whether or not Agholor has the resiliency to be relied upon in the future. With WR Jordan Matthews (if he plays), still at less than 100%, Agholor will not only be given the opportunity to step up, but he’ll be relied upon to do so. If he comes back playing the way he did before he was benched, it will almost certainly mean we are drafting a WR early in the next Draft. This game will either be the straw that break Agholor’s career, or the defibrillator that brings him back.
WE MUST CONTAIN:
DE Carlos Dunlap. If I were building a defense and I could pick any NFL players to be on it, the second DE I’d take would be Dunlap. (The first would of course be J.J. Watt.) While it doesn’t hurt to have DT Geno Atkins and LB Vontaze Burfict as teammates, Dunlap is still a complete DE who does everything well, plays under control and actually sees what’s happening around him. By no means will he be an easy assignment for RT Allen Barbre to draw.
EAGLES STORY LINE:
We’re in a rut. Plain and simple. No need to sugar-coat it, we’re in a rut. That’s not the worst place to be though. A rut by definition says that there is an upside ALL AROUND us. We have potential. We’ve seen it. There isn’t a lack of talent, merely a poor coordination of it. There isn’t a lack of ability, just a stretch of poor execution. The good news is, every issue we have is correctable if we apply ourselves to actually correcting what’s wrong.
The first thing that needs fixing is attitude. Speaking frankly, I get the feeling that there are some players on this team who are fine with how things are going right now. I also get the feeling that a lot of those players will be let go and allowed to not shine for another team next year.
Something special is being built here. It’s taking time and real growing pains. In the process of fixing what’s broken, we’re learning why things break, why they work, and how to improve them. In the midst of disappointment, we are only disappointed because we see the potential.
BOTTOM LINE:
Time to see if we can bounce back in 2016, or if we have to wait until September.
PREDICTION:
EAGLES 20 – Bengals 17
EAGLEMANIACAL.com 
Thoughts on Doug Pederson after today’s game?
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Doug is a rookie coach, coaching a rookie starting QB, in the toughest division in the Conference right now. Lots of his thinking smacks of Andy Reid, but given that he played under Reid, cut his teeth coaching under Reid, and given that his last coaching job was under Reid, that had to be expected. It’ll be interesting to watch Doug’s evolution, as the division around him shapes him through experiences away from Reid.
I have to say that I find him to be a TECHNICALLY sound coach, but he suffers from that thing that most modern offensive coaches suffer from, namely the desire to show everyone how smart/clever they are. As a result of that, we get cute too much, and it’s bitten us in the ass quite a bit this year.
Overall, I haven’t lost faith in him as a coach. The roster however… I have major misgivings about the psychology of SOME of the players from the last regime, who Doug allowed to remain this year. More house cleaning is needed.
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I think Pederson needs to worry about developing his QB. Because like you say there is some house cleaning left to do. They need to find their core nucleus of players thats going to move them forward. You build around Wentz, Cox, Logan , Jordan Matthews,Beckham, Johnson, Hicks, Graham and Jenkins. Their are some other keepers but Ryan Matthews and Agholor need to go.
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Totally agree with that statement.
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