I'm not sure their fans are football savvy enough to notice...Most of them probably don't even realize the Bengals are playing well. They don't pay attention until someone reports the Bengals are in the playoffs. Next time someone wearing Bengals gear yells: Who Dey??!! Simply reply, it's your local football team stupid..Because, they really don't know...
Baker's completion % is unexpectedly low, but lets remember, he doesn't just dink and dunk, and he has only one proven reciever. Njoku is a weapon "if" he catches the ball, Callaway is a threat, if he runs the right route and catches the ball. Jarvis is for real, and so is / was Higgins. Plenty of room for improvement, and it is surely coming, as far as Baker is concerned, but he reciever group is questionable. Still agree with lym, since we can't seem to find any plays for Duke out of the backfield, why not take advantage of his skills as a reciever?
I'm not sure if they are gonna sign anybody, but I was impressed with Willies and Ratley in the pre-season...of course, that was against guys that probably aren't in the league, but they are big athletic targets for Baker, and that might be all he needs...
Willies is definitely the "next man up". What I am more concerned about is Callaway stepping up. HE needs to become a target for Baker, if he can catch fire, then everyone else will have an easier time getting open. We all know, if a receiver is open, Baker will find them...THEN CATCH THE DAMN BALL. The biggest worry I have with Willies is how he carries the ball. His first reception, it was actually stripped, but luckily they were right by the sidelines and it went directly out of bounds. In that last catch that drew them close to field goal range, he wasn't tucking the ball, he was holding it away from his body. That's all we would have needed is for him to take the ball down to the 30 yard line, only to get it stripped and turn it over. He needs to protect that damn ball!!
^^^^^ He's also thrown for 838 yards in those 2.5 games. At that pace, he'd finish the season with 4,525 yards. Only three rookies (Newton, Luck, Winston) have thrown for over 4,000 yards. They all needed 16 games to do it. Luck has the most (4,374). All were No. 1 overall picks. Mayfield would beat Luck by 151 yards and do so in only 13.5 games. For a full 16 game pace, you're looking at 5,363 yards. He's basically Drew Brees, but 16 years younger.
