The Las Vegas Raiders have one chance to beat the Cincinnati Bengals: Doc's Morning Line

The only advantage Las Vegas will have at PBS Saturday is its potential to smash Joe Burrow. The Bengals win every other comparison. By all rights, the only way the Raiders steal a win is if twin edge terrors Maxx Crosby and Yannick Ngakoue get medieval on Burrow.      

The Bengals coaches have one job. Keep Burrow’s shirt clean. Specifically the back of his shirt. If his nameplate gets torn off this week, The Men will be in trouble.        

The Ringer:

In the teams’ first matchup, Vegas hurried Burrow on 31.4 percent of his dropbacks, which is just below his average for the season. But an average performance from the Raiders pass rush is not going to get it done. Remarkably, Cincy was largely able to protect its quarterback from Maxx Crosby in that first game.

That first game, Riley Reiff was playing right tackle. Quinton Spain was playing right guard. Reiff is out for the year. Spain will attempt to practice on a bum ankle today. No one is saying if he’ll be ready for the game.  

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Crosby was neutralized last time. Ngakoue went off, including a 1st-`quarter sack-fumble the Raiders turned into three points. Crosby and Ngakoue rank 1 and 3 in the league in QB pressures. (The Bengals Trey Hendrickson is 2nd.)

The Ringer: Crosby had three pressures on the day. To put that into context, Crosby pressured Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert eight times on Sunday night … in the fourth quarter alone.

Plus, the Bengals did this while keeping only five in to block on all but seven of Burrow’s dropbacks, per TruMedia. That gave Burrow his full complement of receivers, and with an average time to throw of 2.68 seconds (his fourth-highest mark of the season).

It’s not hard to scheme away from a big pass rush. Quick throws, short dropbacks, old-school draws and screens. Pound the ground game. Wideouts and running backs, chipping pass rushers. But that’s just scribbles on a white board.

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Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Every player you use to block a rusher is one less player running a route. Plus, the Raiders rarely blitz. They rush four. They have a lot of guys in coverage. Burrow could be throwing through the eye of the needle.         

He did it last time. But his line was healthy.  

Now, then. . .

ALL FOUR OF Vegas' wins to get to the postseason were close, by a total of 12 points, and three came via walk-off field goals. They won three games in overtime this season, too. They're a team that knows how to persevere and perform when it's close. (Yahoo)

WRONG SIDE O’ THE BED DAY, aka, bad hair day, aka sloshed coffee outta the mug day.

Most days, how I’m doing emotionally has no bearing on what appears on the page or in the stratosphere. I can be hissed at the world and still write nice. Most days.

Then there are days we emerge from the rack kinda hacked off. You know what I’m talking about. The ‘tude’s in a mood. I feel today the way ‘Bama Fan feels.

Speaking of. . .

I’d like to have something to say about the national title game, but I just couldn’t hang with the FieldGoalFest. At midnight, I didn’t have Georgia on my mind. It wasn’t that I dozed off. That would suggest I intended to stay awake for the entire game. Nope, I pulled up the covers and turned off the TV. I think UGA was ahead, 13-12.

Like some of the rest of you, I just didn’t care enough to stay awake. Please give us something other than SEC reunions in the football Final 4. I’m aware that the league produces players the way Ford cranks out F150s. Don’t hate the SEC for being beautiful. Congrats to this year’s winner of the SEC Bowl. But there’s a reason TV ratings are dropping.

By now, GA-Bama is interesting mainly to gamblers and fans of GA-Bama.  

SO IT FIGURES THAT earlier Monday, the 11-member committee charged with expanding the 4-team playoff to 12 couldn’t agree, again, on who’d belong in the bracket. AP:

A proposal for a 12-team playoff has been on the table since June. That proposal calls for the six highest ranked conference champions, regardless of conference, to be in the playoff field along with the next six highest ranked teams.

There was hope initially an agreement could be reached soon enough to have it implemented for the 2024 season, two years before the current CFP contract with ESPN expires. The meetings in Indianapolis were the seventh in-person since the 12-team format was made public in June.

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby compared the process since to the movie “Groundhog Day,” where every day repeats for the main character and called it “frustrating.”

“Everybody is more concerned about their own silo than everybody else's,” Bowlsby said.

SPEAKING OF THOSE WHO CARE ONLY ABOUT THEMSELVES. . .  From ESPN.com, re the “baseball talks.’’ Talk about an oxymoron:

The span between any core-economic conversations between the sides is now approaching the 40-day mark. That is nearly a month and a half during which the sides could have been talking. 

Games are scheduled to begin Feb. 26. At absolute latest, there must be a two-week lead time -- and there probably should be more. The visa issues for foreign players are expected to be significant.

Et cetera.

I love the game and the soothing rhythms it imposes on my summers. I know that MLB needs somehow to overhaul its economic system. Nothing would please me more to see a salary floor for teams that should be relegated. (Fie on Pittsburgh!) Unless it’s a salary cap that possibly hinders the Dodgers from being in the postseason every year.

That ain’t gonna happen. Union too strong, owners can’t agree on the time of day if you sit all of them in a room with one clock on the wall. Understanding this should make it easier to find a peace both sides can live with. Sit yourselves in a room and try to behave like adults.

Which brings us to. . .

PEOPLE WE WISH WOULD JUST GO AWAY. . . No-Vax Djokovic is back on the tennis court, thanks to an Aussie judge who decided he could stay in the country, at least for the time being.

Djokovic isn’t vaccinated, Australian law says if you want to enter Australia you need to be vaccinated. Djokovic thinks he’s special. Of course he does. People applauding this behavior see him as some sort of freedom fighter. His own father called No-Vax “Spartacus.’’

He’s not. He’s just a tennis brat.

I don’t know No-Vax, other than what I’ve observed when he has performed at the tournament in Mason. In news conferences, he comes off as dull and disengaged. Which makes him no different from every other big star not named Federer or Sampras that I’ve run across at that truly wonderful event, zero snark intended.           

I won’t provide the boring details of this ongoing drama. Djokovic was asked to follow the rules. He determined he was above them. A verdict is in the works. AP:

Australian immigration minister Alex Hawke is considering exercising his power to deport the tennis star under separate legislation, assessing a medical exemption that the unvaccinated Djokovic relied on to fly into Melbourne and the information supplied in the visa application.

Blahblahblah.

Entitlement is boring.    

AND NOW. . .

Dr. Z gets on the weekend ahead.

Are you like most Cincinnatians and a big fan of football and chili? Well then this is the weekend for you!

I'll be at the Bud Light Tailgate Zone this Saturday at The Banks as the Bengals take on the Raiders in Cincinnati's first playoff game since 2015. Featuring a free live performance from DV8, the festivities begin at 1:00pm and run all the way until kickoff at 4:30. If you see me, make sure you say hello. I'll be the guy wearing orange. After the game, make sure you stick around The Banks and check out some of the great establishments down there such as Jefferson Social and Yard House.

In case you don't have enough fun on Saturday, Chili Fest presented by Gold Star at Findlay Market will be held this Sunday, Jan. 16. Featuring chilis and specialties from market vendors and a performance from Everything Jake's, the event will run 10a-4p. The event itself has free admission, but sampling tickets cost $10 for 5 or $20 for 12 and can be purchased either in-person at the Market Center or online via Eventbrite. Some of the dishes that caught my eye: "Cincinnati Style Chili Grilled Cheese" from Harmony Plant Fare, "Texas Beer Bacon Chili" from Eckerlin Meats, and the classic "Damn Good Chili" from Neil Luken Meats. 

TUNE O' THE DAY. . . An underrated Allman Brothers album included this tune. Gregg at his growly best.