Cincinnati Bengals tidbits.................

Dispatch

Bengals 7, Patriots 6: Ochocinco kicks in to help team
Friday, August 21, 2009 3:08 AM
By Howard Ulman

Associated Press

Charles Krupa | Associated Press
Receiver Chad Ochocinco kicks the extra point, the first of his career, in the Bengals' win.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- A new role, another new name for Chad Ochocinco.

Cincinnati's emergency kicker and international soccer fan booted the decisive extra point late in the first half, and the Bengals beat the sloppy New England Patriots 7-6 last night.

"Esteban Ochocinco is back, the most interesting footballer in the world," Ochocinco said. "Everyone has to remember, I've always said that soccer is my No. 1 sport. I think Ronaldinho would be proud of me right now."

Ochocinco practices kicking but had never done it in an exhibition or regular-season game in his eight years with the Bengals. But when Shayne Graham's groin felt sore in pregame warm-ups, coach Marvin Lewis decided to see what Ochocinco could do.

He did very well.

After the game, Ochocinco pulled out his PDA and displayed a photo of him with soccer star David Beckham.

Continued.........

Long Snapper Brad St. Louis was finally released today after a miserable season.

Originally Posted by BRB

Long Snapper Brad St. Louis was finally released today after a miserable season.

Thank god. Feel sorry for the man losing his job as I never like to see that but he had to go.

Originally Posted by fireman937

Thank god. Feel sorry for the man losing his job as I never like to see that but he had to go.

he's done pretty well up to the past 2 seasons, I hope the guy we brought in knows what he's doing, name is Clark Harris, 25 yearold from Rutgers in his 2nd year, he's young but DOES have NFL experience, he did long snapping for the Texans in the final 4 games last season.

St Louis's snaps cost the Bengals 11 points this year.

Bengals special teams coach Darrin Simmons dreaded the cut that would release long snapper Brad St. Louis. But in the end he concluded, “We’ve got to put this fire out.”

St. Louis’ distinguished career of 10 years and 144 games came to an end Tuesday when the Bengals decided they could no longer afford the inconsistencies of his short snaps that took at least 11 points off the board this season and turned to 25-year-old Clark Harris, who has snapped in just four regular-season games, all in the final month of last season for the Texans.

“It’s nothing you ever want to do to a guy you’ve worked with for seven years,” Simmons said Tuesday night. “Brad is a guy we all admire, but we have to put this fire out.”

The 6-5, 257-pound Harris, a seventh-round pick of the Packers in 2007, is a little taller, heavier and younger than the 6-3, 243-pound St. Louis, 32. But Simmons doesn’t care as long Harris provides no drama on field goals and extra points.

“(Harris) is a good young snapper on the rise who long snapped (for Houston) in the preseason,” Simmons said. “He’s a got good velocity and he’s a good athlete, a tight end in college, so he can cover.”

Even though the Bengals play the Texans on Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium, this isn’t a move to pick up a guy to help with the playbook, although it probably won't hurt. But it is a move with much larger ramifications. St. Louis, a seventh-round pick himself in 2000 and the last Bengal left from PBS’ inaugural team, is the only snapper kicker Shayne Graham has ever had in his seven seasons with the club and is an integral part of Graham’s fourth-place ranking on the NFL’s all-time accuracy list at 84.69 percent.

St. Louis would have held the fifth-longest consecutive games streak in Bengals history if he played against Houston. Instead, he’s now tied with tight end Tony McGee at 117.

But a total of six inaccurate snaps (mostly high) forced the Bengals to move on and has contributed to Graham’s two blocks this season on seven field-goal tries. He’s only 4-of-7 and missed a 52-yarder on which the snap looked decent.

Yet a high snap during the opener cost the Bengals an aborted short field goal in a 12-7 loss to the Broncos and another high snap cost them an extra point in the 23-20 win over Pittsburgh Sept. 27.

The problems became more glaring the last two weeks. A high snap on a short field goal attempt in Cleveland resulted in a block at the end of the first series and a wayward snap prevented Graham from kicking the winning extra point with 1:55 left in regulation on another block. But St. Louis snapped the winning 31-yard field goal with four seconds left in overtime.

On Sunday in Baltimore, Graham hesitated on a 32-yard field-goal attempt on a snap that holder Kevin Huber had to reach up to grab and it got blocked. After Graham made a 32-yarder later in the first half, St. Louis wheeled an extra-point snap several feet over Huber’s head. But an illegal formation call against the Ravens allowed the Bengals to kick it over and the next two extra-point snaps turned out to be good.

It was that ability to always end the game on a positive, as well as St. Louis's superb punt snapping, that prevented the Bengals from pulling the trigger. A bad punt snap can cost a team seven points in the form of a touchdown rather than merely a field goal or extra points.

“Brad is the best I’ve been around when it comes to knowledge of what the other teams are going to do against us on punt rush,” Simmons said. “He’s an extension of a coach; he is like a coach out there.”

But the missed points were beginning to mount.

It wasn’t always like that. The problems seemed to come out of nowhere. Teamed with St. Louis, Graham made the first 160 extra points in his first three-and-half-years with the Bengals as well as becoming the team's most accurate kicker of all time and a perennial top five all-timer. St. Louis did have three bad extra-point snaps in '06, the most notorious of which was one with 40 seconds left that would have given the Bengals a tie in Denver in the next-to-last game of the season. The Bengals had to win just one of the last three games to make the playoffs and lost them all.

After the Denver fail, Graham hit his next 58 PATs until St. Louis sailed one over Huber's head against Pittsburgh three weeks ago.

Harris, a New Jersey product who played tight end at Rutgers, was also a seventh-round pick. The Packers drafted him in 2007 before he spent time on the Green Bay and Detroit practice squads. After he got cut in this preseason on Cutdown day, he resurfaced on the Texans practice squad for a week before getting cut last week.

The move makes wide receiver Chad Ochocinco the senior Bengal with 126 games in nine seasons.

Simmons knows another argument for staying pat is even though the operation was struggling, they were used to each other. Now Harris comes in cold Wednesday to work with Huber and Graham.

“What does it matter? We have to be able to snap the ball, hold the ball, and kick the ball,” Simmons said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s me or Marvin (Lewis) long snapping. We’ve got to do all those things.”

Bengals.com

A check of stats for the Bengals leaders in different categories.

Through 7 weeks(7 games)

Passing:

Carson Palmer

Yards: 1608(15th in NFL)
Completion %: 61.7%(16th in NFL)
Touchdowns: 13(5th in NFL)
Interceptions: 7(7th most)
QB Rating: 89.2(15th in NFL)

Rushing:

Cedric Benson

Yards: 720(1st in NFL)
Carries: 164(1st in NFL)
TDs: 5(tied for 3rd)
Yards per carry: 4.4
Yards per game: 102.9(1st in NFL)
Fumbles: 1

Total Yards per game(not including QBs): 112.3(5th in NFL)

Receiving

Chad Ochocinco

Receptions: 39(tied for 7th)
Yards: 573(4th in NFL)
Yards per game: 81.9(8th in NFL)
TDs: 5(tied for 2nd)


Defense

Antwan Odom(out for season)
Tied for 2nd in NFL with 8 sacks

Dhani Jones
Total Tackles: 46 total(24th in NFL)

Leon Hall
Pass breakups: 13(tied for 2nd in NFL)
Interceptions: 3(tied for 4th in NFL)
Forced Fumbles: 2(tied for 3rd in NFL)

Jonathan Joseph
Pass breakups: 9(tied for 6th in NFL)
Interceptions: 3(tied for 4th in NFL)

Chad Ochocinco gets fined $20,000 for 'bribing the refs' when he got 1 dollar from someone on the sidelines and held it while standing next to a ref, during a challenge of one of his catches(ruled incomplete).

20K for that? and guys get fined 5-15K for fighting on the sidelines? pssshh..

Safety Roy Williams put on the IR today and Wide Receiver Maurice Purify was promoted off the practice squad(Ironic, considering in Hard Knocks there was a big special about Purify absolutely dominating Roy Williams in the Oklahoma Drill.)

Originally Posted by BRB

Chad Ochocinco gets fined $20,000 for 'bribing the refs' when he got 1 dollar from someone on the sidelines and held it while standing next to a ref, during a challenge of one of his catches(ruled incomplete).

20K for that? and guys get fined 5-15K for fighting on the sidelines? pssshh..

Unbelievable. I can't stand goodhell. He is a joke.