Additional Seating in the Bengal Bandwagon is Now Available

29 Aug 2006

Here's a feeble attempt to keep things in perspective.

Last night's Bengals game was easy on the eyes. A pleasure to watch; relaxing, fun, all the superlatives one longs for after a hard day's work. What couches and cold beers were originally intended to compliment. Carson seems like David Hasselhoff cruising around in Kit, just like old times. Our offense purrs with him at the helm and defenses don't appear to be giving it their best efforts against us.

But it's still the preseason, and it's still a shitty Green Bay team. I don't expect any of the Bengal's preseason opponents so far to have winning records this season. Indy will be great, but the fourth preseason game is always a dressed up practice and can't be used as any team barometer. Point is, we haven't faced a good team at its full strength yet; not even close. Still, we're the best team in the AFC, and probably all of football. Forget perspective.

I think Cincinnati would go 9-7 with Anthony Wright starting all season. He's played better than average, and frankly, that's all I expect from a back-up. Our offense is an arsenal of cluster bombs and bunker busters and missile-defense kill vehicles and all that other lethal shit. No defense can match up, none of 'em, and we have two of the top 5 defenses in our division. With Carson's wherewithal and his arm, we'll go at least 12-5.

The defense looks faster than I've seen under Marv (or anybody else, I guess) and that's reason enough to cultivate Super Bowl aspirations. Big Sam looked mobile enough for me and the defensive ends have been noticeably speedy. Bryan Robinson has been most impressive. He played D tackle last year, made the switch to end and looks five years younger. Thornton is everywhere, Geathers looks fast, Peko and Rucker have shined (although Frostee's been injured). The secondary is tackling better, the LB's are filling the run gaps. The system is working on defense. I would, however, like to see the corners, particularly Joseph play tighter on the underneath routes. I understand avoiding the big play is the main emphasis, especially when coaching rookies, but I'd kinda like to see him go for a pick and get beat for a big play in the preseason, just to know how it feels so he can avoid that stuff when it counts.

There's plenty of reason for optimism around these parts today. Steeler fans aren't feeling particularly comfortable right now, and Baltimore and Cleveland fans have just thrown up in their mouths a little. When have you ever felt so comfortable about an approaching Bengals season? Like I've said all along this off season, we'll be fine