Week 6 recap

Chiefs 27, Bengals 20

Whenever the Bengals are brought up in conversation these days, a roomful of people will furrow the brows, think a moment, and settle on one of many reasons why they aren’t winning games anymore. Eventually everyone agrees that nobody really knows why that is and go on to the next topic.

The fact nobody knows is the unsettling part. Surely somebody has to know or all hope is lost, right? No one wants to face that fact just yet.

If the conversation holds a minute longer on the Bengals, then we get the Time Machine Effect. First they think back to when winning seemed to fall into our lap (forty four times), and when Carson seemed to never make mistakes (101.1). 2005, the Should-have-been Super Bowl year!!!

Then they remember the dark ages when winning 6 games in a season seemed okay. Finally they just shrug at the mediocre team we seem to have settled on and again move on to another topic, usually Dusty Baker.

I don’t want to talk about the defense anymore. They aren’t getting much better no matter who gets healthy at linebacker. Losing Odell Thurman will continue to haunt this team until they can find a game changer. If we must indulge in the Time Machine Effect than he is the missing link from the limited (even pretty lucky) defensive success we enjoyed that season. He had five interceptions, five forced fumbles, over 100 tackles and most of all, everyone watching knew when Odell made the tackle. You rarely see players blowing up ball carriers so consistently. And he did all that his rookie season. He has been banished since and the absence of his impact still hurts two seasons later.

Now, the other major difference to an 11 win season is that of a dominating offensive line. What in the hell has happened to Levi Jones? I questioned resigning him to a big contract when negotiations were taking place and this is what I was afraid of. A friend of mine has for years warned me of buying into Levi, even when he was drafted. I never listened until he came with a $40 million price tag for six years! I do think he will get better and move forward though. Ask Marv.

Willie is literally falling apart before us. His body ages in dog years and he’s just too lovable to have him put down. I can see Willie being one of those decrepit retired players who becomes the example of how football destroys your body. Poor guy. And he’d play if he was missing both legs if you asked him to. Here are some Willie quotes from this week:

"I'm all right ... no one is 100 percent,"
“They said it's up to me to play with the pain,"

We love ya Ol’ Yeller. I hope Willie is the next Bengals coach for the 8 to 10 years that he can still walk.

Then there’s Steinbach. He got paid a boat load to go to Cleveland, but they seem to have a decent line up there. I laughed when I saw what they paid him. I’m not laughing anymore. Also Guicec is not Rich Braham. This line isn’t near the caliber of ’05 and it is exposing our superstars as seeming vastly overpaid.

Will Rudi be back? Would trading Chad set back the passing game all that much? Could he bring a first rounder or a good linebacker? Is Carson a really a top three quarterback? All of these questions would have been scoffed at before the season and now are worth at least discussing. Chad isn’t getting traded, Rudi will be back and Carson is fine. It’s just the kind of speculation that ensues after a series of bad losses. What else are we gonna talk about? Oh yeah, Dusty Baker.

Mojokong – asking for a third down conversion this Christmas.