Week 10/11 recap

Cardinals 35, Bengals 27
Bengals 35, Titans 6


Heading into the gooey quagmire of Heinz Field Sunday, the Bengals have demonstrated some calming improvements recently. First, the hemophiliac-like defense has momentarily stopped the bleeding. It had an episode in the first half to Arizona, but it surged with the momentum of Dorsey’s blocked punt the rest of the way. Last week the defense made Young look...well, young. They’ve stuffed the run as if they might be growing tired of always being criticized. Apparently they have feelings too. I’m proud of them.

All, but Dexter Jackson, that is. He’s beginning to smell like Ohalete, and that smells like moth balls and diapers. Two long completions to Anquan Boldin and Justin Cage can be directly traced to Dex’s heavy feet. When he’s sent on a safety blitz, he makes contact with a quarterback and then tries his hardest to pull the guy down to the ground. There’s no impact to his hits. His equipment is made of old couch cushions.

On a brighter side, the linebackers have elevated their status to serviceable. Dahani Jones and Schlegel also lack speed but they’re pretty good tacklers. Rashad Jeanty somehow makes a difference. Since he’s returned the unit has found some cohesiveness. Geathers is no longer needed to do anything but pass rush and that’s what he’s paid to do. We no longer mourn the loss of the fallen linebackers of yore. We’ll see if they can stop the Steeler steamroller in the soup Sunday (a little Suess action for ya), but they’ve certainly given us some much-needed optimism against the run. I’m so glad Ricky Williams is hurt for the year. I had visions of him racking up 200 yards or so and getting their only win of the year against the Bengals in the finale. I wish him the best next year though.

Hall and Joseph have held up nicely against the deep ball in the recent stretch too. Hall gets better every week and I feel pretty good about that pick. Joseph struggled mightily in the early games this year but must be healthier because he’s playing at around the same level he showed us last year. Deltha continues to make excuses for his mistakes and seems to be talking his way off of this team. He shouldn’t feel betrayed that the organization wants to start it’s two first-round corners. He still has good ball skills when it’s in the air and he occasionally still makes plays, but that’s the biz. Suck it up, Deltha. You’re a professional.

Who doesn’t love DeDe Dorsey? He’s what old-timers like to call “a football player”. Of course they’re all football players, but they say it as if that kind of a guy represents what a football player should be. A do-anything-you-ask kinda guy. A grunt who’s just glad to be playing at all. A Ryan Freel type of football player. DeDe plays with the youthful exuberance of his college days at...Lindenwood? Where in the hell is Lindenwood? Doesn’t matter. He is a different type of weapon for Carson and Brat that they haven’t really seen here before. He’s similar to the Irons/Perry/Watson kind of back, but is still unique in his punt return style of running the ball. He’s a hell of a find off of the scrap heap. One thing Marvin is pretty good at is finding nice buys at the dent and scratch sales of NFL free agency. He picks up a linebacker, examines it closely, wipes off a little dust and dirt, spits on it, polishes it, pats it on it’s head, and tell it to ‘go get em’. Schlegel, Dahani, Jeanty, Marshall, Dorsey, Glen Holt. Marv’s thrifty.

This Sunday night serves as the last hurrah for Bengal fans. Not for any playoff chances, we’re pretty much over that, aren’t we? The odds of a meteor strike seem safer than the playoffs right now. But it’s important because our genetically predisposed venom as Bengal fans surface when we think of the Steelers. Beating them would make a 7-9 season easier to digest. The sweetness from a beaten Steeler team is like no other. We take pleasure in their suffering. It’s sick, really.
But we know all too well that sting we feel from a loss to the Dark Side. We listen to Steeler fans talk their garbage around the office and at the bar. They’re smug little towels waving in our angry faces. We can’t have this happen.
With field conditions similar to those of trench fighting in WWI, our grit is going to be tested. This could be Willie’s last stand if he gives it a go. The aged battle hero slugging his way through the muck and mire may not have enough in the tank to come out of a game like that. Of course I want Willie to be the right tackle for the next 100 years, but the guy is a purple-hearted veteran with some ligament damage. You have to wonder what the last straw would be for a trooper like him.


Mojokong - releasing the inner-ape

Week 10 recap

Bengals 21, Ravens 7

Earlier this week, a cantankerous local sports columnist complained about the vast mediocrity we see in the NFL today, particularly at the quarterback position.
Parity in the NFL is what makes it great. The nostalgia of the 80's dynasties sometimes sickens me.
“There is one great team in the NFL now. The rest is just bad football.”
I’m sorry, but I don’t miss seeing the NFC East play San Francisco in the conference championship game every season. It was boring watching Jim Kelly’s sad-face year after year and I certainly don’t miss the days when the Bengals never stood a chance.
New England dominates the league now, and while we all agree they’re a bonafide dynasty, it gets old to watch. The fact that a team can climb out of the cellar to win the division the next year keeps people interested. It also, of course, makes the NFL an insane amount of revenue but you can’t fault good business. Attendance records are being made every week/year/decade. Compare that to the Reds who only sell out when the Yankees come to town and I’m not sure who would ever want to go to say, an Atlanta Hawks game.
Look at the NFC North. The Packers were bad and the Lions won two games all year, while the Bears made it a all the way to the Super Bowl (with a bad quarterback at that). This year the Packers and Lions combined have less losses than Chicago. Tony Romo, last year an average QB, this season has vaulted himself into my coveted top-five list. Steve McNair went from being pretty damn solid to pretty damn laughable in one season. Derek Anderson!?
True, a good quarterback makes up for a lot of other team inadequacies. Payton Manning has led his team to a ton of wins with some horrific defenses. Last year they ranked last and they won the Super Bowl. But the Bengals have proven to be a shining example of how a great quarterback can’t do it all, even with some decent talent around him. If it’s a quarterback’s league, why are we destined for a lottery pick?
The point is, the NFL season is a war of attrition and the best teams demonstrate good coaching and reliable depth. I don’t think that makes the games boring, it makes it heady. It becomes more of a thinking man’s game to watch with so much parity. The league has top five players at every position and then it gets pretty random after that. Mostly due to the effective salary-cap, a team can’t pay too many top-five guys to become like the old 49ers teams and the talent gets evenly distributed. It puts more emphasis on player development and game management, and at the end of the day, the coaches and GM’s are held more responsible than the players are. It’s beautiful.
College football is enjoying one of it’s most exciting seasons thanks to parity. To win in major league baseball almost always means you had to outbid someone for it. George Mason’s run in the tournament was thrilling because it proved that the parity of mid-majors had become stronger. The NBA is a better example of some gross mediocrity. You want to find a boring product in professional sports, check out a game. The San Antonio Spurs play with the excitement of C-Span.
Sports fans seem to love parity. Sports writers seem to love to gripe about it.

Mojokong - Cincinnati needs to cheer up.

Week 9 recap

Bills 33, Bengals 21

We can’t keep talking about the same things every week.

Let’s see, we’ve covered the Old Rudi Is Dead thing. Everyone on the planet knows of the defensive woes, we’ve gone over the offensive line characteristics and discussed the many drops of Chad. What else is there?

The paper brought up the murky subject of a general manager which was immediately and expertly swatted from the podium by Mr. Lewis in Monday’s press conference. He’s a mysterious character by nature but the issue of what kind of GM roles he is responsible for remains somewhere in Area 51. What does Katie Blackburn, daughter of Bengals owner, actually do? What does her husband do? What does Brown himself do?

The legendary Paul Brown was a mind made for football. This man was ahead of his time with his play designs, player/coaching roles and innovations for the game. Did you know he had the idea of shortwave radio helmets to call in the plays with? In the 60's. But son Mike Brown, time and again, has exemplified his lack of any understanding of football talent. Apparently that apple got caught in a gale wind when it fell from the tree. So Brown continues to trust his family more than proven, trained eyes to scout and obtain talented players. And then he allows a person who married into the family to become a part of the brain trust in deciding who becomes a Bengal? Really? That’s all it takes to give your input into our draft?

Cincinnati has wanted Mike Brown strung up on Fountain Square a few times throughout his tyrannical rule here. He bought him some years until the next uprising by hiring Mr. Lewis, but without even mediocre results the new car smell wares off fast. The fuzzy-sweater feeling people had for the Christmas of ‘05 now feels like we’re back in that Viking ship rowing away and being whipped again like the 90's. Someone is gonna take the heat if we do (which I think we’re gonna) end up with six or less wins.

Could Mr. Lewis - that’s how I’m going to refer to him as until I like him again- be a decent GM? Would he be a better coach if that’s all he had to do? We hear these questions every time we travel to Baltimore because of the success their GM, Ozzie Newsome, has enjoyed there. I still think it’s a little early to light the fire to the feet of Mr. Lewis. Lets not be the knee-jerk fans that resemble lynch mobs in some cities. Instead, we take notes, observe and when we have a legitimate case, we take action. I still believe in Mr. Lewis’ abilities in running a football team and I don’t have a better alternative so we all have to live with a bad year of football. But notice has been served, Mr. Lewis. Notice has been served.

Mojokong- Available and interested in the general manager position