An inexperienced team with a first-year coach, a young quarterback and a pair of missing starting tackles allowed for the Skins to overlook the lowly Bengals on the road, and now they’re leaving the playoff party, and being laughed at on their way out. Even the Eagles, hovering by the door, get a chuckle out of seeing Washington escorted out by their own humiliation. Suckers.
Cincinnati did some nice things early on. The offensive line played well out in space on sweeps and the long screen play to Benson. Ghiaciuc and Stacy Andrews, a couple of lineman who live in Mojokong’s doghouse, did a few things right on Sunday. Bratkowski made logical attempts at playcalling early on, but again, freaked out with a lead and resorted to the tired list of predictable plays we’ve suffered through all season. Our lineman are best in the open field, pulling and finding people to block. What they aren’t, is a bulldozing bunch who can push defensive lines backward. Against Washington the Bengals played to their strength and success ensued. This is the only way Marvin Lewis’ team can “establish the run” until he gets stronger interior lineman, particularly at center. Anthony Collins has had some rough times in his debut season, but he’s as capable as Stacy Andrews at tackle and better already than the physically and emotionally broken Levi Jones. Drafting left tackle sensation, Andre Smith and moving Collins to right tackle, letting Andrews walk or sign for back up money – which will never happen – and cutting Levi makes a lot of sense to me. But then again, making sense is something we as fans have learned to live without.
Defensively, I thought the Bengals looked pretty tough and aggressive for a unit missing six of its starters. Zimmer’s intelligence and value to the team has shined through the heavy mist of misery this year. After giving up over 30 points two weeks in a row – when it appeared all motivation had evaporated – they came out and dragged down a staggering offense to its knees. The goal line stand that resulted in a turnover was the surprise left hook that just might have ended Jim Zorn’s brief head coaching career.
The defense, on paper, looks promising for the future. We have a couple of young tackles (Sims, Peko), a pair of overpriced ends we’re all just going to have to live with (Geathers, Odom), a building block linebacker(Rivers), two first round corners who get better each season (Joseph, Hall), and two hard-hitting safeties (white, Ndukwe), all in their twenties. More young talent at linebacker is an immediate need for Zimmer to complete his puzzle heading into next season. Defense is the one area I think our team shows competence.
Next week’s game is worth getting fired up over. Cleveland is as awful as we are, they beat us in Week 2, and...it’s the Browns, what more does it take during a lost season to provoke a little emotion? Since we’re guaranteed a top-5 pick in the upcoming draft, these next two games – both very winnable – can be viewed without the internal conflict between your team’s success and a nice draft slot.
The problem with wins at the end of the season for a bad team is that ownership always points to that as a reason to be encouraged for next season. As if it’s a movie trailer, previewing the excitement that awaits Bengal fans in 2009. Ownership and management use phrases like “hang our hat on” when asked about late meaningless wins, and defend their job production on these victories. Another lame statement made by coaches especially, is that “the players didn’t give up”. Even fans buy into this one. I feel like too much credit is given to coaches on bad teams whose players appear to still give their full effort in the face of a defeated season. That’s what they’re paid to do. It should be expected of them.
Even if the wins at the end of the season result in Mike Brown defending his product as passable, it’s still nice to see my team win. After all, sports, even the Bengals, only exist for our entertainment.
Bengals 24, Browns 17
Mojokong – Speeding along with a cracked odometer.
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Jerome Simpson said this this past week regarding his situation:
"It's frustrating because I want to play. I want to contribute," Simpson said. "It's frustrating. I'm used to playing. Especially when you work hard every day and try to figure out a reason why you're not playing. I guess it's a rookie thing. They don't trust me yet. They don't have confidence in me coming from a very, very small school at Coastal Carolina. I think it will be different next year."
I find it sad that one of the two potential replacements for one of the two star receivers here is not given more time to get accustomed to NFL football. Shirley is in that same boat, he should be playing more.
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