Christmas Games

The Bungals have their biggest game of the year today. Historically, they have been horrific on Christmas games. There was the debacle against the Bills in 2005 when the Bengals won their division but lost to the Bills (it was the Bills lone road win for the entire year). As bad as that was, it doesn't compare to the Christmas Eve loss to Denver the following season. The Bungals only needed one win in their final three games to earn a wild card spot. They got blown out by the Colts on Monday Night Football (which was no surprise). Then they traveled to Denver and lost a heart breaker when they lost 23-24 when they missed the extra point.

This year sees the very hot Arizona Cardinals come to town. This looked like an easy victory several weeks ago when the Bengals were 6-2 and the Cards were terrible. But the Cards are 4-1 and the Bungals have slumped to 8-6.

So it doesn't look good for the home team as the Bengals need to win out and have the Jets lose one more game. I'd have more hope if Marvin Lewis had actually ever won a late season game that has mattered (he hasn't).

Maybe the Cards will struggle in the cold and the Bengals can string enough plays together to pull this one out. If they were playing like the were the first half of the season, I'd feel confident. But injuries to our offensive line and secondary have the offense struggling to run the ball and the defense struggling to defend the pass. That's not a good thing.

For now my prediction stands at Arizona 24 - Cincy 14. We'll see though. I just have to remind myself that no one on earth thought the Bengals would win more than six games at the start of the year. Yet, they are a promising young team that is still a year or two away from being a serious threat.