Those Bengals

I haven't blogged about my beloved Bungals too much this year.  They opened the seasoned on Monday Night Football.  Usually, the Bengals get no where near performing on prime time, but since they came out of nowhere to make the playoffs last year, some of the national media has tagged them as an up and coming team.

Well, in typical Bungal fashion, every time you get your hopes up, they disappoint you and they did just that getting thrashed by Baltimore.

The Bengals did, though, right the ship over the next three weeks to get to 3-1.

But, again in typical Bungal fashion, once they had a very favorable stretch on their schedule, they began to suck again and slipped all the way to 3-5.

Just when I was ready to give up hope, those Bengals reeled off four straight wins to surge back into Wild Card contention.

But, the in typical Bungal fashion, last week they had a great chance to move ahead of Pittsburgh for the final Wild Card spot when Pittsburgh lost to San Diego and the Bengals were facing a struggling Dallas team.  Despite having a solid 9 point lead with just a few minutes to go, the Bengals dropped three interceptions that would have secured the win.  Worse still, they forgot to run the ball with Ben Jarvis Green Ellis, who happens to be one of the hottest backs in the league, for he had already had 12 carries for 89 yards.  And he had just ripped off a 30 yard gain.  But they passed and got beat, losing on a last second field goal.

So that brought their record to 7-6.  There was still a glimmer of hope, but they had to be the Eagles on the road in the last prime time game on NFL Network.

And they started off strong, causing a fumble and blocking a punt to go up 10-0.

The Bengals lead the league in sacks and were facing a patch-work Eagles offensive line and a rookie quarterback.  They should have dominated the game.

Instead, the Bungals neglected to protect Andy Dalton, giving up sack after sack, two of which resulted in red zone fumbles that the Eagles easily converted into points, taking a 13-10 halftime lead.

Finally, in the third quarter, when I was ready to be disappointed yet again and have the Bengals squander a golden chance to stay in the running for a Wild Card spot, fate smiled upon the Bengals and the Eagles committed several key turnovers.  The Bengals were able to overcome all their miscues and penalties and pull out a 34-13 win.

Now that sets up a showdown with the dreaded Steelers.  The Bengals had a great shot to beat them at home earlier in the season, but squandered that.  The Steelers aren't playing their best football, but they always beat the Bengals when they need too, so I'm not holding out much hope.  In fact, I heard a great line the other day, "the Steelers are the team the Bengals want to be when they grow up."  That is a team that is always tough and disciplined and usually finds a way to win.  The Bungals usually find a way to lose (look at the Dallas game).

So I'm not holding out much hope for next Sunday.  But Dalton has got to start beating the Big Boys (namely Pittsburgh and Baltimore) in the division sooner or later.  So far he is 0-6 against them.  Say what you will about Carson Palmer, but he always dominated Baltimore.  He struggled against the Steelers, but he at least beat Cleveland and Baltimore more than he lost to them.

While I don't hold out a lot of hope for the Bengals in Pittsburgh next week, it still would be nice for this very young team to win one of their final two games to at least finish with a 9-7 record.  You have to go back 30 years since the Bungals even did that.