The Bengals sit atop the NFL with a 3-0 record. They have been mostly dominant in their three wins (on the road vs. Baltimore, at home vs. Falcons, and at home vs. Titans).
They look like a really complete team. Their offense is far more balanced under new offensive coordinator, Hue Jackson than under past coordinator Jay Gruden (now getting destroyed as head coach of Washington). They have two very, very good tailbacks: the elusive Gio Bernard and the bulldozer rookie Jeremy Hill.
They suffered through some key injuries to their passing game early on, losing their second leading receiver last year (who hauled in 10 touchdowns), Marvin Jones. Jones should be back next week. Not that it does us any good this week when we face New England as Jones came back from a broken foot only to tweak his ankle in his first practice back. Our first round pick from 2013, tight end Tyler Eifert, who was going to be a huge factor in Jackson's offense this year, dislocated his elbow in the first quarter of our first game and will be out for a few more weeks.
Our defense is in the top five yet again. That is an amazing feat as they are doing it without their all world linebacker, Vontaze Burfict, who is dealing with concussion issues and looks like he won't suit up against the Pats. All universe defensive tackle Geno Atkins is back from a torn ACL, but he is not his dominating self . . . yet. Let's hope he gets back to his old form vs the pats.
The good news, though? Our defensive end Carlos Dunlap is having a monster year getting after the passer. Our safety George Iloka is also picking off passes to help us lead the league in turnovers.
Our special teams is solid too, despite our kicker starting out hot, making 5 straight field goals to open the season before having one blocked vs Baltimore and missing three vs the Falcons.
Adam Jones has been solid as a punt returner and is due to break one for a TD any moment now.
The Bengals are the darlings of the NFL right now. They can seem to do no wrong. While the NFL is dealing with ugly domestic abuse issues, the Bengals are a model franchise with the feel good story of the year in all of sports: Devon Still supporting his four year old daughter in her battle against cancer. The Bengals decided to print Still jerseys (he is a backup defensive tackle, who was actually cut prior to the start of the regular season (after all, he could hardly give football his full effort with his daughter battling stage four cancer), but the Bengals brought him back to place him on their practice squad where he would continue to get the NFL's excellent health insurance policy) and donate the proceeds of the jerseys to their local cancer research. So far, so good. Still's jersey is their best seller ever. They just donated over a million dollars to cancer research. And Still has been added to the active roster because of injuries.
Best of all, his daughter just had successful cancer surgery to remove a tumor. She's not cancer free, but it's a good first step.
It doesn't seem that long ago that the Bengals literally couldn't do anything right. There were the 1990's where they were lucky to win 3 or 4 games a year. Then when they finally became competitive, with Marvin Lewis taking over the franchise in 2003, things still didn't change.
When they finally won the AFC North in 2005 and had their first home playoff game since I was a junior in high school, their all pro quarterback, Carson Palmer, ripped up his knee on his first pass attempt (which he complete for 77 yards).
Even when Palmer would make it back to start the 2006 season (and earn all pro honors again), they struggled with ugly arrests (their talented rookie linebacker Odell Thurman was banned indefinitely from the NFL and their talented wide receiver Chris Henry was suspended for three games) as well as half a dozen arrests. Then they lost their final three games that year to miss out on the playoffs.
Things didn't get better until Lewis cleaned house during the NFL lockout in 2011. He jettisoned Chad Ochocinco, who always put himself first, second, and third before the team. He traded Carson Palmer who didn't want to play for the Cincy anymore.
Then he drafted AJ Green, who has made everyone in stripes forget about Ochocinco, who the last anyone heard from him he was playing in the CFL, and Andy Dalton (who despite growing pains has won more games in his first three years than anyone other than Tom Brady), and the rest is history.
Now, the Bengals are 3-0.
They were 3-0 in 2005 and lost in a prime time matchup vs. the Jags. They won the AFC North with a cocky bunch who could get turnovers but their defense was terrible.
They were 3-0 in 2006 and lost to New England in a drubbing. Again, they had a talented offense but a defense that was even worse than the 2005 defense.
Now in 2014 the Bengals are 3-0 and here comes New England, in, gulp, prime time. Could things look worse for the Bengals?
Dalton has only won 2 prime time games in his career. Worse yet, the Pats are coming off of a 41-14 dropping vs. the Chiefs. So you know they're going to be angry.
Plus, the Bengals are something like 2-10 coming off their bye week.
And here come the Pats. In years past, this would be a total recipe for disaster. The Bengals always wilted under pressure. Worse yet, Chad Ochocinco would do something stupid to motivate the other team.
Luckily, there are zero prima donnas on this year's team.
Which is the one reason I maintain a sliver of hope for the Bengals in Foxboro Sunday night. That and the fact that the Bengals are coming off a bye week while the Pats come off a drubbing on a very short week (having played last Monday night while the Bengals last played two full weeks ago).
Yet, I recall in 1997 the Bengals then coach Bruce Coslet being angry that his Bengals had to face the Titans in a Thursday night late November game after they played five days before. The Titans had extra rest as they played on Thanksgiving and had three extra days of rest.
It didn't matter. The Bengals crushed the Titans 41-14. The Titans came in with the NFL's best run defense and yet rookie running back Corey Dillon broke Walter Payton's rookie rushing record with 245 yards and four touchdowns.
Anything can happen. But strangely enough. That gives me hope for the Bengals Sunday night.
Maybe they will continue to be darlings of the NFL. After all, maybe they will take a run at their best start ever . . . 1988 when they began 6-0 before losing to (in the mother of all ironies here) the New England Patriots in New England.
That's why they play the games.
Let's just hope Hue Jackson is willing to copy the Chiefs' game plan from last week: run the ball and use short passes to expose the weak New England defense. Let's hope our excellent new defensive coordinator, Paul Guenther, finds a way to blitz Tom Brady into making some mistakes behind his patch-work offensive line. I like the sound of a 30-20 win for the Bengals.
But I'm a slave to history and had to go with New England in my local picks league.
I'm a traitor. I know. #whodey
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