Can You Believe it!

My beloved Cincinnati Bengals - whom I have referred to so often as the Bungles - are playing in the Super Bowl!

Yes, the team that won two games in 2019 and just four games in 2020 rebounded to win 10 regular season games and the AFC North on their way to Super Bowl 56.

Yes, the team that lost seven straight playoff games in a row under former coach Marvin Lewis and has now won three straight playoff games to reach Super Bowl 56.

Yes, the same team that struggled to sell games out and sold out their 30,000 tickets within two hours as fans packet the lower deck of Paul Brown stadium to show their support for the Bengals as they had their pep rally before the team headed out to the west coast for the Super Bowl.

How on earth did this once miserable franchise wind up in the Super Bowl? Great question. Here is how.

After a miserable 2017 season that saw the Bengals struggle to win just 7 games, there were rumors Lewis would be leaving the Bengals after 15 years. However, Mike Brown, the Bengals owner, is fiercely loyal to his coaches, and it just didn't seem like he would fire Lewis after Lewis had brought him three AFC North titles over those 15 years. Sure enough, Lewis came back, and the Bengals roared out to a 4-1 record and first place in the AFC North. Lewis looked like once again he had righted the Bengals ship. However, the Bengals defense would fall to record depths and the team would only win 2 more games. 

That collapse was a blessing in disguise as the anger and frustration of fans began to hit Brown where it really hurt - the wallet was fans flocked away from games like never before.

Lewis was fired and in came a new coach, Zach Taylor, who had been the quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Rams, who had just gone to the Super Bowl.

Taylor came in late due to NFL rules about not being able to hire coaches until their teams are done with the playoffs - a rule that has since been changed. Taylor didn't have much time to put his stamp on free agent or the draft. As a result, in his rookie season, Taylor struggled to win just two games.

But the biggest game in recent Bengals history was an OT loss on the road to the Miami Dolphins. The Bengals had a 1-13 record while the Dolphins had a 3-11 record. The loser of this game (which was really going to be the biggest winner) would secure the #1 draft pick, which would turn out to be none other than Joe Burrow, who had just won the Heisman trophy and led LSU to the National Championship.

In Bungal fashion, the Bengals fell behind early and then came roaring back. I thought for sure they would win this game and lose the possibility of drafting Burrow. Luckily, with just a few second left in OT, Miami kicked the game winning field goal. The next week Cincy would go on to beat the Browns, so that would go on to be a great ending to the season.

There was quite the scuttlebutt that Burrow would force a trade (much like Eli Manning did when he didn't want to play for the San Diego Charges and like John Elway did before him when he didn't want to play for the Baltimore Colts). There was some talk that the Bengals even preferred the golden boy Justin Herbert out of Oregon and would trade down to draft him instead while getting several other draft picks.

But Brown and GM Duke Tobin wouldn't trade the pick for anything. Burrow grew up just two and a half hours east of Cincinnati in Athens, Ohio. He went on to play for Ohio State before getting beat out and having to transfer to LSU.

Sure enough, Burrow state that it was his dream to play for the Bengals and that he was looking forward to changing their culture and turning them into winners.

Tobin wasn't done overhauling the Bengals though in that draft. He landed a weapon for Burrow with the first overall pick in the second round in WR Tee Higgins. Then he chipped away at the Bengals lack of depth and talent at the linebacker position with three linebackers, most notably Logan Wilson at the top of the third round.

Burrow wasted no time asserting himself as the leader of the Bengals and was named team captain for the 2019 season. Burrow was playing very well for the Bengals his rookie year too, despite having a 2-6-1 record to open the year, the Bengals actually had leads going into the fourth quarter in 3 of those 6 losses. However, against Washington that year, Burrow suffered a knee injury that wiped out the rest of his rookie year.

In typical Burrow fashion, he worked hard to be in position to play every game his sophomore year. To help Burrow, the Bengals drafted a guard/tackle in the second round, Jackson Carmen, and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up their defense so they wouldn't surrender those fourth quarter leads. But the biggest thing they did to help Burrow was draft his former college go-to WR, Ja'Marr Chase, with the fifth pick overall.

Despite some drops to open camp and the preseason, Chase became the best receiver the Bengals have ever had - and that is saying something considering they have three Hall of Fame caliber WRs in their history - Isaac Curtis, Chad Johnson, and AJ Green.

Chase picked up right where he left off in college by grabbing a huge momentum swinging TD vs. the Vikings in Cincy's first game of the year right before the half. 

After that, Burrow and Chase were on fire. Their best moment came week 7 when the 4-2 Bengals squared off against the 5-1 Ravens in Baltimore. The first half was close, but once Burrow hit a rhythm, it was all over, including a brilliant TD catch by Chase in the third quarter.

It was during this game that Burrow uttered the lines, "If we can win this division, we can win the Super Bowl." Of course, that was still incredibly early in the season AND they would go on to lose the very next week to the hapless Jets, throwing all momentum off.

But the Bengals would recover before the season was over. After a blow out loss to the Chargers and an OT loss to the 49ers, the Bengals went on a run. They beat the Broncos in Denver, came home to route the Ravens again, where Burrow set the all-time passing record for the Bengals, tossing an incredible 525 yards - fourth most all-time. Then the Bengals played their best game all year, defeating the AFC Champion Kansas City Chiefs in a thriller, 34-31, in which Chase set a rookie receiving record - as well as a Bengals receiving record - for most yards receiving, nabbing 11 catches for 266 yards and 3 touchdowns. The win gave Cincinnati the AFC North title and a home playoff game.

In the first round of the playoffs, the Bengals broke the Curse of Bo Jackson which went all the way back to 1990 when the Bengals lost to the Los Angeles Raiders and Jackson was hurt on a sideline tackle that would eventually end his football career. A late interception by Germaine Pratt, a third round pick in Taylor's first draft, preserved the win for Cincy.

The Bengals then traveled to the #1 seed Titans. The Bengals surrendered 9 sacks to the Titans defense, but Burrow never flinched and the Bengals never trailed. A late interception by Logan Wilson, a third round pick in Taylor's second draft, helped set up a game winning field goal with no time left by the Bengals second best rookie of the year, Evan McPherson.

That left one game between the Bengals and the Super Bowl. That meant a trip to Arrowhead to face the #2 seeded Chiefs, who were ready for revenge after losing in week 17 - a loss which cost them the #1 seed in the playoffs.

And it sure looked like it was the end of Cincy's season as they fell behind 3-21 before rallying to make it 10-21 late in the second quarter on a 41 yard Burrow to Samaje Perine screen pass TD. The Bengals defense came up huge with a goal line stand in the final seconds to keep the score at 10-21. 

It was the tale of two halves as Cincy came out roaring in the second half, holding KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes to just 53 yards passing and two interceptions while sacking him four times. The only points the Bengals gave up was on a last second, game tying FG by the Chiefs to send it to OT.

Now we all know, after the Chiefs beat the Bills in OT the week before, that the team that wins the coin toss in OT is usually the one to win. And that is exactly what happened for the Chiefs . . . except for the win part. They won the coin toss but on Mahomes third down pass, safety Jessie Bates III (second round pick of Lewis' 2018 draft) tipped it to safety Vonn Bell (free agency class of 2020). Then it was time for Burrow to hit a few key passes to Higgins and the feed the ball to Joe Mixon (second round pick of Lewis in the 2017 draft) before McPherson sent the Bengals to the Super Bowl with a chip shot field goal in OT.

As a Bengals fan who remembers the dark, darks days of the 1990s and early 2000s, it was shocking to see thousands of Bengals fans turn out for the game in Kansas City. It was even more surreal to see legendary Icky Woods, who was a star rookie for the Bengals back in 1988, the last time they went to the Super Bowl, up on the stage handing the AFC Championship trophy to owner Mike Brown!

Then it was even more amazing to see the fans pack the lower deck of PBS for the Bengals Pep Rally before the team embarked for their flight to LA for the final week of practice for the Super Bowl.

And now we have the Rams vs. the Bengals for the Super Bowl. I was really hoping that the 49ers would hold on to beat the Rams two weeks ago for Bengals vs 49ers 3.0. I was keyed up for this matchup because for once, this time WE have Montana and Rice on our side in the form of Burrow and Chase.

But it wasn't meant to be as the 49ers choked it away to the Rams. So now Taylor faces his former boss, Sean McVey in the Super Bowl, much like back in '88 when former Bengals' head coach, Sam Wyche, faced off agains this former boss, Bill Walsh.

Hopefully, this time around there will be a different result as the '88 Bengals lost 16-20, giving up a TD with 34 seconds left.

But it will be a very fall order to beat the Rams out in LA. The Rams have an incredible pass rush, featuring one of the best defensive players in the league in DT Aaron Donald. They also have great pass-rushing linebackers in Von Miller and Henry Floyd. They also boast a great corner back in Jaylen Ramsey. Their offense is no slouch either has they have a great offensive line, led by former Bengals' All Pro left tackle Andrew Whitworth, NFL offensive player of the year in WR Kupp, and midseason acquisition WR Odell Beckem Jr, and Matthew Stafford at QB.

The Rams are stacked and are all in on winning the Super Bowl this year as many of those guys will be free agents and the Rams sent a ton of picks to the Lions and other teams.

The Bengals? Well, their offensive line needs an overhaul. Badly. They are okay at the left tackle position with Jonah Williams (number one pick in Taylor's 2019 draft) and left guard Quintin Spain (one of Taylor's midseason additions last year). But their center is recovering from a knee injury that wiped out his season last year. Our left guards, Carmen Jackson and Hackeem Adeniji, are below average at best right now. We had a solid right tackle, Riley Reiff (one of our bigger offseason free agents last year), but he is on injured reserved and we have former Buckeye Isaiah Prince at right tackle. Next season will see the Bengals - hopefully - spend in free agency to shore up the right side of the line the way they spent money in free agency to shore up their defensive line and secondary last off season.

But that doesn't help the Bengals now. Can they block well enough to give Burrow time to find Chase, Higgins, and Tyler Boyd (Marvin Lewis' second round pick in the 2016 draft) and to hand it off to Mixon? I don't have much faith in that. We do have an amazing offensive line coach in Frank Pollack, but I don't know if he can make chicken salad out of chicken s(*& enough to hold off the Rams' front seven.

It's easy for me to say that it doesn't matter what happens in the Super Bowl as the Bengals are still a year or two away given their offensive line and how young they are overall. But I recall thinking the same thing when the Bengals barely lost to the 49ers in 1988. They had youth everywhere then too. But they not only didn't get back, they only won ONE playoff game between that Super Bowl and this season!

Burrow - for as amazing as he is- may never get back to the Super Bowl. Dan Marino never did. But wouldn't it be great to add Joe Burrow's name to two other Joe's - Joe Namath and Joe Montana - as the only other quarterbacks to win a national championship and a Super Bowl?

I am hoping it will happen. I just don't think it will happen on Sunday. I hope I'm wrong! Regardless, it's been a great season, and I'm sill looking forward to the NFL draft in late April! Who Dey!