SB Nation - Antwan Odom

Bernard Scott named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week

Kirkendall — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:44:17 -0000

More photos » by Keith Srakocic - AP

about 1 month ago: Cincinnati Bengals' Bernard Scott, left, returns a kickoff for a touchdown past Pittsburgh Steelers' Keyaron Fox in the first quarter of an NFL football game in Pittsburgh, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

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As if we didn't document Bernard Scott's weekend enough already, we've decided to pile on the mountain of awesomeness that is Bernard Scott. Every Wednesday, the NFL announces players of the week for offense, defense and special teams for the AFC and NFC. Carson Palmer won the award during his five touchdown day (aka, holy-freaking awesome day) against the Bears during week seven and Antwan Odom won it in week two after recording an impressive five sacks against the Green Bay Packers.

Add Bernard Scott to the list.

The NFL announced Wednesday that Scott won the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week after recording a 96-yard touchdown return against the Pittsburgh Steelers and 206 yards on kickoff return. Scott is the first Bengals player named the Special Teams Player of the Week since Tab Perry in week 13 during the 2005 season, ironically enough against the Pittsburgh Steelers, recording 197 yards on five kickoff returns, including a 94-yarder that setup Rudi Johnson's one-yard touchdown run giving the Bengals the lead (31-24) with 7:57 left in the third quarter (run-on sentences for the win!). Scott is also the first Bengals player to record a touchdown on kickoff return since Glenn Holt on November 4, 2007.

Here's the award winnings for week 10.

AFC Offensive Player of the Week: QB Peyton Manning, Colts
AFC Defensive Player of the Week: Safety Mike Brown, Chiefs
AFC Special Teams Player of the Week: RB Bernard Scott, Bengals
NFC Offensive Player of the Week: WR Sidney Rice, Vikings
NFC Defensive Player of the Week: CB Charles Woodson, Packers
NFC Special Teams Player of the Week: P Hunter Smith, Redskins

Six-Pack of Hu-Dey: Sign Mike Zimmer to a long-term contract as soon as possible

Kirkendall — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:59:31 -0000

Introducing to the inaugural edition to the "Six-Pack of Hu-Dey ", a selection of topics that we weigh in on. We hope to have this going weekly, but we'll need your help. If you have topics that you want examined or weighed in on, email them to me. Also, some veterans may recognize the spelling is actually correct. Hu-Dey beer once existed by Hudepohl Brewing Co.

Bengals need to sign Mike Zimmer to an extension as soon as possible. This is one of those topics that we tend not to examine simply because of the obviousness of the issue. You know, like John Madden saying football is played by football players or that Cincinnatians are from Cincinnati. But here's the truth. Mike Zimmer is coaching under the final year of his two-year contract. The Bengals need to sign Zimmer to a long-term extension as the team's defensive coordinator as soon as possible.

In 2007, the final year with Chuck Bresnahan as the team's defensive coordinator, the Bengals defense ranked 27th overall and 24th scoring. The Bengals signed Mike Zimmer in the offseason and the Bengals defense has steadily improved. In his first season, the Bengals total defense improved to 12th overall and 19th scoring. And through nine games in 2009, the Bengals have the 10th best overall defense, the second-best scoring defense and the league's second-best rushing defense.

With those accolades, Zimmer will be a hot head coaching candidate in 2010. Even if no head coaching opportunities are granted Zimmer, he could find himself a rich contract as a defensive coordinator with a powerfully rich team -- say the Washington Redskins. Give him a share of ownership with the team. Whatever. Zimmer will be the biggest free agent the Bengals have to sign back this offseason.

Brandon Johnson is the best backup player on defense. After Keith Rivers suffered a broken jaw during the seventh week of the 2008 NFL season, backup Bengals linebacker Brandon Johnson became the starting weak-side outside linebacker. He finished the season with 112 tackles, second on the team. Johnson's two picks also ranked second on the team and he was one of three defensive players in 2008 to record a sack and interception in the same season.

During the offseason, the Bengals offered Johnson a $1.545 million restricted free agent tender, which he signed on August 16. He waited a long time looking for another team willing to offer the Bengals second-round compensation if they signed Johnson. No takers.

Even though his overall numbers are down this year, considering he plays in mostly pass-obvious situations, Johnson's contributions for an injured Keith Rivers the past two weeks show that Johnson's play is no let-down by any means. He replaced Rivers in the third quarter against the Ravens and recorded a team leading nine tackles and sacked Joe Flacco 1.5 times. He leads the team with eight special teams tackles.

Anytime that Johnson is forced to replace Rivers, he not only matches Rivers' production, but he plays well enough to that Rivers' absence isn't as noticeable. Which brings us to...

If no collective bargaining agreement is created, then signing Brandon Johnson long-term isn't urgent. With all of that said, Cincinnati should still work on signing Johnson to a long-term contract after this year. Most likely, he'll look for an opportunity to start. And unless something happens from now until the start of free agency, more than likely, he'll find a place. In a perfect scenario, Johnson signs, plays the backup role one more season until Dhani Jones' contract expires. Then the Bengals could place Rey Maualuga at middle linebacker and place Johnson either on the weak-side or strong-side, based on the strengths of both he and Rivers.

That is, if the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is worked out and the same free agency rules apply.

There is a certain dynamic here. If the league doesn't replace the existing Collective Bargaining Agreement before free agency in 2010, then Brandon Johnson could be forced to stay in Cincinnati. Currently, the CBA says that players only need four accrued seasons to be an unrestricted free agent. In 2010, the CBA changes, based on the final year of the deal, in which players need six years to become unrestricted free agents. Therefore, Johnson would remain a restricted free agent and could be here for at least two more years.

The Bengals shouldn't start Andre Smith this year. What I think is astronomical is that the Bengals still haven't played their first round pick, Andre Smith. The current Bengals offensive line has played so well, that Smith has become a luxury rather than a necessity. Only time I can remember this applying is when the Bengals decided to bench Carson Palmer his rookie season in favor of developing him behind Jon Kitna.

The dynamic that Paul Alexander has created with this offensive line shouldn't be shuffled anymore than it already has been. As a unit, they've only allowed 14 quarterback sacks and have been a large part of Cincinnati's rushing success, which is ranked 11th in the NFL with 1,101 yards rushing.

Cincinnati's weakest part of the schedule is coming up at Oakland, Detroit and at home against Cleveland. Conventional wisdom may suggest that the team could take the opportunity to give Smith a start, at least, to see what we have. But the best solution might be to use Smith in a Dennis Roland/Anthony Collins role, which would essentially make Smith the third offensive tackle on rushing plays. This would allow Smith to ease himself into the speed and strength of the NFL, while not disrupting the cohesiveness that the Bengals offensive line already have.

Then again, there's working him in as an eventual replacement for Bobbie Williams at right guard...

Bengals now have to beat teams that they should beat. So, I'm a little melodramatic. But I strongly believe after sweeping the Steelers and Ravens (I'll never get tired of that term), with wins against the Bears, Packers and Browns, Cincinnati losing any of the next three games could run the risk of losing everything they've earned.

The next three games on the schedule are against teams with a combined 4-22 record (Oakland, Cleveland, Detroit). Losing any of those games not only hurts the team's legitimacy, as well as their confidence, but it would bring Pittsburgh right back into the mix. It's one thing to lose against a very good football team with a winning record. But they must beat teams that they should beat. That's what winning teams do.

Successes of others helps ease the fall of Antwan Odom's injury. Since Antwan Odom was injured against the Houston Texans, the Bengals defense has recorded 11 quarterback sacks (which includes the loss to the Texans). A large part of that success has come from the combination of Jonathan Fanene and Robert Geathers, recording a combined four sacks against the two divisional powerhouses Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Geathers has recorded sacks in back-to-back games.

More surprisingly is Frostee Rucker's successes dating back to Chicago where he his playing time increased because of Odom's injury. In that three game stretch, Rucker has a quarterback sack, an interception, a deflection and three quarterback hits.

Odom clearly set the season with seven quarterback sacks in the first two games of the season. The rest of the defense continues to follow suit.

Bengals have eight players on Injured Reserve; Cincinnati has players to fill those roles

Kirkendall — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:41:15 -0000

Remember last year? I know, I know. Why bring up terrible memories of a team that started the season on an eight-game losing streak. Why bring up terrible memories of a team that actually finished a game in a tie causing the entire NFL world to shouting, asking why ties in the NFL? I remember when the active report came in during the fourth week of the season against Cleveland, seeing that Carson Palmer was inactive. It took weeks for me to fully comprehend the implications of Palmer's injury. I was in denial.

This week gave us a few reminders of how much better this team is, in terms of talent and pure luck, which is (if people want to admit it or not) critical to team's successes in a season.

The Bengals placed two players on Injured Reserve this week with arm injuries; wide receiver Chris Henry and safety Roy Williams. This brings the total to eight players on injured reserve since the start of training camp.

Player	Position
Antonio Chatman	WR
Chris Henry	WR
Reggie Kelly	TE
Ben Utecht	TE
Matt Sherry	TE
Antwan Odom	DE
Dan Santucci	C
Roy Williams	S

On November 28, 2008, the Bengals had just put Andrew Whitworth and Scott Kooistra on injured reserved, the 20th players lost for the season due to injury. In fact, I mused at the time that the Bengals could nearly fill out a starting lineup with players on Injured Reserve.

Oh, what a difference a year makes.

While the Bengals can't come close to filling out a starting roster, the biggest difference this year is that the team's depth is strong enough to replace those injured players -- except for maybe Tight End -- and lose limited production. Chinedum Ndukwe, the guy replacing Williams in the starting lineup, has 17 career starts. In the first game he started this season against Cleveland, Ndukwe recorded seven tackles and a quarterback sack. Against Houston, Ndukwe recorded a season-high 11 tackles. Along with Brandon Johnson, Ndukwe recorded a quarterback sack deep in the fourth quarter against Baltimore. NFL.com ranks Ndukwe fifth on the team with 35 total tackles.

Chris Henry is a loss in terms of taking advantage of match-up problems. However, through eight games, Henry only caught 12 passes -- then again, he averaged a team high 19.7 yards-per-reception. Based on the talent and depth chart ahead of him, Henry's loss, in terms of overall production, isn't very significant. The Bengals will likely replace Henry with the receiving committee of Maurice Purify and Jerome Simpson; two unproven players that could surprise/disappoint us.

Antwan Odom is perhaps the biggest injury this team has suffered. Through the first two games, the Bengals recorded nine quarterback sacks -- seven from Odom alone. After going down to injury against Houston, the Bengals production hasn't slacked much -- they've recorded five quarterback sacks in the past two games with the following combination of defensive players: Frostee Rucker (1.0), Brandon Johnson (1.5), Robert Geathers (1.0), Michael Johnson (0.5), Jonathan Fanene (0.5), Chinedum Ndukwe (0.5).

Even though Odom's injury was the biggest this team has suffered, in terms of season production coming to a premature end, the team's tight end spot was decimated by injury. However, there was never really any expectation that tight ends would become vital in the passing game, save for pass protection. J.P. Foschi and Daniel Coats are reasonably good when it comes to rush blocking and the biggest difference between the Foschi/Coats tight end era compared to the Kelly/Utecht era is the dropped passes -- admittedly, there's been a few but fortunately, they're not targeted as much.

Two of the biggest improvements this year over the 4-11-1 team in 2008, is that injury isn't crushing the team's chances and the depth chart is as strong as its ever been during the Marvin Lewis era. And the injuries suffered this season hasn't hurt the team's overall production.

Presenting the CincyJungle Bengals Midseason Awards

Kirkendall — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:00:40 -0000

More photos » by Rob Carr - AP

2 months ago: Cincinnati Bengals' Bobbie Williams (63) celebrates after they defeated the Baltimore Ravens 17-14 during an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2009, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)

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It's not that I actively bash Peter King. I find his view that the Bengals are a sideshow at a circus to be somewhat irritating. But in the end, my feeling about the national media is trivial. They don't pay obsessive attention to the Bengals day-in and day-out with teams like the Patriots or Cowboys, or players like Brett Favre, or Brett Favre, or Brett Favre around. It is what it is, and I leave it at that.

However, King did release his Midseason All-Pro team on Tuesday and while no Bengals player was listed, it got me thinking. Do the Bengals have one player that's above all else in the league?

The first player that comes to mind is Cedric Benson. King lists Chris Johnson as the league's best running back in 2009. That's a fine choice. But in my opinion, if you're a player that's deserved of being the best player at that position, then you should be on a team better than 2-6 and better than the 23rd best scoring offense in the NFL.

Other than that, I have a hard time replacing any of our players to King's list. Maybe Benson would fit better as Comeback Player of the Year rather than Brett Favre. But if Favre is considered for an award, you better believe he's getting the hardware. I just don't know exactly where Favre went. Didn't he play the entire season last year? Maybe it's the fact he came back. Get it? Comeback. Yea.

With that in mind, and with the first-half over -- can you believe we're already at the half-way point? -- I'd like to present this year's CincyJungle Midseason Awards.

The Cincinnati Bengals MVP. Being an MVP isn't just about stats or even earning weekly awards. In football, it's much more than that. In football, it's about heroics. It's about leadership. It's leading your team towards success and victory.

One of the knocks on Carson Palmer's career is that he hasn't been known for engineering come from behind victories. In fact, it seemed like if everything wasn't perfect, Palmer struggled. His old passing statistics in previous seasons were beautiful and glorious, but the Bengals needed one last thing from Palmer. He needed to lead the Bengals to victory, no matter the odds.

And boy, did he make that impression early.

Down 6-0 with 6:21 left in the fourth quarter, Palmer engineered an 11-play, 91-yard drive in 5:43 to take a 7-6 lead over the Denver Broncos during opening weekend. The Bengals ended up losing anyway on, well, you remember. Nonetheless, Palmer was foreshadowing. The Bengals were down 20-9 entering the fourth quarter against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the past, the Bengals typically laid down at this point against Pittsburgh. So in somewhat surprise fashion, Palmer completed 10 of 17 passes for 96 yards in the fourth quarter. With 5:14 left in the game, Palmer engineered a 16-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a four-yard touchdown pass to Andre Caldwell. And on that drive, Palmer converted two fourth-downs to keep the game alive; a five-yard pass to Laveranues Coles and an 11-yard pass to Brian Leonard.

Against the Browns, the Bengals really struggled. Palmer most of all. With 6:38 left in the game, the Browns took a 20-14 lead. Palmer led a drive that went 70 yards on 10 plays to tie the game at 20. If it wasn't for a blocked Shaun Rogers point after touchdown (or a misfired snap by Brad St. Louis that caused Shayne Graham to hesitate), the Bengals likely win this game in regulation. Instead, with 3:23 left in overtime, Palmer captains the offense to Cleveland's 13-yard line on 13 plays. Shayne Graham converts the field goal with seven seconds left in the game for the win. Not only did Palmer put together a drive to tie the game, but he had to follow that up with a drive that setup the game winning field goal. What's more impressive is that Palmer and everyone else were way off their game and still came through at the end.

With 2:15 left in the game, the Cincinnati Bengals offense starts at their own 20-yard line, down 14-10 against Baltimore. Again, Palmer leads an 11-play, 80-yard drive in under two minutes to take a 17-14 lead with 22 seconds left in the game. I suppose we can thank the Ravens for a few timely penalties. Regardless, Palmer found Andre Caldwell running a seam down the middle, catching the 20-yard pass to win the game.

Palmer has largely improved as the season has worn on. Since the overtime win over the Browns, Palmer has recorded a passer rating of 80 or better -- 90 or better in the past two games, including a 146.7 against the Bears -- and an 8-2 touchdown to interception ratio.

With all of that said, I still don't think we've seen the best of Palmer yet.

For his late-game heroics and leadership, the 2009 Midseason Team MVP is Carson Palmer.

Offensive Player of the Midseason: An offensive player of the midseason means you're the best offensive player on the team. Even though Carson Palmer was the Cincy Jungle MVP, an argument could be made that he's not the team's best offensive player. We know where this is going, don't we?

It's hard to go against Cedric Benson. His 837 yards rushing ranks second in the NFL. He's scored a touchdown in six of the season's eight games. Eight times he's picked up gains of 20 yards or more (tied for third) and 35 of his rushes have picked up first downs. If not for Benson, many things don't turn out the way they do. Because of the threat to run on nearly every down, Palmer isn't dealing with overloaded secondary packages. Because of Benson, the Bengals can finally become like-minded in the general success of this division by rushing the football first.

Not only is he the best offensive player of the year, but Benson could be awarded the Comeback Player of the Year as well as Best Free Agent signing of the year.

Defensive Player(s) of the Midseason: If it wasn't for Antwan Odom's injury, he'd be the guy. It's hard to vote against anyone who picks up seven sacks in the season's first two games. I honestly wouldn't have a problem if you were to make that choice today. However, I'm going with the cornerback duo of Johnathan Joseph and Leon Hall. Combined for eight interceptions -- one returned for a touchdown -- the Joseph/Hall combination picked off Joe Flacco four times, largely contributing to the season sweep against one of the league's powerhouses. Johnathan Joseph's interception return for a touchdown against Pittsburgh in the third quarter gave the Bengals their first touchdown of the day and largely swung momentum into the Bengals favor that led to an unlikely (at the time) win over the Steelers on September 27.

Leon Hall (16) and Johnathan Joseph (15) rank in the top-four in the NFL with most pass deflections. Hall's 41 tackles rank third among all cornerbacks in the league; behind Cedric Griffin (48) and Champ Bailey (45). Both cornerbacks are already close to achieving career-high numbers this year.

The cornerback duo's play (and health) this year have enabled Mike Zimmer to employ different packages that keep opposing offenses guessing. Thanks to two former first round picks that are starting to play on their respective islands as we had hoped they would.

The Award for lowest expectation turning into team's greatest pride and Award for Comeback Unit of the Year. When the Bengals finished last season the offensive line was in turmoil. Palmer and Ryan Fitzpatrick had no protection and the Bengals rushing offense largely failed because the offensive line couldn't open lanes. Once Anthony Collins and Nate Livings joined the starting group because of injury, the line started stabilizing. But the question was strong enough in everyone's mind this offseason to be concerned. Kyle Cook replaced Eric Ghiaciuc, who wasn't offered a contract. Anthony Collins moved to right tackle. Andrew Whitworth moved to left tackle. Bobbie Williams stayed home. Nate Livings resumed left guard duties he earned at the end of last year.

I remember thinking at the time: there are no new faces! All of these guys were around last season. What makes me think they'll improve anything?

If we could nominate an entire unit for comeback unit of the year, it would be the Bengals offensive line. Even though Carson Palmer is on pace to be sacked 24 times this year, the Bengals offensive line hasn't just performed well above expectations, they've flipped all of us off and laughed for not believing. No one expected what they're doing now. No one expected that Palmer would only be hit 24 times (not sacks, being hit) through eight games.

Then there's the offense's 4.3 yard-per-rush average, which ranks 13th in the league. There's Cedric Benson, who doesn't exist if not for this offensive line; the same offensive line that helped Benson break gaudy defensive rushing streaks that the Ravens were riding.

This offensive line isn't the best in the league. But who cares? This offensive line is why the Bengals’ offense is playing as well as they are. And no one expected that.

Award for Best Team Performance of the Midseason. Anytime you win a game by 35 points, you had a damn fine game. Cincinnati took a 31-3 lead into halftime behind four Carson Palmer touchdown passes against the Chicago Bears. Cincinnati finished with 448 yards of total offense and the defense held the Bears to 279 yards on their way to a 45-10 victory.

Award for Winning The Big Game. Even though the Bengals swept the Baltimore Ravens, contestant in last year's AFC title game, the Bengals win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in week three was significantly bigger.

Award for Biggest Team Letdown of the Midseason. Awards are generally not handed out for disappointing feats. But I had to mention this for two reasons. The way Cincinnati dealt with adversity and how dangerously hard this team could fall if they play down to their opponents with a very weak stretch on the second-half schedule.

One could argue the team let down against the Houston Texans, losing 28-17. However, the Texans have a winning record this year, aiming for a wild card spot in the playoffs and nearly pulled off an upset over the Indianapolis Colts on November 8. Of their four losses, only one was lost by more than a touchdown. My pick for Letdown Game of the Year goes to a game that the Bengals actually ended up winning. Odd, eh? Coming into the game, the Cleveland Browns had the league's worst offense and 30th ranked defense. Other than it being an in-state rival, there was no reason why the Bengals couldn't obliterate one of the worst teams in the NFL. We were superior on offense. We were twice as superior on defense. Instead, the game was close. The Bengals played down to their opponent. Derek Anderson threw for 269 yards. Jerome Harrison rushed for 121 yards. J.P. Foschi and Daniel Coats were the team's leading receivers and Cedric Benson -- the guy that rushes for 100 yards against the Ravens defense -- only gained 74 yards through nearly five quarters.

The Bengals needed nearly 75 minutes to win this game, which is a signal of their growing (and impressive) level of maturity and ability to succeed through adversity. But if we had lost this game, it would have been a terrible loss.

Award for greatest third down conversion in team history. This isn't so much of importance as it is an example of how karma can play a role in games. The 31-24 win over the Green Bay Packers didn't start well at all. Carson Palmer had thrown a five-yard touchdown pass to Laveranues Coles on the team's first offensive drive of the game, taking a 7-0 lead. Aaron Rodgers answered with a three-yard touchdown of his own. Palmer threw a pick and the Packers scored another touchdown to take a 14-7 lead. Quan Cosby returned a punt 60 yards that setup an eventual one-yard quarterback sneak to tie the game at 14. Bengals force a three-and-out. On the second play of the next possession, Charles Woodson returns an interception for a touchdown, giving the Packers a 21-14 lead.

On the next possession, the Bengals line up at their own seven-yard line on third down. The first down marker sits at the 41-yard line. What do most teams do on third-and-34? Hope a screen pass or draw is unexpected enough to gain as many yards as possible. After catching a short dump pass out of the flats, Daniel Coats takes off. About 11 yards short of the first down marker, Cullen Jenkins knocks the football out of Coats' arm and it (the football, not Coats) bounces forward 15 yards where Laveranues Coles pounces and recovers the fumble. First down.

You knew the football gods smiled upon the Cincinnati Bengals that day when Green Bay only scored three points and Antwan Odom was on his way to having a career day (five sacks).

Nominations for Acid Reflux.

Brad St. Louis
Daniel Coats

Rookie of the Midseason. The Bengals had a good draft in the spring. Several players are contributors now, like Rey Maualuga, Michael Johnson, Morgan Trent and Bernard Scott. Jonathan Luigs may factor in the offensive line next season, depending on if the Bengals bring Bobbie Williams back.

But the rookie that's really contributed is a fifth round pick from the University of Cincinnati. With a tremendous ability to turn the field, Huber could be the team's Special Teams Player of the Midseason. His first five career punts landed inside the 20-yard line.

		Punts	In-20	Avg.	Long
2008	Kyle Larson	100	28	39.5	57
2009	Kevin Huber	49	13	43.7	61

He's averaged over 45 yards/punt in four games. Only 45% of his punts were returned. And in every game save for one he kicked at least one 50-yard punt. It might seem sad that we're awarding our Rookie of the Midseason Award to a punter, but that would only mean you haven't seen him punt.

However, we have to also acknowledge that Rey Maualuga could easily win this award. He's recorded 30 tackles, two forced fumbles and a quarterback sack. If you go with Maualuga, that too would be a fine choice.

Now it's your turn. This is where the community takes part. What do you think of the awards? What other awards would you create and hand out? Discuss.

Mike McCarthy On The Packers Offensive Line

Brandon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:00:37 -0000

by Steve Nesius - AP

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During his Monday press conference, Mike McCarthy said RT Mark Tauscher may play on Sunday against the Cowboys, or he may be out a couple weeks. Obviously former starter RT Allen Barbre would play in his place, but he hasn't played well all season.

McCarthy said he wouldn't switch the coaching responsibilities for the offensive line or special teams at this point. As much as James Campen's and Shawn Slocum's units have struggled, it's not like he can go out and sign Bobby April and Alex Gibbs right now to replace them. The only coaches apparently available at this time of year are in semi-retirement and calling bingo.

Though it does look like T.J. Lang is set to replace Daryn Colledge at left guard, according to the Journal-Sentinel. Of course it would be great if Jason Spitz could step in, but he's unfortunately done for the season. It's about time for Colledge's benching. He gave up a lot of sacks for a guard in 2008, and I've been hoping for his benching since the game in Minneapolis. Actually I don't know how he got his job back after he was benched in 2007.

McCarthy was pretty clear about what needed to be done:

We don't need wholesale change. We may need to adjust some things and that will be our focus. But as far as going outside the building, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I have all the answers, but I'm very confident in the issues that we've had in pass protection, that they are correctable.

Which is fine, but I wonder if he meant correctable this season. Or with the players currently on the roster. Contrast that statement to something he said after the Bengals game when DE Antwan Odom had 5 sacks:

At some point, you have to win the one-on-one battle with the help being secondary instead of a primary focus.

They were losing one-on-one battles back in week 2, and it hasn't looked much better since then. If your players can't win the one-on-one battles, the only thing would seem to correct the problem is new players.

The one in which the Bengals' secondary is still awesome and the Bengals take a 4-0 division record...Bengals win 17-7

A Pragmatic Bengals Fan — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:16:16 -0000

by Al Behrman - AP

about 1 month ago: Baltimore Ravens fullback Le'Ron McClain (33) is gang-tackled by, left to right, Cincinnati Bengals defenders Domata Peko, Keith Rivers, Frostee Rucker, Dhani Jones and Leon Hall after a short gain in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

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Today was the first time in recent memory that I sat down to watch a Bengals division game and did not get nervous from the first snap. Were there some things that happened today that give me pause? Were there some things that happened today that concern me going forward?

Of course there were. I don't like that Ed Reed made Chad Ochocinco cough the ball up again today. That bothers me. I credit Chad for continuing his theme of improving his yards after catch, but when it comes at the cost of possessing the ball it can be a detriment. Chad has been great at making things happen after catching the ball all year long, and it usually happens the same way. He will catch the ball on the left side of the field, turn to his left and spin off a defender and take off like a bat down the field. It is usually a thing of beauty. Got to keep better control of the ball while he's running, but I'm sure he doesn't need to hear that from me.

Let's do some breakdown after the jump, shall we?

The loss of Chris Henry (possibly for the year, unofficially) is unfortunate to be sure. The young man has done a terrific job getting his life back on track and now he likely has a clear schedule for the next eight or nine months. I do believe that he has turned the corner in his personal life, and now he has a great opportunity to prove that to the rest of the world. Now that I've completed my Dr. Phil impression, on the field the lack of Slim 15 will definitely make a difference.

I would fully expect to see the debut of Jerome Simpson dressed for action next week, and hopefully he will make a difference. The solid play of Laveranues Coles and the emergence of Andre Caldwell makes the loss of Henry much less imposing, but regardless a hole now exists where production is going to have to be generated.

On a side note, I apologize for my role in Henry's injury. I picked him up and started him this week on one of my fantasy teams. I now know better and will not do that again. Please don't hurt me.

Looking at different areas of today's game, how about that secondary, folks? Leon Hall and Jonathan Joseph continue to play out of their minds on the field of fake grass. Each contributed one interception of Joe Flacco today along with particularly stellar play from one Jonathan Joseph. Joseph was Deion Sanders-esque out there today. Seeing him laying on the field and limping to the sideline absolutely terrified me, it was great to see him back out later on in the game.

Cedric Benson continues to be a man possessed when he has a football in his hand. Running for 117 yards against Baltimore today made him the first running back since Ricky Williams to gash Baltimore for greater than 100 yards in consecutive games (thanks, Joe Reedy!). Williams ran for over a buck in consecutive games over two seasons, 2002-2003 against the Ravens. To the best of my knowledge, Benson is now the only running back to do it twice in one season. Fantasy owners continue to laud him with praise and more than likely bouquets of flowers for the point totals he brings.

One of the most impressive plays I've seen this year was the exchange between Kyries Hebert and Rey Maualuga to down a Kevin Huber punt inside the one. In the event you missed that one, you may want to keep an eye on ESPN later on tonight. I'm sure that one will be seen again. Huber bounced the punt inside the five and Hebert was right there waiting for it. He jumped backward preventing the ball from going into the end zone and threw the ball into the waiting arms of one Rey Maualuga who caught the ball and stood on the half-yard line. It was a thing of beauty.

The team also continues to miss Antwan Odom much less than expected. Three consecutive sacks to end the Ravens' last prayer at trying to put points on the board was pretty impressive if you ask this blogger. Had my children not been napping upstairs I would have likely shook the windows all the way down my parents' street.

That's pretty much all I have to say about today's game at the moment. I'm going to go and eat now, my dad just finished a fish fry. Enjoy it this week, ladies and gentlemen. One more biggie on the horizon next week at Pittsburgh before things get any easier. I'm looking forward to reading what the national media says about our boys in Orange and Black this week, though. For the Bengals to dominate the first half like that after Baltimore laid the beatdown on Denver that they did last week is a huge statement.

Needless to say, I enjoyed today's game very very much. Thanks again, Bengals.

Ever-increasingly optmistically yours,

A Pragmatic Bengals Fan

Bengals will need someone to step up for injured Antwan Odom

Kirkendall — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:11:22 -0000

More photos » by David Kohl - AP

about 1 month ago: Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Antwan Odom (98) is taken off the field after being injured in the first half of an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl)

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No, injuries are not an excuse. We've heard that before. But injuries do hurt a team; sometimes critically. For example, Carson Palmer's injury in 2008. There. Point made. I've never bought into the general theory that a team fails because of injury. The counter argument is that a good organization will have great depth that could replace starters when they go down. Fine. But when your starting quarterback goes down for the season, you're not going to be as good. In the Bengals case, Palmer's injury led (perhaps not directly) to a 4-11-1 season. Even though Tom Brady's injury opened the door for Matt Cassell to lead the New England Patriots to an 11-5 record, the Patriots still missed the playoffs. Then again, would have the Patriots lost by 25 points to the Dolphins, 20 points to the Chargers or 23 points to the Steelers if Brady were playing?

The Bengals have had critical injuries already this year. Reggie Kelly is one; not for his pass catching skills, rather his blocking, leadership and tremendous mentorship for Chase Coffman (then again, he still could be mentoring Chase... we just haven't heard lately). I never thought that Ben Utecht was that big of a loss -- what exactly has he proven?

The one injury that could turn out to be big is Antwan Odom. Feels like forever since he went down, doesn't it? It's only been a game and a half.

Through the first two games of the season, Odom sacked the quarterback seven times -- including five against the Green Bay Packers. He recorded only one sack in the following four games. But his presence was known. The Bengals had a defensive player that the opposing offense had to account for -- how many times have we had someone like that? Just as Bengals lore goes, against the Houston Texans, easily the worst combined effort by the Bengals in 2009, Odom gets carted off the field after rupturing his right Achilles' tendon.

The Bengals have recorded at least one sack in eight straight games dating back to December 21, 2008. In six of those eight games, the Bengals recorded two sacks or more.

After moments of cursing, which included a Hudson-like over-reaction in Aliens ("WTF are we going to do now, we're in some really pretty............"), the Bengals had to figure a way to replace their best pass rusher of the season. Do they change philosphy? Do they blitz more? Do they rely on someone stepping up to the plate and crushing a fastball? Jonathan Fanene is a likely candidate, who has already recorded a career high three quarterback sacks -- two of which that came in two of the last three games. Behind Fanene is Frostee Rucker. The thing about Rucker isn't so much his talent -- we know he has it -- it's depending on him to stay healthy for the rest of the season. And he looked good against the Bears, didn't he?

Then you ask, where's Robert Geathers? Since recording 10.5 quarterback sacks in 2006, Geathers has recorded 6.5 sacks in the 34 games since. If there's someone that needs to produce, one would be justified to point at him now.

I like what I saw out of Rucker and I've always liked the way Fanene plays. However, effort and health, while critical, will need to be followed up with results. And against a team like Baltimore, whose offense can put points together in a heart beat, the Bengals need to rattle Joe Flacco, who recorded a season-low 70.1 passer rating thanks to a season-high two interceptions the last time the Ravens played Cincinnati.

Report: MRI shows no damage in Bernard Scott's knee

Kirkendall — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:08:49 -0000

More photos » by Mark Duncan - AP

2 months ago: Cincinnati Bengals running back Bernard Scott runs for a first down in the first quarter of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2009, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Mark Duncan)

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The past two weeks has been somewhat treacherous for the Cincinnati Bengals. Antwan Odom was lost for the year against Houston. Domata Peko suffered a knee injury in the same game that generated enough concern that we wondered if he'd be out for some time. He played against the Bears. Then against the Bears, Jeremi Johnson and Bernard Scott left the game. Marvin Lewis said that Jeremi should be alright and we'd know later about Bernard Scott. Later is now.

On Wednesday, C Trent Rosencrans tweets:

Bernard Scott said the MRI showed no damage in his knee and he should be fine

Scott's injury couldn't have come at a worse time for him personally. Cincinnati dominated the Chicago Bears on Sunday, taking a 31-3 half time lead. Typically during blowout games, backup players tend to get a majority of their work in, during what's called "garbage time". With Brian Leonard inactive, Bernard Scott would have finished the game in place of Benson. When Scott and Jeremi went down, Benson was forced to take the bulk of the carries to finish the game, giving him 37 rushing attempts.

Shallow Thoughts & Nearsighted Observations

Ted Bartlett — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:30:29 -0000

More photos » by Denis Poroy - AP

about 1 month ago: Denver Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall tries to pull away from San Diego Chargers cornerback Quentin Jammer after a pass reception for nine yards during the third quarter of the NFL football game Monday, Oct. 19, 2009 in San Diego. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

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Happy Tuesday friends, and welcome to another (shortened) edition of Shallow Thoughts & Nearsighted Observations. This is MileHighReport.com, the premier source of Broncos new and analysis in the entire world. I have been feeling like we're still kind of peripheral, in the eyes of the rest of the worldwide media, but we beat the bejesus out of them every day, when it comes to covering the Broncos.

As they say, game recognizes game, and correspondingly, it also recognizes groupthink and suckiness. By your being here, reading this today, and hopefully, every week, you mark yourself as having good sense, and at least a partial desire to be part of what is a collaborative learning and growth experience for us all. I'm a front-page staff guy, obviously, but I learn interesting things from FanPosters all the time. Those people are the lifeblood of the MHR community, and they should be commended for their outstanding contributions.

If you're a lurker, you obviously have the good sense to consume our front page content. I wanted to take a minute to ask you to consider joining as an MHR community member, and participating in the discussion. We always welcome people just like you, and chances are, you know something that will be of value to the rest of us, or you have a question which will spark a discussion, which has value to the rest of us. Either way, we all win.

Okay, Ted's Own Personal Membership Drive is over. My local NPR affiliate, 90.3 WCPN in Cleveland, has been doing a drive lately (seemingly, every time I am in my car), so I decided to do a quick one in Donny Deutschland this week. I don't want your money, just your participation. (For one thing, I think this is a great week for my lurking brother Chris to join.) Do a smart thing, and get down with MHR. As we say in the US Navy, welcome aboard.

OK, on to football, and whatever else pops into my head. Out of the echo chamber, and into the fire, y'all. Ready....?

Y'all weren't ready. Okay, get ready, and let's try this again. Ready.... BEGIN!!!

1. I have some early thoughts on the Ravens game, which i consider to be a pretty favorable matchup for the Broncos. First, the Ravens are extremely physical, so it's good to be playing them, healthy and coming off a bye week. The Broncos will have to match their physicality on both sides of the ball, and I have every reason to expect that they will.

Offensively, the Broncos need to attack the Ravens outside the numbers, with Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal, and Tony Scheffler. The Ravens are bad at CB, and really their only good DB is Ed Reed, so throwing it where he isn't is a solid plan. They also need to run the ball, and I believe that they'll have good success in doing so. The Ravens went about 3 years without giving up a 100-yard rusher, and then got hit back to back by Cedric Benson and Adrian Peterson in their last two games. This is a good defense, but it's not the vintage great defense we're used to.

Defensively, the Broncos absolutely must tackle Ray Rice, who has arguably been the second-best RB in the AFC this season, just behind Benson. Rice is averaging 6 yards per carry (73-441-3) and 9.8 yards per catch (33-325-1). Rice is very short, and very stocky, which makes him hard to tackle. Joe Flacco can make all the throws, but I love the Broncos secondary against Derrick Mason, Mark Clayton, and Todd Heap. I'm not worried about any of those guys consistently beating anybody in the Broncos secondary. Rice is the key player.

2. Information From My Eyes:

a. I like the vision and decisiveness with which Ryan Grant ran on Sunday. There have been some rumors that the Packers want to replace him, but he hasn't been the problem with the running game in Green Bay. He could use a good tandem back to work with, and better play from the offensive line, but Grant is definitely a starting-caliber back.

b. The Browns are just unwatchable, so I haven't been talking about them much lately. If I were Eric Mangini, this is the all-inclusive list of guys I'd want to keep on the roster after this season: Joshua Cribbs, Joe Thomas, Shaun Rogers, Eric Steinbach, Alex Mack, Mohamed Massaquoi, David Veikune, Eric Wright, Brandon McDonald, and D'Qwell Jackson. (I like Brady Quinn better than he does, but since he clearly doesn't like him, I excluded him). That's the only 10 players who I think are good players (or potentially good players) on winning football teams. Maybe you keep 10 more for next year, which is still going to be transitional. For the rest of the roster, you take a page from your friend Josh McDaniels, and go out and find some professionals to fill your holes, and try to have a very good draft. It is a talent problem in Cleveland, and all the other stuff is red herrings, until they fix the talent.

c. At a total team level, I am very impressed with the Cincinnati Bengals, and I think that they are a serious threat in the playoffs. I know I have smart readers, and I exchanged emails with a guy in the UK named Jake last week. He thought that the Bengals were a lock against the Bears, and I agreed. The Bengals controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, and they hit and frustrated Jay Cutler all day.

d. I don't want to be too inflammatory with any of our Cutler lovers (if any are left), but has anybody noticed that he took his personal tendency for being on the losing end of blowouts with him to Chicago? I am sure the Broncos will eventually lose a game, but I find it impossible to imagine this team losing any game 45-10. It takes a certain kind of team to have the wheels just totally fall off in all phases of the game. I looked at the Bears Sunday and saw a complete lack of gameness and mental toughness. We all remember the games the 2006-2008 Broncos had like that, and I don't mean to attribute it personally to Cutler, or take a cheap shot. You simply can't deny, though, that this bad team-wide trait followed him out of town, and joined him in Chicago.

e. Cutler still seems to have the Favre-ian effect on the media and his fan base, where he manages to completely avoid personal blame, even when he plays very poorly, as he did Sunday. I visited the Bears' SBNation side, Windy City Gridiron, and there was virtually no criticism of Cutler, and you can see that he has again escaped much MSM accountability, too. I know I used to rationalize his bad play, and I think everybody here pretty much did too, at least to some degree. It's really a pretty amazing phenomenon, in a bad way. (By the way, I was proud to see that none of our members were over there trolling. Big up, MHR.)

f. Nobody gets picked in the top 5 of a draft because they look like they can't play in the NFL. Cedric Benson's talent just jumps off the screen. He's so fast for his size, and he has changed everything for Cincinnati. He's the main reason that the Bengals are so good on offense, because defenses are having to play eight in the box against him. That allows their good WRs to run wild, and Carson Palmer to hit his choice of open players. Benson is 10 times the player that Matt Forte is. The magnitude of the difference is akin to comparing Brian Dawkins to (Safety) Roy Williams.

g. The Bears' 7-man fronts were getting blown off the ball consistently. Just wait until Andre Smith gets started playing at RT. He is going to flat-out dominate in the running game, if he can keep his head on straight. He was clearly the best lineman in the 2009 Draft, and only his erratic pre-Draft behavior made him last to the sixth-overall pick.

h. Tank Johnson has been excellent all season for the Bengals, and was particularly terrific Sunday. Frostee Rucker and Robert Geathers had big games too, and the Bengals didn't seem to miss Antwan Odom too terribly (for one game, anyway).

i. Remember that business about top-5 guys going in the top 5 for a reason? ST&NO favorite Alex Smith had that on display Sunday. If he is ever put in a position to succeed, and can stay healthy, he will be the second coming of Rich Gannon. He's had 5 offensive coordinators in 5 years, and had the really bad shoulder injury, which he foolishly tried to play through for awhile. Remember, he is still only 25 years old. He's smart, athletic, and throws a pretty nice ball, and he's a humble, team-first player. I think Smith has an opportunity to get his career back on track, because Shaun Hill has played poorly for most of this season. There is no question that Smith is more talented than Hill.

j. It took him awhile, and some tough love from Mike Singletary to get there, but Vernon Davis is the best two-way TE in the NFL. I'd say the next best guy is probably Jason Witten, but there's a big drop-off between the two. Davis is such a fantastic blocker, and he's improved greatly as a receiver.

k. On the topic of pride and mental toughness, you have to be impressed with the job the Saints did Sunday, in coming back from a 24-3 first-half deficit against Miami. They just kept plugging away, and started executing, and eventually overtook the Dolphins. It was a great team effort, on a day where they didn't have their best stuff.

l. One serious concern I have for the Saints is how susceptible they looked to backside pressure on Drew Brees, with Jermon Bushrod filling in for Jammal Brown at LT (Brown is out for the year). Brees was shaky when he was getting pressured Sunday, like most QBs. You especially want to pressure the "A" gaps against him, because he has a strong predisposition for aggressively stepping straight up into the pocket. The Dolphins were especially successful when they generated interior pressure.

m. The Dolphins are probably going to miss the playoffs this year, and they'll look back with regret on letting the Colts and Saints get off the mat, when they had both teams pretty well beaten. Miami is a good team, which has just whiffed on opportunities to beat other good teams.

n. I don't think there is anything particularly noteworthy about Miles Austin, from a skills perspective. I watched the Dallas/Atlanta game when I got back from Dallas on Monday afternoon, and my first thought was that a good portion of the torching Austin put on the Falcons was from the slot in 3-WR packages, against base defensive personnel. I got all set to rip the Falcons for not subbing to match the offensive personnel grouping, but then I thought about it, and found myself wondering if I wouldn't be sticking to base too, if I were their Defensive Coordinator Brian Van Gorder. The Falcons lost their best CB, Brian Williams, to injury last week, and, remember, he was a Jaguars training camp casualty. Behind him are Chris Houston (who is talented but inconsistent), and Brent Grimes (who is not really talented, but tries hard). Nickel offense is the way to beat the Falcons, because they severely lack the quality players in the secondary to match up with it. I think Sunday was the first step to them having that deficiency cost them a playoff spot this year.

o. Isn't it great to have 4 CBs we can trust, as well as two safeties, in Darcel McBath and Josh Barrett, who are very good in man-to-man coverage?

p. One thing that jumped out in the Dallas-Atlanta game was that the Falcons receivers (including Tony Gonzalez) had a great deal of trouble separating from the man-to-man coverage they were getting from the Cowboys (whose secondary is average, at best). Matt Ryan had a lot of really tight spots to throw to, and largely since he got hit a great deal Sunday, he missed a lot of those throws.

q. So, I promised I'd interject some fraternity-man wedding hijinks, whether anybody wants it or not, so here goes. Have you ever had a snakebite? It's a shot my contemporaries and I favor, and it consists of Yukon Jack and lime juice. It strikes a good balance between being masculine and manageable, and it's kind of that one shot that everybody agrees is doable. Anyway - apparently, Yukon Jack hasn't penetrated the Dallas-Fort Worth market very effectively, because these local bartenders there have never heard of it, or a snakebite. Well, Scott (the groom) came to play, and he made sure that there was Yukon Jack at the reception, and that the caterers knew how to make the shot.

So, at some point, when the music shifted from craptastic country dinner music, and moved on to Run DMC, the 5 Tekes who were there did a snakebite. Good times. Then we did another, and we were joined by the cool girls in the wedding party, and a couple of Scott's cousins. The Tekes put it down like it was water, the rest of them struggled, and made faces while choking it down. Scott looked at me, with this extreme solemnity, and he nodded and said, "This is how we do."

Five eloquent words, and truth was achieved. This is, in fact, how we do. He was absolutely right. There's an easily discernible identity about us, as a group of men, and part of that identity is that we dominate some snakebites. I thought of this, as I watched the Short Cut of the Colts-Rams game. The Colts have an easily discernible identity. They play a lot of Cover-2 on defense, and try to limit their exposure to big plays. On offense, they take the whole play clock, try to shorten the game, and Peyton Manning works to always take what the defense gives him. They want to get a 10-14 point lead, and then send Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis after your QB, once you have to throw the ball. There's no secret or mystery to it, and they don't even particularly game-plan much for specific teams, beyond adjusting some protection schemes, maybe. There is a great deal of comfort to knowing exactly what you're going to do, and exactly who you are.

r. Why in the world would the new Twilight movie be advertised during Monday Night Football? I am sure a few people like (or would like) both Twilight and pro football, but can it possibly be more than 10% of the viewers? Seems like little value for the advertising dollar, there, pinning your hopes to a mostly male audience being interested in the visual depiction of chick lit.

s. So, I have a half-sister, Abby, who is going to be 8 in November. She's a smart kid, but when I was over last week, her mother was telling her that she needed to learn how to think outside the box a little more. Abby didn't know what that meant, so I drew her the classic MBA school exercise that our father shared with me when I was about 13 (and he was in MBA school, and this was a brand new idea). This exercise is actually where the now-tired phrase came from.

The objective is to connect all 9 dots, using 4 or less straight lines. As the term "outside the box" indicates, this is how you complete the objective.

I dislike the term "outside the box," because people who have no idea what it means use it all the time. (It's one of those concepts that would have been better off being compartmentalized to smart people only, like any number of concepts I can think of, actually). Anyway, I am taking a long route to applauding the Eagles for making an "outside the box" huge trade last week, just ahead of the deadline.

Will Witherspoon is not particularly famous, because he has toiled on irrelevant teams for his whole career (first, some mostly bad Carolina teams, and then some awful St. Louis teams). He's very good, though, and he has experience both in the middle, and on the weakside. He's a run-and-hit player, like the kind of guy you'd probably see in a Jim Bates- or Larry Coyer-kind of design. It seems to me that Steve Spagnuolo didn't think that Witherspoon particularly fit his system, which is, of course, basically the same system used in Philadelphia and with the New York Giants. It's a big, blitz-happy 40-front, which is designed around getting A-gap pressure consistently. It's stylistically similar to a Phillips 3-4, and it favors interior front-seven players who are basically 3-4 profile guys.

The Jim Johnson tree has always favored big, downhill thumpers in the middle. Power trumps speed at that position. The quintessential guy is Jeremiah Trotter, who was the size of a DE in his prime, and is now closer to a DT. (Trotter, you'll remember, once struggled mightily when he signed a big contract with Washington, and they tried to make him fit their scheme.) The Eagles brought him back this season, and he was a huge liability in the passing game (to wit, see the Raiders game last week). By bringing in Witherspoon, the Eagles went outside of type, but the impact single-handedly returned them to real-contender status. He had a huge game Monday night, with an interception for a TD, and a strip-sack, and I expect that it's only the beginning.

t. I hope Jon Gruden doesn't get and/or take a coaching job next season. He is fantastic on Monday Night Football, and y'all know I am not too prone to wantonly complimenting much of anything about ESPN. He had a great piece of information on the Redskins, which was really shocking to me, actually. Clinton Portis told him that the last time he heard an audible, he was a Bronco. Gruden's point was that if Jason Campbell could at least change the protection scheme to account for overload blitzes, it could put him in better position not to get crushed, while knowing the crushing is coming.

Umm, you think? That's just scratching the surface of the benefits of audible-ing. The Redskins are a total Mickey Mouse operation, and I am just shocked that they didn't have anything in place, even when Joe Gibbs was there. That strikes me as having to be an organizational policy, and if it is, it's the stupidest thing that I have ever heard of, in 22 years of being a serious football observer. I know high school teams that audible, for God's sake.

u. Jason Peters, who I have been wanting to take a close look at, looked pretty cockamamie to me on Monday night, which agreed with my long-held perception of him. He gave up a sack, and generally looked like a low-effort, I-already-got-paid kind of guy. There were several plays where I saw him watching the play, and not looking to hit anybody. I see and hear all these glowing reports on the guy, but where's the beef? I am starting to understand why Buffalo thought paying Peters was a bad idea.

v. I don't like gambling, but I had to take the bet my friend Paul offered me. I had Philadelphia, straight-up against Washington, with dinner as the stakes, the next time Paul is in Cleveland around Thanksgiving. That was such a lock, it's almost unbelievable that he offered me the bet. And, no, he's actually a Dallas fan, in case you were wondering if he was just a silly Washington homer.

3. I have been something of a Brett Kern apologist, but he wasn't getting it done. I like the message that replacing him sends to the rest of the team. Even a 6-0 team has room for improvement, and everybody needs to handle the job they're hired to do.

4. I was thinking about roles over the weekend, how we all have certain roles to fill in life, and how that's true of football too, which was the context I was thinking in. All good teams are full of role players who understand their roles. As a member of the MHR creative team, I have a role, and so do the rest of the guys. (I don't know if what my role became is what John had in mind when he asked me to join last year, but it is what it is now.) Snark, discussion about offense, courage, media criticism, pop culture, snark, meandering, community building, snark, detailed football analysis, play diagrams, obscure references, lots of (now correctly punctuated) parentheses, righteous indignation, commentary on other teams and games, optimism, prescience in 2009, and snark. That's my role, and that's ST&NO.

I like that the Broncos were constructed and operate with a lot of thought devoted to roles. As a coach, when you sign a veteran like Vonnie Holliday on the eve of the season, and you tell him that he'll be a rotation player, primarily on the field in pass-rush situations, there's a clarity of understanding between you and the player. That clarity is good for business, and it comes through when you see all 53 players knowing their roles, and playing them well.

5. I think MSM NFL reporters are mostly dorks; that's pretty well-established here. (I don't mean the stringers and the local AP guys, per se, I mean the scoop-seeking talking heads.) The most dork-tastic one, in my opinion, is Jay Glazer from Fox, and he's several laps ahead of the field. Here are some recent Glazer tweets:

i'm reporting dallas and d ware have agreed on new 6 yr deal worth up to 13 per yr and nearly 40mil guaranteed. well worth it!

about 9 hours ago from txt

I reported Dan Snyder was urged to give Zorn vote of conf but opted not to. Also didnt wanna speak to press, fearing he wouldn't bite tongue

11:24 AM Oct 25th from web

i'm so tired from spending the whole dang day workin the phones for scoopage i really don't wanna go out. wait, wait... my arm is a twistin

8:28 PM Oct 23rd from txt

Cindy Crawford was here at this party, gotta admit she is one of the my physically beautiful and elegant women I have ever seen! stunning!!!

12:37 AM Oct 23rd from web

dumbest line of our night! Strahan: "There's TWO things i can do: spell, add and subtract." yes, he really said that! my friend is a moron

6:42 PM Oct 19th from txt

Have you ever known a person who is always name-dropping, and was at this party, and saw that celebrity, and is always claiming credit for themselves, because they're so much better than everybody else? That's Jay Glazer. Really, how hard is it to be an MSM NFL reporter? You offer yourself up as a convenient mouthpiece for anybody who wants to use you, and then they use you. You try to make them let you use them once in a while, too.

The Cowboys signed DeMarcus Ware; okay, that's admittedly news. Does it matter if Glazer heard about it 10 minutes before Adam Schefter did? With these guys, it's always about who had information first that everybody was going to have soon anyway. None of these guys is ever finding out anything significant which wasn't meant to come out. The Snyder thing is meaningless. Who cares? Everybody knows he's going to fire Jim Zorn after the season, so how he felt last week, when he didn't make any news, is worthless. It's just something Glazer can claim that he knew, that nobody else did. There's no Woodward or Bernstein covering the NFL, you know?

Since we're all friends here, I just wanted to vent, because Glazer makes me crazy, with his "scoopage," and his name-dropping, and his day-drinking in Beverly Hills. Thanks for listening/reading.

6. From Stuart Scott, trying to sound smart by saying that Donovan McNabb is an H-back when he's lined up outside in the Eagles "Wildcat" look:

H-back means good speed, some heft to him, runs good routes, and can catch the ball.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. I don't care for Stuart Scott, and all of his contrived, Berman-esque, shucking and jiving, but I would like him a little better if he'd not talk about things he has no clue about. Just stick to worshipping Michael Jordan, mmmmkay, Stu? And while we're at it, how is Matt Winer the analytical counter-balance to Trent Dilfer, on the ESPN Monday Night 3-man set? Those two with noted other shucker/jiver Scott Van Pelt is a weird trio.

7. Retired for John Elway

8. I had occasion to drive by the new Dallas Cowboys stadium over the weekend, and TV doesn't do justice to how enormous it is. It's a really impressive-looking building from the outside. One thing, though, which I found interesting about my DFW experience, was how few people and cars I saw rocking Cowboys gear. I saw more on Monday morning, which is probably no surprise.

I hope everybody has a good Ravens week. All you get is about 4,200 words this week, because I am out of interesting things to say, and we're on some all-killer, no-filler here, like always. Really, that would be about an 18-20 page term paper in college, so it's still not too shabby. Look for Lighting Up The Scoreboard Saturday afternoon, and follow me on Twitter @TedBartlett905. And join MHR, if you haven't yet. There's no time like now.

Week in Review: Bengals must play the rest of the season like it's the playoffs

Kirkendall — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:23:54 -0000

More photos » by David Kohl - AP

about 1 month ago: Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis breaks into a smile after the Bengals scored against the Houston Texans in the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/David Kohl)

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Carson Palmer is calling Sunday a must-win. Hasn't it seemed like we've called every Bengals game a must-win this year? Beating Denver was a must-win to prevent another eight-game losing streak out of the gate like last season. We've called Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Baltimore must-wins for their division implications. Now, we're calling the Bears a must-win. And this could be the best example of that.

If the Bengals beat the Bears Sunday, Cincinnati heads into the bye week with a 5-2 record, regaining some momentum, still controlling their own destiny. After that, the Bengals host Baltimore and travel to Pittsburgh in back-to-back weeks. If, and that's always a big if, Cincinnati wins the next three games, they control their own destiny. After that three-game stretch, the Bengals play the Raiders, Browns and Lions. Now, we're 10-2 with the Vikings, Chargers, Chiefs and Jets to close out the season. So maybe the Bears isn't just a must-win. Maybe the Bears is the first of three-straight must-win games if the Bengals are going to make a championship run.

On the other hand, if the Bengals lose Sunday, they head into the bye week with a 4-3 record, a two-game losing streak, no momentum with games against the Ravens and Steelers on tap. Now, suggesting that the Bengals will win the next three, I believe, is a bit hopeful. The Steelers and Ravens, looking to take control of the division, will make it very hard on the Bengals. With that thought in mind, the Bengals beating the Bears could be the difference between having a winning record and a losing record by November 16. And realistically, if the Bengals are going to survive the rest of the season, they need to be assured of a winning record in case Baltimore and Pittsburgh have their revenge.

Furthermore, the Bengals can't go into the bye week on a two-game losing streak and no momentum. So is Sunday a must-win? I think so. If we were in any other division, I think the urgency is reduced a tad. But we know what the Steelers and Ravens can do and the Bengals will have to do everything they can to keep themselves from falling too quickly by two teams that could easily win out their games in which they're not facing each other -- which we've seen both teams do before.

We've heard the expression before by teams that make incredible runs to the playoffs and I believe it applies right now. The Cincinnati Bengals playoffs starts this Sunday and a loss could mean elimination.

Defensive line injuries could take a toll. Will they step up? Even though Domata Peko didn't practice on Wednesday and Thursday, it appears that the team's best defensive tackle will go on Sunday after fully participating during Friday's practice. Surprisingly he's listed as probable.

“Right now it’s feeling great,” Peko said. “I’m excited. I want to get out there and be with my dudes against Chicago but if it ain’t right I’m not going to go.”

This is great news at a time when the Bengals defensive line suddenly felt short-handed earlier this week. We lost Antwan Odom. Tank Johnson had missed two straight against Cleveland and Baltimore before returning against the Texans recording a season-high four tackles and a quarterback sack. Pat Sims was listed on the injury report this week with a bicept injury; he's also probable. What's worse is that due to illness, Jonathan Fanene missed practice on Thursday and Friday. Fanene, who's listed as questionable, could be giving way for rookie Michael Johnson. The Bengals also needed depth. After Odom went onto injured reserve, Cincinnati signed Orien Harris back.

With all the injuries and illnesses on the defensive line, guys like Robert Geathers, Michael Johnson, Tank Johnson and Pat Sims will have to step up.

They're calling it Benson Bowl. The local media is calling it "Benson Bowl." Benson isn't thinking of revenge, but he's motivated. Since joining the Cincinnati Bengals, Benson has found happiness. He feels accepted and says that his "Dreams are coming true." Benson also claims that the Bears were "blackballing" him when the Bears organization, from Benson's point of view, screwed him over.

"Even the Bengals told me all the things, that they would call and inquire about me and get nothing but negative things. Just that I didn't work hard, that I was I guess a prima donna or I didn't work hard on the field, just wasn't focused, just anything negative that they could say, it was said. I'm sure that contributed largely to me not getting picked up right away."

I like Benson a lot. He's a hard worker and gives the Bengals the best running back they've had since Rudi Johnson's prime. The Cedric Benson in Cincinnati isn't the same Cedric Benson in Chicago. However, you have to wonder why Benson is going off about what the Bears may or may have not done to Benson. Even though he probably felt insulted, I believe Benson should take some responsibility for what happened in Chicago. The off-the-field issues were a result of his own actions, not the Bears. From my understanding, Benson didn't like sitting behind Thomas Jones and older reports suggested that Benson made things just as tense in the lockerroom as others made it tense for him. So I'm not so sure if Benson is totally blameless about what happened in Chicago. But in truth, whatever actually happened while he was with the Bears, is meaningless now.

What does matter is that the Bengals need Benson to rebound after his season-low 44 yards rushing last week. And just for fun, here's our post on the day Benson was signed in 2008. Re-read some of your comments and tell me how he's changed minds.

Just how far away is Coffman from playing? Indirectly, Chase Coffman became a leading discussion. After back-to-back weeks of watching tight ends drop passes and fumble the football, the Bengals rookie tight end is still inactive. It will be telling if this week Coffman makes his debut, or if the Bengals are still refusing to reduce Daniel Coats' playing time. J.P. Foschi hasn't been bad, but he's not the tight end that the Bengals need. It's clear that the offensive philosophy was to use the tight ends more this year in the passing game, but it's not working out. Two fumbles by tight ends against Houston was one of several explanations to the Bengals loss. The dropped passes are ridiculous.

Why isn't he playing? What we hear is that Coffman isn't ready. He doesn't play special teams well and he's still struggling to become an NFL Tight End after a college career where he played more like a wide receiver.

Maybe Coffman will become something special in the Bengals offense. Time will only tell. The problem is that the Bengals are one game away from either fighting for the division after the bye week, or sinking. If the Bengals beat the Bears Sunday, they'll once again fight Baltimore and Pittsburgh for division supremacy. If the Bengals lose to the Bears, they run the risk of going 4-5 (quickly) if they don't beat Baltimore and Pittsburgh, which would end their chances of controlling their own destiny.

Of course, Coffman isn't the reason for all of that. But the Bengals desperately need better tight end play than what we saw the last two weeks if they're going to keep making a run.

And apparently the Bengals view it that way. It was reported earlier in the week that the Bengals attempted to trade for Dallas Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett, which Dallas declined. Bennett isn't the type of tight end to fill the gap until Coffman is ready. He's the type of tight end that could become the future, which left the question, what about Coffman?

The Return of the Giant. Andre Smith's return, or actually making a debut, is happening. This week, Smith practiced on Wednesday, though it was only non-contact drills. On Thursday, Smith practiced limitedly, but had contact. On Friday, Smith practiced fully. Furthermore, Smith claims he dropped his weight to 330 pounds and most observers are saying he's "noticeably lighter."

All indications are, while still out this week against the Bears, that Smith will make his debut against the Baltimore Ravens on November 8 after the bye week. Unless Dennis Roland and Anthony Collins utterly fail against the Chicago Bears, it's unlikely that Smith starts against the Ravens. Knowing how the coaching staff has worked in the past, it seems more likely they'll ease Smith in during running downs in big packages, lining up at tight end, or weak-side tackle on big formations.

Something else needs to be observed here. When the Bengals rush the football to the right, they are actually one of the worst rushing offenses in the league. The following is a chart of the team's directional report on rushing plays by NFL Game Statistics and Information System.

	LE	LT	LG	Center	RG	RT	RE
Avg. Gain	6.0	5.17	7.0	3.86	2.39	3.3	3.14
NFL Rank	11	10	3	18	27	24	28

Is there where we prove something? I've always agreed that Bengals offensive coordinator makes questionable calls. However, I always say that the players need to perform first and foremost. Last week was an example of an offense that lacked focus. Now, I'm going to make some people happy; or at least give them direction in their complaints.

As you saw in the chart above, the Bengals are clearly a better rushing offense to the left between Andrew Whitworth and the combination of Nate Livings and Evan Mathis at left guard. The issue here is that the Bengals are rushing the football outside the right guard more than rushing between the strength of their offensive line on the left. The next chart is broken down to three directions. Up the middle, which is between the two guards. And outside both guards on the left and right.

Dir.	Left (outside LG)	Between LG and RG	Right (outside RG)
Plays	41	61	53
Yards	226	250	171
Avg.	5.5	4.1	3.2
Note: Six rushing plays are unaccounted for.