Anyone else remember Bennie "and his jets" Brazell? A guy who was a glorified track star that the Bengals drafted in the late rounds (seventh, I think?) has us all aflutter about the guy's potential. Guys, a few short years ago THAT'S what we were excited about.

I think it's pretty gorram telling that now we have a team that has been in the playoffs for two of the past three years, and we're excited about draftees like Dre Kirkpatrick, Kevin Zeitler, Devon Still, Orson Charles, Brandon Thompson, Marvin Jones and George Iloka. These players are being added into the mix with players like Andy Dalton. AJ Green. Geno Atkins. Carlos Dunlap. Michael Johnson. Jermaine Gresham. Andrew Whitworth. Not to mention our free agent acquisitions this year.

Man. What a turnaround. This team is going to make some serious noise this year, and you can take that to the bank.

John Thornton, who is good friends with Isaiah and was at his house during the draft, was just on with Lance. According to JT, Pead was the Steelers' 2nd round target.

I think I can safely say that we're glad that didn't end up happening, no matter how many made a point of calling others UC homers for wanting him in stripes. Which of course, I did. I would have loved to see him in Cincinnati as a pro.

At this point I ask you, my fellow Bengals fans, one question. 

How are you feeling? 

This question can be a question that simply is..."how are you feeling?"  It can be a question that applies to one of the three phases of the game.  It can be a question that applies to any of the fifty-three players on the roster, a question that applies to the head coach or any of the coaching staff, a question that applies to the fact that in just over two weeks this team will find itself playing under the bright lights of Paul Brown Stadium on national television against a (not to many, but to me) surprisingly good Pittsburgh Steelers football team. 

So, all that being said, how are you feeling?

Continue reading this post »

Well folks, the news is starting to roll in.  Per two Joe Reedy tweets (here and here), Wide Receivers Dezmon Briscoe and Matt Jones have been waived today by the Cincinnati Bengals.  Reedy also seems confident that Briscoe will clear waivers and be available for the Bengals to place on the Practice Squad. 

Both Jones and Briscoe have been a point of debate around these parts for quite some time this offseason.  Jones has been slow off the ball since the Bengals signed him, but in some of the action he saw in a couple of preseason games he made some very nice catches. 

Briscoe hadn't gotten many opportunities to shine, but made one highlight reel catch in Thursday's preseason finale against Indianapolis.  The prevailing line of thought (at least from this writer) is that Marvin Lewis and company know that Dezmon is a player with a very high ceiling and they were hoping to give other teams as little film on him as possible during the preseason in the hopes that he would stick on the PS. 

Also noted by Joe Reedy on his twitter feed is the fact that Jerome Simpson has not been waived at this point and if the Bengals carry six receivers, he is now the man who would fill that role. 

As of right now, the Bengals' opening day wide reciever corps is officially comprised of Chad Ochocinco, Terrell Owens, Jordan Shipley, Andre Caldwell, Quan Cosby and Jerome Simpson.  Reedy said the official roster announcement will come between three and four today, so in the next three or four hours we'll know if it's six wide recievers including Simpson or if they'll go into prep for New England carrying five.  That would mean one of two things, that either they carry five on the roster hoping that they'll be able to pluck Briscoe off of the Practice Squad should a need arise or they'll add a sixth WR from the waiver wire. 

My guess at this point is that Jerome Simpson remains as the sixth wide receiver. 

Much more to come today, folks.  Don't you dare move.

Do you remember when we didn't have the best starting cornerback tandem in the league? So do I, but vaguely after the past three years. Here's to hoping that the Bengals get Jonathan Joseph's contract extended here soon so that they can immediately start working on Leon Hall's deal the next day. Elsewhere in cornerback-land...

Morgan Trent and David Jones have proven to be surprisingly decent and I am very excited to see what Brandon Ghee brings to the table. By the time it's all said and done, the Bengals' secondary should be one of the best in the league even on a mediocre day.

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The quarterback position in the NFL has, over the course of the past decade and change, become the singular most important position on the football field. Teams that are perennially in the front of the pack chasing postseason success have one common denominator: a tough-as-nails quarterback. Even if a team doesn't have a guy like Manning or Brady with a "rocket laser arm" and an apparent infrared guidance system for his throws, a guy like (and it pains me to say it) Ben Roethlisberger who can't necessarily make every single throw but has the moxie and poise to will his team into the end zone is a must.

In April of 2003, the Bengals got their guy. A sharp-looking prodigy of Norm Chow out of USC, Carson Palmer arrived hand-in-hand with Marvin Lewis as the apparent saviors of the Cincinnati Bengals. I'm not going to rehash the events that have transpired since then, for that would be overkill as we inundate you with these previews of the rapidly-upcoming season.

However, suffice it to say that there are going to be an awful lot of eyes on Carson Palmer in 2010. It is also significant to note that if for some reason Carson Palmer and his retooled receiving personnel can't get it done, there is little chance (as is the case for the vast majority of NFL teams) that the second or third string quarterbacks will lead the team to victory in his absence. If Palmer doesn't have "the juice" anymore as some have been insisting for a couple of years now, Cedric Benson will need to eat an awful lot of spinach because no Carson = no passing game.

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A year ago, even in the face of coming away from a 4-11-1 season and dealing with issues such as having a largely untested offensive line and a quarterback whose 2008 season only lasted four games, many of us Bengals fans were feeling some excitement going into the regular season. We had the opportunity to watch our boys on the Emmy-winning HBO show "Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Cincinnati Bengals." Things looked to be coming together nicely defensively leading into the second year of Mike Zimmer's "Z"-fense. We didn't know what to expect and many were legitimately concerned with the team's chances for the 2009-2010 season, but there was a little something in the air.

If one were ever to become despondent, we also had this video to watch. This was instant adrenaline for me leading into the 2009-2010 campaign.

Looking back, there was a definite...SOMETHING about the months that led into the 2009 season for the Cincinnati Bengals. They had a great draft. They made some smart, key offseason additions and subtractions that helped the roster become more cohesive. There was going to be something different about "this year."

That was a fact, but one that we didn't realize right away when the Immaculate Deflection happened at the end of Week One. It wasn't until the wins started in Week Two that the excitement some of us had been feeling started to bubble up again, seeming to impact the play on the field the more excited we became.

I say all of that to say this: I feel that excitement once more.  Let's look at the first quarter of the upcoming season.

Continue reading this post »

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The Cincinnati Bengals were a pretty good football team in 2009. Their reworked defense and run game wore out opposing teams over the course of four quarters, and the quarterback who has undergone so many trials in one Carson Palmer allowed the ice to flow through his veins in the fourth quarter over and again to win games on final drives. Andre Caldwell appeared for the first third of the season to be the second coming of T.J. Houshmandzadeh, coming through with clutch, crisp routes and sure hands that hauled in two game-winning catches.

Something happened during a game against the Baltimore Ravens in the latter half of the season, however. Chris Henry (may he rest in peace) came down hard and awkwardly on his arm, causing a break that sidelined him for the remainder of the season and his short life. Without the threat of Chris Henry on the field (take my words there at face value, Henry's production last year wasn't all that great), opposing secondaries were able to send help over to whomever was guarding Chad Ochocinco or just send the free safety deep into center field. Teams running a Cover 2 defense had great success against the Bengals' offensive personnel and Bob Bratkowski's schemes, leaving Cedric Benson and the mountainous offensive line the only viable offensive threat.

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As first seen on Twitter here linking to the initial report from WCPO here, Bengals Wide Receiver Maurice Purify was arrested early this morning following "a disturbance at a Northern Kentucky bar." 

With the Bengals' recent moves at Wide Receiver and Tight End, you've got to think this may not end well for Purify regarding his Bengals career.  The young man was given his chance (at the behest of one Carson Palmer) last season and contributed in such a manner as to get himself released to waivers thereafter.  Perhaps it's a misunderstanding and perhaps it is not, but it highlights a trend we continue to see among our athletes, being that many of them seem to be completely unable to understand the situation they are in.  Whether Maurice was doing anything wrong or not is largely irrelevant, as he placed himself in a situation which could end up poorly to say the very, very least (see Ben Roethlisberger and Adam "Pacman" Jones). 

I'm sure the team will have no comment until the legal system is able to take its course as per usual, but I'm afraid this will toll the end for Purify.  When one is going to struggle to get ahead of folk like Chad Ochocinco, Antonio Bryant, Andre Caldwell, Jordan Shipley, Quan Cosby and Matt Jones/Dezmon Briscoe as it is, one perhaps should not go out to bars and get one's self into trouble with the law. 

For my money, Purify's out.  As much as I crow about not caring what players do off the field as long as it doesn't impact their play on the field, the Bengals have gathered enough "character concern" players at this point that, I don't know, maybe the line that needs to be walked for balance and chemistry is a bit finer than we all hope.  I think this would be a good time to make an example of someone and make it clear to the rest of the team that stupid behavior won't be tolerated in the Cincinnati Bengals locker room.  This is a guy that Palmer wanted brought to the 53-man roster from the Practice Squad last year, so he's not a completely unknown commodity to these guys.  Yes, we know that many of you have made mistakes in the past, and we brought you to Cincinnati knowing that.  However, when you hit this locker room door and that FieldTurf at Paul Brown Stadium, you'd best have figured out how to stop messing up. 

In the meanwhile, as we listen to the cacophony of "Bengals are criminals" chants and ballyhoos from the anti-Bengals crowd, let's all take solace in the fact that as of this writing Purify hasn't been reported to have raped anyone or caused any scenes that ended in security guards losing their lives. 

Or boarded any airplanes with a loaded gun with a round in the chamber. 

Or thrown his drink in anyone's face. 

Or beat his wife/girlfriend/fiancee.

Or been accessory to murder. 

Or been involved in the moving and sale of illegal drugs. 

Or, well...you get the picture.

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Bobbie Williams.  Few people shudder when they hear the name. 

Few people may even consider him a "game changer," worthy of a post titled "Game Changing Offseason Moves." 

Let me tell you what I know about Bobbie Williams. 

Bobbie Williams was drafted in the year 2000 by the Philadelphia Eagles.  He slowly worked his way into the starting lineup over the next four years, at which time he became eligible for Free Agency.  That road brought him to the Queen City, where he immediately took over the starting spot at Right Guard.  At the time he was sandwiched between Big Willie Anderson to his right and Richie Braham to his left.  It's what you would have called an ideal situation for a new starter. 

He started all sixteen games in 2004 and 2005, then lost his starting center during the second week of 2006 in Cleveland (that was, incidentally, a horrible week that also saw the forever losses of one David Pollack and one Tab Perry.  Bad, bad, bad week).  From that point on until this past season when Kyle Cook took over quite admirably at center he played along the right shoulder of Eric "Grocery Cart" Ghiaciuc. 

He at least still had Big Willie to his right.  That is, until the 2008 offseason when Anderson was abruptly cut from the squad and replaced with former fourth-round project Stacey Andrews, who was less than stellar in his sixteen starts during the dismal 4-11-1 2008 campaign. 

Through all that, Bobbie Williams was a stalwart.  A fixture.  A man on which to be counted, who wouldn't blow his assignment or make the wrong read. 

The advent of the 2009 football season brought a lot of change.  So much change, in fact, that Bobbie Williams was the only offensive lineman who started in the same position from the year prior.  Levi Jones was gone, replaced at Left Tackle by 2008 Left Guard Andrew Whitworth.  Whitworth's vacancy at Left Guard was filled by a rotation of Nate Livings and Evan Mathis.  The gaping hole at Center (which wasn't such a rare occurrence even when Ghiaciuc was on the field) left by Eric Ghiaciuc's departure was filled by former Undrafted Free Agent Kyle Cook (whom we ended up loving).  Right tackle was supposed to be filled by first-round draft selection André Smith, but until he hit the field halfway through the season the position was manned by Scott Kooistra and Dennis Roland to positive effect. 

The only constant was Bobbie Williams. 

Is he getting a bit long in the tooth after ten years in the league?  Perhaps.  Did his pass protection drop off a touch in 2009?  It appeared that it may have, yes.  Run blocking?  Just fine. 

All that said, you may be wondering something.  Perhaps you wonder why I'm writing an article about Game Changing Offseason Moves about a player who largely goes nameless, an offensive guard who has been around for seven years. 

Let me answer that for you, and I want you take a few moments to think about my answer once you read it. 

Keeping Bobbie Williams?  That was smart. 

We can call that a Game-Changer.

Your Links and Notes for the day may be light due to my food hangover this morning as I finished my Steak Fonduta from the Olive Garden late last night. 

It was goooooooood. 

Here's hoping that you all had a joyous Easter holiday weekend and didn't have to go to work or anything silly like that, but we know that now since you're back to work you need something to kill your productivity.  And what kind of blog would we be if we didn't provide you just that kind of excuse? 

From ProFootballTalk.com, now that Donovan McNabb is a Washington Redskin, could the long-talked-about possible union of Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens be even less likely now? 

Joe Reedy takes a look at the possibility of Dez Bryant slipping to the Bengals when they make the 21st selection in this month's NFL Draft. 

Former Bengals TE Ben Utecht will be singing the National Anthem at Opening Day for the Cincinnati Reds this afternoon at Great American Ball Park. 

 Okay, it won't be because of my full belly that today's Banter is a bit on the light side.  It appears that this article will be shorter than normal because there really isn't anything else going on in Bengal Nation that we can discover at the moment that hasn't already been discussed or linked. 

Oh, one more thing.  Don't make stupid bets to national sports reporting figures. 

Originally tweeted by Adam Schefter and followed up by Cincinnati.com's Joe Reedy, reports are flowing in that the Bengals are close to an agreement for an extension. 

Schefter reported that a deal was done, but Reedy reports here that the deal is in sight but not complete. 

This is one that we've been waiting on, the cohesiveness of the Bengals' offensive line will be bolstered greatly by the retention of a guy like Bobbie Williams.  It would have been a shame to let this one get away. 

Appearances indicate now that unless a killer guard or tackle (Mike Iupati, anyone?) falls to the Bengals in the first round, we're likely to see the same road-grading line take the field this season that we grew to know and love in 2009.

UPDATE: Geoff Hobson confirmed Joe Reedy's report that "there are still loose ends to tie up before it is finalized". Hobson wrote that Williams' agent "said he is still talking to the club about a deal that would bring Williams back for a seventh season at right guard."

Part of the holdup is that Williams is on Easter vacation and the sides are apparently waiting for him to get back so he can be updated on the negotiations. It is a deal that has been expected since free agency opened, when head coach Marvin Lewis said he was confident that a deal would get done because of the mutual enthusiasm for the return of one of their offensive captains from the last several years.

Good morning and happy Monday everyone, if there is such a thing!  I hope everyone's work week starts off as well as can be expected on a cold, blustery Monday morning. 

Yesterday ProFootballTalk.com listed the seven franchises that not only would currently fall below the $107 million floor that was in place for last season's salary cap, but in fact fall in with a player payroll that doesn't break the nine figure mark.  Is anyone surprised that our Bengals made that list? 


James Walker opines that WR Terrell Owens is unlikely to wind up wearing Orange and Black.  Further down the page in his weekend mailbag, the question is posed to him about the Bengals' Tight End situation.  He says that the Bengals remaining pat with their current stable of TE's would be a mistake, that they are in a position to win and to win now and should take advantage of that by solidifying any TE question marks. 

Episode 3 of Real Football Talk with Cincy Jungle aired yesterday evening at 5:30.  I discussed a multitude of subjects ranging from Antonio Bryant to Tank Johnson and Roy Williams, even touching on why I think the team's best interest may be to draft Mike Iupati in the first round of the draft next month.  Head on over to the show page here to stream or download all three episodes.  This upcoming Sunday I'll host CNati.com's own Scott Priestle to talk about any moves that have been made or moves that will be made by this weekend.  The podcast is now also searchable via iTunes either by doing a search for "Real Football Talk" (my first two episodes are the #9 and #10 hits for that search) or by my name, Craig Conrad.  Listen, enjoy, give feedback.  

Joe Reedy (who was a guest on last week's show) gives his current Bengals Free Agency scorecard.   

It's from a couple of days ago, but here's a good read by Scott Priestle at CNati.com about how Carson Palmer helped to bring Antonio Bryant to Cincinnati. 

All in all it was a pretty quiet weekend for the Bengals, save the signing of Roy Williams.  Most of the activity you'll read about happened mid to late last week, but don't let that stop you from reading, clicking and commenting. 

Oh, and listening.  Go and listen to the podcast. 

Tight End J.P. Foschi proved to be a pleasant surprise last year in that he, well...he actually caught the ball when it was thrown to him most of the time.  His fourth season as a pro, last season spent in Cincinnati, was far and away his most productive as an NFL player.  Beginning his career in 2005 with the Oakland Raiders, he spent two years on the Bay without catching a touchdown before spending a year away from the league.  He re-entered the NFL in 2008 with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he remained touchdown-less.  As a matter of fact, he remained catch-less since he caught six passes in his rookie season in Oakland. 

He joined the Cincinnati Bengals as a free agent last offseason and emerged as a pretty handy little hot-read option for Carson Palmer.  He had 27 receptions for a total of 260 yards and 2 touchdowns. 

During his nightly show, Lance McAlister said that the Bengals are considering bringing him back for the 2010 season after electing not to tender his contract and releasing him into free agency, where he did not receive any interest. 

My take?  He'd be a good guy to have around in the event we don't score Chris Baker, Chase Coffman remains unable to break into the offense and Dan Coats hasn't received an emergency double metacarpal transplant.

UPDATE: It would appear that the initial word on Foschi's potential return came from Hobson. 

Folks, be sure to be around the computer and have a phone nearby today at 4:00 pm EST for Episode 2 of Real Football Talk with Cincy Jungle!  There's plenty to talk about this weekend with the advent of Free Agency upon us, and I have Joe Reedy scheduled to join me on the air during the show to answer some questions I have prepared.  You don't want to be that guy who misses out on this, trust me.  It's going to be a great show! 

Click here to get to the show page where you can tune in and listen live.  The number to call in and join me on air is (347) 945-6220, so feel free to give us a buzz and you can participate in our live radio-style podcast!  I'm very much looking forward to getting our second episode under my belt and there is an awful lot to talk about today, so don't miss out!

How's your Saturday morning?  Are you bored?  Tired and not exactly with it to start your weekend? 

Don't you dare leave your computer, folks.  Real Football Talk with Cincy Jungle is about to happen.  I go live at 10:30 EST on Blog Talk Radio, click here to listen live!  I'll open up the phone lines at some point during the show to give you and opportunity to call in, ask questions and share in the ground floor episode of Cincy Jungle's latest venture! Listen up as I catch up with Mojo live from the Combine to see what it's been like and we might...we just might have a very special guest lined up.  No promises, but if who I hope calls in does indeed call in we're all in for a treat.

The call-in number is (347) 945-6220.  Go ahead and save that in your phones, because it'll be the same every week. 

Hold on to your hats, it's going to be a wild ride!

Well folks, the time is finally drawing near.  Today we find ourselves a scant two days away from the launch of the CincyJungle.com podcast! 

I am very excited to be in the latter stages of the launch and am really looking forward to getting this off the ground this weekend.  I'll be filling you in on the final details over the course of the next two days, so be sure to keep your eyes glued here to the site for more info.  The program will be hosted on blogtalkradio.com, which allows for a tremendous show quality with a ton of great features available.  You'll even have the chance to call in to the program and speak with me live during the show!  We may even throw a prize at a randomly chosen caller if some of you choose to call in.  You see, we're awesome like that.

This brings me to an exciting point.  The reason I chose this weekend to launch the podcast is because our very own Mojokong will join me live from the Scouting Combine in Indy on the show.  He'll fill you in, right there live from the event, on what he has seen and heard.  It's a very exciting opportunity for Mojo to be there and for us to have him there representing CincyJungle, so correlating the launch of the podcast with his presence at the Combine seemed like a natural pairing. 

Please vote on the poll and share with me in the comments thread anything you'd like to hear covered on the show and I'll use your feedback to help build my program. 

I am so excited to be creating, launching and hosting this podcast as Cincy Jungle branches out to new areas of media, I hope you'll all join me as we get this puppy off the ground. 

Excitedly as if you couldn't tell,

A Pragmatic Bengals Fan (Craig)

Well howdy there, folks!  Things have been pretty busy lately for me, which is why I've been doing the Conversational Commute lately in lieu of writing.  However, with the inclement weather as of late, driving has been difficult enough without recording a Vlog.  So here I am! 

Lots to talk about lately, hasn't there been?  As a matter of fact, I'm not really sure what to think about our Bengals right now.  Are they actually being proactive and looking at players who could possibly help fill some of the holes that became evident over the course of the second half of the 2009 campaign? 

I'm not dreaming all of this, right?  Hit the jump.

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I had made up my mind that I wasn't going to write tonight, that I was going to wait until tomorrow when I'd cooled down a bit.  Do you know what, though?  I'm calm.  I'm sitting here at my iMac, taking deep breaths and thinking about the implications of tonight's game and how it was lost. 

First and foremost, the Bengals were the lesser team on the field of play.  Outplayed and outcoached completely, our boys in Orange and Black just didn't have an answer for Brian Schottenheimer's offense. 

The game started out well enough, it really did.  And you know what?  We were fans of a playoff team today. 

That's a start.

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I am thirty years old.  Born in August of 1979, I lived in Hamilton, Ohio until I was nine years old at which time we moved up here to the Mahoning Valley.  The first year we lived as transplants to the geographical center between Cleveland and Pittsburgh was a fantastic year to be a fan of Cincinnati Sports.  We had hardly moved into our house when we sat down in our new family room and watched the Bengals represent the AFC in Super Bowl XXIII.  The next summer I gloated to all of my middle-school friends as the Cincinnati Reds swept the Oakland A's in the World Series. 

After that, well, it hasn't been so great.

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I have a problem.  My problem is that I am very, very emotionally tied to my favorite sports teams.  More so the Bengals than to the Buckeyes, the Bearcats, the Reds or the Cavaliers.  When the Bengals lose, it tends to ruin my day. 

When the Bengals lose 37-0 in their only prime-time game of the season it apparently puts me into a silently burning rage.  I want to believe that our boys went out there never intending to show anything that will be of use to them next week in the playoffs, that there was never any intent to do anything of worth other than make it into the playoffs which had already been achieved. 

What I saw was a cute little tiger cub that had the unfortunate luck of wandering onto the runway at Meadowlands Memorial Airport and got splattered all over the runway by a 747. 

Stop, take a deep breath.  Force yourself to think clearly, you overly passionate sports blogger.

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It was the year 2000 on Planet Earth, in the United States, in Ohio and in Cincinnati.  The entirety of Bengal Nation was filled with so much promise, if you can call it promise. 

A new stadium.  A beautiful new stadium named after one of the two greatest names in the National Football League's history.  The Cincinnati Bengals would no longer be sharing Riverfront Stadium with the Reds; rather they would be in their own home.  A home named after a man called Paul Brown whose porkpie hat and gruff presence seem woefully out of touch with the divas and the drama associated with today's NFL.  The "Aughts" are a decade that most of us would like to forget, but in order to appreciate the current climate of Bengal Nation we must look back.

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Happy New Year's Eve...Eve to all you Jets fans over here at Gang Green Nation!  We over at Cincy Jungle are very much looking forward to our teams squaring off this Sunday evening (stupid NFL took all friggin' season to give us a prime time game, grumble grumble) and we're sure you feel the same. 

We try to stop by the SB Nation blog of our opponent each week to say hello and wish the opposing team's fans good luck (but not really!), so here we are.  Please use the comments section to ask any questions you may have about the Bengals.  Do you want to know what to expect from our boys in Orange and Black?  Wonder what the Bengals' run game might do to combat your #1 ranked run defense?  Wondering if the Bengals are going to lay down for you, giving you a playoff berth that would turn into a rematch at our house next weekend? 

Okay, we wonder on that one too.

Mostly I think we're all hoping that everyone comes out of this contest healthy as we actually do have something to play for next weekend. 

So ask away and Josh, myself and our other Cincy Junglers will do our best to come back throughout the next couple of days and answer to the best of our ability.  Nice to meet you all!

Well Bengal Nation, today was an eventful day.  First and foremost, our Cincinnati Bengals are a playoff team in 2009.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  Our Cincinnati Bengals are a playoff team in this 2009 football season.  For the second time in 19 years, we'll be watching football that is relevant to our interests in the second week in January, folks! 

In other news, next Sunday's Bengals-Jets game at the Meadowlands has been flexed to the Sunday night game, it will air at 8:30 p.m. on NBC.  Awesome. 

Oh, another thing.  This 2009 Bengals team is now the only Hard Knocks team to win their division the year they were featured on the show.  They're the only Hard Knocks team to make the playoffs since the Baltimore Ravens in 2001. 

Oh yeah, something else.  Today Cedric Benson set a franchise record by being the first Bengals running back to rush for 100 or more yards in six games in a single season.  So that's pretty cool too. 

Hit the jump, wouldja?

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Christmas is a day on which most of us get to share time with our families, which is the best gift of all.  Here at Cincy Jungle we consider all of you to be part of our family, a great family which allows us to be one of the very best NFL blogs on the web.  We hope that you have had a wonderful Christmas morning celebrating with your families and thank you so much for coming here and being part of our extended family. 

So eat, drink and be merry on this Christmas day, but most of all enjoy your time with those you love and be safe.  If you are away from your family today, think fondly of them and send up a quick prayer or two that you'll get to see them soon.  We here at Cincy Jungle will do the same. 

Please use the comment thread here to wish each other a Merry Christmas and tell us about your haul this year or what you got your loved ones.  Children, husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfriend, parents, in-laws, how'd you treat them this holiday? 

Merry Christmas, everyone.  :) 

-A Pragmatic Bengals Fan and the rest of the CincyJungle.com writing staff

I said it weeks ago.  Many of us said it.  The words were received in some circles and less so in others, arguments were made.  There were folk who said that ugly games are the team's bread and butter in 2009, that our defense was good enough to stop any offense in the league.  The Kool-Aid was flowing freely in Bengal Nation. 

I even took a sip here and there; I even took a healthy swig on a few occasions. 

I tried to emphasize three or four weeks ago however that unless the passing game got on track, the Bengals were going to find themselves on the short end of the stick.  I was concerned. 

I am now alarmingly concerned.  Is there any among us who thought today at four o'clock that this team was still going to make a Super Bowl run?  I mean is there anyone out there who really seriously thinks that?

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Well, that didn't take long.  Here's the story from PFT. 

This makes me feel good.  This makes me feel very, very good.  This tells me that out of all the other "dubious" signings we've had on tap this year, that had Larry Johnson or anyone else not brought what the Bengals were looking for to the table that the result would have been just this. 

A player who was brought in for a legitimate need, who seemed to be the best fit physically for the need for which he was brought in, was cut a mere three days after his arrival.  That apology that he reportedly called Marvin Lewis to offer got him in the door, but he didn't have any staying power (I mean really, three days?) because the team did not feel he was the asset they had hoped. 

I don't know if it was a locker room issue or an on-the-field issue, but the Bengals clearly weren't impressed.  So they cut him loose.  Again, after THREE DAYS.  Anyone think that everyone else in the locker room isn't taking notice of that? 

Good job, Bengals.  This is what we like to see. 

A Pragmatic Bengals Fan

On the morn after the Browns' defeat of the Pittsburgh Steelers (essentially knocking them out of the playoff picture), things are pretty quiet around the interwebs in regards to our 9-3 Bengals. 

I hope you all enjoyed that game as much as I did last night.  Living in Northeast Ohio, you should have seen my facebook homepage during and especially after the game.  It was quite entertaing, to say the least.  Of course, I didn't participate in the ribbing or the smack talk.  I would never do such a thing.  Now, links ensue! 

Florio notes in his Friday One-Liners that Chris Crocker has returned to practice and he says he plans to play Sunday at Minnesota.

Mr. Florio also questions the validity of the Bengals however in his weekly 10-Pack for SportingNews, wondering if the Steelers' and Ravens' recent struggles undermine the Bengals' achievements so far this season. 

Clark Judge over at cbssports.com calls Bengals at Vikings the game of the week in his Peek-at-the-Week.

cbssports.com also gives us a video preview of Sunday's game.  I typically like Pat Kirwan, but he seems to be much higher on the Vikes than he is for the Bengals going into the weekend.  Nothing like continuing to prove folk wrong, am I right?  

Finally over at cbssports, here's the page containing their expert picks.  Even split over the six writers as to whether the Bengals cover the 6.5 point spread this weekend.   

Heading on over to ESPN, Adam Schefter is the only expert on the panel picking the good guys on Sunday.  Bang it here. 

More Schefter here, pondering Percy Harvin's chances of playing through a migraine this weekend.  He also gives the Bengals' offensive line major props toward the end of the article. 

James Walker has a very, very enjoyable edition of "Remember the Offseason?" in which he posts comments from Bengals fans and fans of the other teams in the division in regards to the Bengals' chances in 2009.  It's a quality read.

The experts over at Fox Sports are in line with the others, all but Adam Schein pick the Vikes.   

Here's Fox Sports' preview of the Bengals/Vikings game this weekend.  They also ilst the game as the game of the week. 

The folks over at WDR opine (sarcastically as per uzhe) about Sunday's game. 

Have fun clicking, and we'll see you over the weekend for CLINCHFEST 2009!!!!1!!!1!!1

Sorry.  Got a little excited. 

A Pragmatic Bengals Fan