Late last year, Cincinnati came to grips with the limits of their young offense. By the end, it seemed they had pulled all the rabbits from their hat. Now, in their second year together, Jay Gruden and Andy Dalton must widen the scope of their mutated west-coast offense.

The defense should be fine. It brings back ten starters from last year with Mike Zimmer still at the helm. It has added depth at key spots and is relying on young guys to further develop in order to truly reach the ranks of an elite defense. Therefore, it seems to me that the ability to score points early and often, especially against the weaker teams is most paramount.

Continue reading this post »

Cedric Benson was not a perfect back. He stopped his feet and fumbled too often, had limited catching ability and got grumpy when another man carried the rock. But the guy was durable. He did not get tired or injured very often and his conditioning was extremely reliable. In Benson's case, mileage was never an issue.

The league has firmly adopted the two-back approach to run the ball these days and the Bengals have steered away from the feature-back theory themselves. Gone is Benson, lingering in the free agent market but sidling up to Oakland, reportedly. Here now is BenJarvus Green-Ellis, but the thinking among the Bengal contingent is that the Law Firm will not see the amount of carries that was dumped upon Benson. Instead, Bernard Scott is expected to get an increased workload, and Brian Leonard and Cedric Peerman could also take more hand offs. It sounds okay going into mini-camps and eventually training camp, but I feel the question still remains: can these guys hold up physically to the wear and tear of more carries?

Continue reading this post »

The NFL is naturally selective. Like our old homeboy Chuck Darwin pointed out, species prevent extinction by adapting and genetically evolving traits that work for them. Each offseason, every team goes through a mini-blast of evolution, keeping what they think already works and trying out new things like adding an extra finger or a bunch of cornerbacks, whatever makes the most sense at the time. Some teams are forced to constantly rebuild in the primordial soup of failed draft-pick development, while the winners have found their home on land, stomping around upright on two legs, breathing with lungs and using thumbs and eventually nuclear power.

If the Giants then, Super Bowl champions and conveniently nicknamed for this metaphor, are fully-formed humans, the Bengals are a close hominid, Neanderthal perhaps. Now that the draft is over, aside from some minor shuffling, we see this specimen emerge from its cave—a bit less slouched than last year—stretch, take a leak, and go off to kick some ass and find some food.

It seems wise to make only minor changes to a young playoff team like the Bengals—meddling is what ruined 2010—and nearly everyone agrees they made off like thieves in the draft, but I can't help but worry (I'm a worrier) that some major questions remain.

Continue reading this post »

Defensive tackle wasn't all that recognized as a team need, yet the Bengals took two in the first three rounds. Could be a response to the Browns drafting Trent Richardson or could just be the best guys on the Bengals board, either way, 600-plus pounds were just added to the pack of wilder beasts on the defensive front, and running just became more difficult.

I like the stockpiling for a variety of reasons.

Continue reading this post »

One of my favorite bailout qualifiers people say before embarking on a rant that may be factually incorrect is, "I don't have the statistics in front of me." Once uttered, this phrase allows a few minutes of complete speculative bullshit to be tolerated without intense scrutiny, so while reading the opinions and claims tossed around below, please keep that sentence in mind.

From my vantage point, the Cincinnati Bengals are taking an especially serious approach to this upcoming draft. Since hiring not one but two additional scouts this offseason, Mike Brown is finally following the footsteps of fully-grown owners who handle their team in a professional, mature manner.

Thanks to the raging river of information Cincy Jungle provides its readers, fans have at least browsed past multiple updates the past few months, reporting some kind of Bengal presence at prospect pro-days and personal workouts. As mentioned, without keeping tabs on these kinds of things, I can't say for sure, but it definitely feels to me that the Bengals have been far more active this year in their scouting endeavors than ever before.

Continue reading this post »

There has been very little splashing in the AFC North puddle this season. In fact, one might look closely at its ripples and think it hasn't changed much at all. The annual free-agency grades have made their rounds, and the greater public of analysts feel underwhelmed by the lack of moves in the division. Teams have formed a holding pattern and it hasn't made for good copy. Nonetheless, a larger picture is taking shape, even by the minimal changes, and we can now get the first sense of what kind of team to expect in uniform this season.

Continue reading this post »

Expectations are tricky in the NFL. Trends are fleeting, roster turnover is heavy, and prolonged success or failure moves in short wavelengths. Teams can fall apart mid-season and take months to repair. Others can catch fire late in the year and win the dadgum Super Bowl.

The Bengals are a good example of a team that defies expectation. In 2009, they were supposed to struggle but won the AFC North. The next year they added TO and the training-camp Super Bowl talk began, but then they flopped to a 4-12 record and left the stage in an embarrassing uproar. Last year, anyone with a prediction of more than eight wins for the Bengals would have been shunned as a crazy person while all the others said five or less, but with a rookie quarterback and a pretty good defense they made their way to nine wins and a wild-card spot. Pretty amazing.

Sadly, the trend would point to the Stripes choking once more in 2012, and even if they don't want to admit it, that little obnoxious factoid is alive and well in every Bengal fans' psyche when thinking ahead to this upcoming season. But worry not, my Bengal brethren, there is much hope this time around.

Continue reading this post »

The Scouting Combine seems like it's becoming a mockery of itself. More and more we hear how forming opinions of the workouts is a waste of time and that the biggest impact of the event happens in meetings behind closed doors. In essence, it's become nothing more than a media monster where coaches and general managers are pressed for specifics they'd rather not reveal and the young players become show dogs who can talk and try to answer questions on topics that they haven't thought about before. The television analysts tell you what to watch for during the workouts and then say none of it matters anyway because it isn't football. The whole thing looks silly from a distance and perhaps it should be reexamined as a whole.

Another game like the Senior Bowl would be great but there are concerns. First, if the players at the combine are represented by the NFLPA, then they might not go for a game. Second, the league doesn't want to tarnish its precious resource of new talent with a bunch of injuries in an exhibition game. If Andrew Luck tore his ACL in such a scenario, the guy who said another Senior Bowl game would be a good idea might be thrown into a river.

I think a mini-camp with full pads could be a happy medium between underwear olympics and a real game. Coaches could supervise drills and try to keep the players as safe as possible, but still provide scouts with live action rather than simulated nonsense. It would make for better television which makes more money and more corporate sponsorship and everybody walks away satisfied.

Since my idea is unlikely to be adopted in this season, however, the show must go on and so there are a couple of guys I do want to watch.

Continue reading this post »

NFL free-agency turns fans into small children at a toy store. They walk around the imaginary aisles and drool over the big-named players that they recognize from television. Eventually, they want everything in the store and they have to pee.

Teams, on the other hand, are like the parents and are faced with a multitude of considerations when shopping for their team. Their impulse buying must be checked with a sense of shrewdness and cold common sense.

Not only do the basics like the roster and cap space come into play, but so do larger pictures like market-size, team philosophy and even attractive living situations. Unlike rookies, most free-agents come to a new team as well-established adults who often have family responsibilities and other more grown-up things to think about. After a team processes through all of these factors, their list of remaining candidates is small and often modest. Sometimes fans get angry with little to no activity and feel their team isn't trying to get better, but in the long run, this kind of practice is a more sturdy one than frivolous spending.

Continue reading this post »

[Originally published on February 9]

The day after the Super Bowl comes with a weird mix of feelings. On one hand, there is a note of the morose knowing that come next Sunday, football will not be played. Suddenly there is a gap in the weekly routine and it's initially unsettling.

On the other hand, a break from football is necessary and even somehow refreshing, like a shower you only take once a year. The extended break between football-related activities gives us time to enjoy basketball then baseball before pulling our collective obsession out of the closet again. Brains everywhere decompress and file away most active football thoughts and memories until the following autumn. The fact it's taken away from us, allows us to appreciate it more. Limited supply leads to higher demand in this case.

That means before we close out Volume 9 of the Marvin Lewis saga, we must first briefly recap then look ahead.

Continue reading this post »

[Editor's Note: This posting was originally published on February 3rd.]

The Super Bowl. The fattest of them all. The thing is milked dry of ways to buy and sell and buy and sell. For many millions of people, it's a thing to make fancy dips for and watch a handful of high-budget commercials. Some get off on the halftime crap bonanza that takes forever and embarrasses me to be from this planet. It draws out celebrities and even the leader of the free world to bathe themselves in the grand spectacle. The scene is frightful. It's the Coliseum all over again. How much longer until we flood Cowboy Stadium and have under-water football? Bring in the live tigers and let's do this thing right.

Continue reading this post »

Joe Flacco wants a new contract. He deserves one. He has won in the playoffs in all four years of his career, he's been to the AFC Championship game twice, he's thrown over 3,600 yards and 20 touchdowns every season he's played and he's never been hurt. Yet there are two reasons why he is valued lower than he should be.

Continue reading this post »

The fullback is a telling position. Seeing one in the backfield means power football is on its way. Old-timers like it when the fullback gets the ball—it's the way football used to be—like a Charlie Brown scene of dust and limbs. The fullback was once a premiere skill position in Paul Brown's offense. Marion Motley wrecked fools in leather helmets all day from the fullback spot, and carried the rock wearing number 76—it's hard to get more classic than that. Hallowed bruisers like Csonka, Riggins and our own Pete Johnson kept the position relevant by gaining yards over the decades, but the threat of the fullback trailed off in a slow and steady decline toward what it is today, a mini snowplow who is lucky to be activated.

Continue reading this post »

I see the 49ers defense as a group of guys who kind of loosely hang around with bounty-hunter guilds in the off-season. They seem a little too tough to mingle with normal society, so they might go on a run with Dog and his wife or just kick back and watch some NBA with Boba Fett. To remain as fierce as they have all season long, they probably can't allow themselves but three calendar days of soft living. Imagine a biker gang in pads and you're somewhere near that San Francisco D. A fearsome, lethal bunch.

Continue reading this post »

After peeling back so many layers, the football onion begins to take a completely different form than its original shape. This season reinforced the idea to me that games are only tests to gauge how well practice is going and how Sunday is arguably the least important day of the week. Football is not a game, it's an experiment. The goal is for 70 or more individuals to share ideas and talents throughout the course of a week by the end of which they are to achieve perfection in both execution and design within the rules. Every team fails every time, but the idea is to get as close as possible. In a sense, by Sunday the game is already won or lost based on the success of the preparation involved. If the players are ready and the game-plan is solid, everything should take care of itself. Just like we practiced.

But what about human error and human triumph? People aren't robots, they will never do the same thing every time the same way, and also the ball takes funny bounces. Preparation can only go so far.

Continue reading this post »

It seemed like all of Texas had packed into Reliant Stadium in Houston last week to watch the state's other football team take care of business against the Cincinnati Bengals. The stage became too heavy, too intense. It lead to panic and and eventually submission for the Stripes. The Texans were not afraid, they relished in their spotlight. They made terrific plays and dazzled with their talents, while the Bengals missed numerous opportunities.

The same was true the week before against the Ravens. When the going got tough, the tough ran the ball. For two straight weeks, the Bengals were mortally wounded by explosive running backs. The fact is, the whole defense couldn't continue it's ferocity in the season's second half and especially in their last two games when it mattered the most. They were worn and torn in the end and it slowed them down into a vanilla group of tacklers. Mix that in with an exposed and untalented secondary, and just a dash of Adam Jones' emotional instability and what you have is the perfect recipe for a late-season let down.

Continue reading this post »

The Bengals are in the playoffs. They certainly didn't arrive to the party on time and they weren't even dressed very well, but a back door was left cracked so Cincinnati hopped the fence and let themselves in. This team knows what these shindigs are like; you got to be careful. Everybody there is looking to outclass all the others. One slip and you're back out in the January night. Got to keep a low profile and hope to get near the bar and that's about it.

This year has certainly been one of the stranger entrances to such a thing. What should be a sweet taste of success, is more like soap in the mouth. That Ravens finale was a litmus test of playoff contention and the Bengals failed again, yet they're issued an invitation to the postseason anyway. Funny world, this one.

But they're in and that's all that matters today.

Continue reading this post »

Gravity and balance. That combination worked against poor Early Doucet on Christmas Eve as he twirled and stumbled his way to a fourth-down incompletion, killing a gift-wrapped comeback against the Bengals. The same cosmic forces that let the Bengals down against the Texans swung back in their favor this time and reinforced the lesson that anything can happen in this crazy mixed up football league.

As it is, Cincinnati is back in the sixth slot and only needs to beat one good team to get to the playoffs, and that's how it should be. You gotta slay at least one dragon along the way to prove you're worthy. Taking out all the cream puffs is fine, but there aren't many of those lurking where the Bengals are headed.

For Marvin Lewis, this is one of those career-definers. A win-and-your-in finale is a playoff game, especially against a team whose already clinched but still has something to play for. Plus Marvin knows this team perhaps better than any other opponent. He has seen it all against the Baltimore Ravens. If he enjoys his job, then this week should be fun for him.

Continue reading this post »

I wanna go this week but haven't found anything under face value. Is that just something I will have to find from scalpers on game day? I've tried stubhub, ebay and the Bengals website but haven't been all that satisfied so far. Any point in the right direction would be appreciated.

In a word, pocket presence (I guess that's two words).

It seems so long ago when we used to call Palmer elite that I barely remember that player. I recall him moving around better in the pocket and even showing some straight-line speed once he decided to run with it, but all of that seemed to die after Kimo Von Oelhoffen obliterated his knee and destroyed his confidence. Since that fateful moment, Carson has been sacked 130 times and suffered through many injuries and pains. From '06-10, he never gained back the instinctual third eye needed to avoid sacks, turnovers, injury and ultimately losses. Any comfort in the pocket was, and still is, a very tenuous sense of safety for him. When things get hairy, most times his eyes come off the receivers and he goes down for a loss on the play; escape ability is not on his scouting report.

That isn't to say the man is completely devoid of such skills. As hard-edged as we Bengal fans might be toward old No. 9, he is still an adequate NFL quarterback. I think Raider Nation got a little tipsy from the kool-aid when the native son first returned to California—they were positively bathing in the stuff—but his arrival did instill a heavy dose of credibility to Oakland's season once Jason Campbell went down.

Continue reading this post »

No one said it'd be easy. The AFC North is unbearable to most. The defenses will scare you. Baltimore is a meat grinder. Pittsburgh is a street fight with chains. To hang in those kind of circles, Cincinnati had to be ruthless and bloodthirsty themselves, but each time against the big dogs, they flinched first and took their respective wallops. Had it not been for the heroics of AJ Green when it mattered most against Cleveland, many would be cashing in their Bengal chips right about now. Meddle was tested, lessons were learned. The measuring stick was brutal within the four-game divisional stretch and firmly established the respective roles of the pack. For now, the Bengals are still the "somedays".

Because the Bengals accomplished two honorable comebacks against Pittsburgh and Baltimore, we fans all agreed with one another that it proved our team was only a play or two away from actually beating the bastards, but then the Steelers squashed them like bug in the rematch and forced that tired but justified yelling of uncle once more. Oh, the frustration.

And they aren't a bad team. They really are close to shoving divisional fixtures out of the way. Even during a rough patch, the characters on this team have remained calm. The program still appears sound despite a rash of losing. I'm still impressed.

Continue reading this post »

I used to think that good scheme and inventive playcalling could overcome a lack of talent.  I remember banging the drum in 2009, saying the Bengals could win without Chris Henry―that the other guys would step it up.  That didn't happen.  True, it wasn't the most impressive coaching displays late that season by the offensive coordinator, but ultimately, it came down to simply not having the guns to move forward in the playoffs. 

Last week against Pittsburgh,  after AJ Green left the field, it felt that same way.  Caldwell, Baby Hawk, and Jerome Simpson did not strike any kind of fear in the hearts of the Steeler defense.  The timing went away, the routes became more round, and miscommunication set in like the ghost of Carson Palmer.  It's amazing to think that by removing just one receiver from the game plan, the whole equation of success breaks down.  Yet that is what happened in 2009 when Henry broke his arm and later died, and again in a much smaller dose last week in the second half when Green tweaked his knee.

The good news is that Green is going to be okay.  Nothing tore in that precious knee of his and although the team will treat him delicately, his return is imminent if not for this week then for next.  However, it seems logical on the part of the Bengals coaching staff to prepare the secondary-role players for more of a spotlight part should the team be in the same precarious situation again.  Can anyone within their current receiving corps step up and at least act like a number one wideout, or must the group as a whole equally elevate their game to allow for further success?  And even with Green on the field, can the others get better throughout the second half of the season?

Continue reading this post »

My, what an October it was!  Shortly after halftime in Week 4 against the Buffalo Bills, the Bengals decided they weren't gonna dress up as a bad team for Halloween this year.  They were going as playoff contenders and divisional threats and no one could convince them otherwise.  So they started to play the part.

Continue reading this post »

Terrell Owens is back in the news for no good reason, really; he wants to play in the NFL but nobody wants him.  I would say there are tens of millions of people in the same situation 

The weird part though, is that TO can actually play football but experts claim it's his attitude that is earning him the cold shoulder. I thought his attitude with a struggling Bengals team was fine last year. I don't remember hearing anything about tantrums or that he became the infamous locker room "cancer" he's been labeled elsewhere. It may not have been a healthy locker-room culture, but I attribute that more to frustrated veterans dealing with a letdown of a season rather than purely the presence of Terrell Owens.

Continue reading this post »

Carson Palmer took the warm weather with him back to his native land of California as he was mercifully traded by The Tyrant to the Oakland Raiders earlier this week. It's been rainy and crappy here ever since, yet spirits are high within the Bengal fan base.

Continue reading this post »

How strange all this has been.  After the Bengals lost their twelfth game in the finale in Baltimore last season, we all feared another prolonged drought of winning football in Cincinnati.  Yet only four regular-season games later, we're feeling much better about things.  The weird part though, is that this team should not be this competitive.  When the star quarterback and star receivers and star corner all pack up and move on, there is supposed to be some fallout, but this team is better than the 2010 version despite its inexperience and youth.  How could this be?

Continue reading this post »

In a passage titled, The Literary Shipyard, Mark Twain describes his writing process as a gas-tank that over time runs dry. He wrote that he always had unfinished works lurking somewhere like half-built ships awaiting their completion. When the tank ran dry on whichever novel he was writing, he would dock it with the others and find renewed interest in something else. Sometimes he would get around to finishing a few, I'm sure you've read one or two of them, but not always.

While I have nowhere near the necessary skill nor bravado to ever dream of comparing myself to the masterful Mr. Twain, I share his sentiments on dry gas tanks and old boats. I too have stories yearning to be told, but they are victims of my Bengal distraction. It wouldn't be fair to starve them outright until their whole concepts are forgotten, and to keep that from happening, the Bengals are out.

Continue reading this post »