SBNation.com User Blog: Mojokong

Corner Concerns

Mojokong — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:54:21 -0000

The Cincinnati Bengals enter 2013 with a strong defensive reputation. Since Mike Zimmer has taken over that side of the ball, the Bengals have surpassed respectability and now are seated at the high table with other impressive defensive specimens. They have earned this caliber by drafting well and developing projects to their fullest.

Yet, like many other defensive strongholds, there are weak spots to be found if one looks closely enough. Like Smaug's missing scale or the thermal exhaust port left open on the Death Star, the Bengals too have exploitable areas if their opponents can get through the first and second lines. Many may point to safety as this window of opportunity-and there are certainly a stockpile of concerns at that position-but cornerback too worries me.

Leon Hall is their leader in the back end. Out of all the names listed at corner, he is the most dependable. Last year he turned the tide on three late-season games with timely picks and tremendous returns. His pick-six against the Texans in the Wild-Card game gave his team their only lead of the contest. Hall has always played a half-step slower than many of his colleagues but also demonstrates terrific technique that not only has kept him in the league, but also keeps him as his team's best player at the position.

Aside from foot speed, health has become Leon's biggest drawback. In 2011, he ruptured his achilles tendon and missed the last seven games. Last year he missed Weeks 3 and 4 to a strained calf and really didn't look like his old self until the last third on the season. Prior to his achilles injury, Hall was a mini iron-man of sorts playing in 74 straight games, but an injury of that caliber is hard for any athlete to come back from and he isn't getting younger entering his seventh year as a pro.

Still Hall's toughness has never been called into question. He is a pros pro and is a good example for younger players around him. His spot at right corner awaits him until his health fails him again. When he is at his best, the benefits are easy to spot. His score against Houston was the only Bengals touchdown in the 2013 postseason, his touchdown against Pittsburgh proved to be an early dagger that vaulted the Stripes into the playoffs in the first place, and his interception in Philly fended off a nightmare upset that might have ruined the season in Week 15. He is a Pro-Bowl caliber player when he plays free and easy but even at 85 percent, he can be easily picked on.

Behind Hall are a litany of other question marks. The next most dependable of this lot is Terence Newman. Newman is not a young man as far as corners go (34) but held up better than most suspected last year as a new member to the Zim Clan. Zimmer has made the most of other aged defensive backs in his time here and Newman was familiar with his style from their days together in Dallas. One has to wonder, though, how long he can hold up. He was brought back this offseason after flirting with Oakland and still figures to be a major contributor, and the national media seems to put more credence into his play this year than last, but we close Bengal observers can't feel reassured penciling him in as a starter.

Newman impressed me with his tackling, like Hall, he too is no cream puff, but Torrey Smith, Antonio Brown and even still Mike Wallace who lurk on the schedule are very fast men who won't take pity on Newman's elder stage of his career. Not only must Newman stay healthy and remain on the field, but he must also maintain his speed which Father Time typically heavily discourages as men get older. Using him as a nickel seems like a natural demotion as the weeks and months pile up, but how soon is the defense as a whole ready to replace him with someone younger and more spry?

The organization would love that person to become last year's top draft pick, Dre Kirkpatrick. Sadly, however, the youngster has all the stigma of a cursed prospect and has found life hard and unfair in the NFL. No one really knows what this kid is capable of. We watched him line up only a handful of times on defense in 2012 and he didn't have the chance to show us much of anything. He is still tall and rangy with no real mileage applied to his body but the rest of his scouting report has yet to be determined. The lingering knee problem is a major red flag. What was diagnosed as Osgood-Schlatter disease eliminated all of his rookie mini and training camps and kept him off the field until Week 8. He played sparingly in five games before being rocked with what seemed to be a somewhat severe concussion that kept him out the next two weeks. The knee started acting back up late in the year and the Bengals shelved him for a fresh start this season. Dre had another procedure done to the knee in the offseason but sounds optimistic about making back in time for camp in 2013. Zimmer and Marvin Lewis are likely hopeful about his future, but one would think their optimism is somewhat guarded to do his short but injury riddled pro career.

Expectations around Kirkpatrick for fans have plummeted. We've seen this before. Dubious recurring knee problems are close to a death sentence in the NFL, not to mention the concussion he suffered statistically makes him more vulnerable for it to happen again. If he comes back and plays even sparingly but consistently, it would be a huge relief and instill hope that maybe he can develop into a first-round pick, but as it stands now, he is behind the eight ball and his battle is steeply uphill.

Adam Jones is a nice story. Here, a troubled young man found a new lease on life in Zimmer's system and he enjoyed what many consider his best year last season. Jones is a passionate player that brings a lot of good things to the table, not only on defense but as a return man too. He played in every game last year which was perhaps the most important stat for him to attain after battling hamstring and neck injuries the two previous years. He has shed a lot of the negativity that surrounded his reputation from past transgressions, and really seems to care about winning more than anything else.

Yet while he may warm our hearts, the Bengals may need him to play at perhaps unrealistic levels. Like Hall and Newman, he too is no spring chicken. Not only that, but one full season does make up for the abundance of missed games he has endured by either injury or suspension. He can still make exciting plays and has the football instincts to change the game by himself, but one cannot yet call him a reliable player.

There are others on the list but they all have their own, mainly injury, problems. Brandon Ghee remains on the roster (I think) but he's always hurt. Chris Lewis-Harris looked good in the preseason and even cracked the wild-card roster, but he is a project and a fill-in at best. Shaun Prater could develop into a decent player but missed all of last year with a knee injury in his rookie season-not a good start to a career.

The whole philosophy on defense this season for the Bengals centers around getting pressure on the quarterback, which, in theory, takes pressure off of the corners. We all know, however, that the pass rush will not be dominant on every single play and that a lot of pressure still exists within the corner ranks. They are not the fastest bunch in the NFL-and with quarterbacks likely to deliver the ball quickly against a heavy pass rush, they don't need to be-but they also are not the deepest for a unit with so many injury concerns. Don't expect a big free agency splash like Charles Woodson. Instead expect the Bengals to rely on their existing veterans to assist the younger players in their development while everyone keeps their fingers crossed in hopes of avoiding injury.

The more it's examined, the more tenuous the position appears. A chink in the armor perhaps not fortified enough. I trust the coaching staff in place to make the most of the situation, and the commitment on defense has been given to the players up front, but the back end becomes more worrisome as the reality sets in. Hopefully that worry quickly dissipates in the bask of winning meaningful games.

Mojokong-cornering the market.

Oversimplifying Things: Two Ways the Bengals Win

Mojokong — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:57:16 -0000

On a cool, rainy spring day, the May showers welcomed the 2013 Bengals' draft class to Cincinnati where their professional careers began, running around in shorts under the gloomy late-morning skies. This marked the true beginning of the new season, one of rather great expectations.

Now that the puzzle is mostly complete in regards to answering the who, it's time to turn to the how.

On defense, there doesn't seem to be much secrecy in the way Mike Zimmer plans to attack. The heavy rotation of defensive linemen is expected to generate extra hits on the quarterback which will in turn tire him out and lead to mistakes. Stopping the run has been an afterthought in part because of the tremendous pass rush but also because Zimmer has generated such consistent results that it is perhaps taken for granted at this point.

I heard NFL Network analyst Jamie Dukes say on television that the Bengals defense was soft and couldn't have disagreed more. When pressed, he even pointed to Michael Johnson as an example which also seems unfair for a guy coming off of a double-digit sack effort. The conversation was prompted by the arrival of James Harrison and the "nastiness" he brings to the Bengals, and while I agree that his intensity will rub off on his teammates, I don't think Mike Zimmer tolerates soft players. Domata Peko may smile a lot but I'm not calling that guy soft. Rey Maualuga has awareness issues and is too often out of place, but he too is not soft. I'm excited to see what Harrison can do among the many pass rushers the Bengals have collected, but I'm not sure if he brings an immediate sense of intimidation that wasn't there before. My guess is that his snaps are more limited than some may expect and that he brings a nice energy off of the bench.

Regardless of Harrison, the Bengals were ready to carry on smacking opposing quarterbacks when they brought back three of their existing defensive ends and drafted another. The whole defensive season hinges on it; the corners could have terrific years if it's successful. It would free up the linebackers to stop the run more freely which is undoubtedly their strength.

The offensive emphasis this season is a bit more murky to predict. It is the third year of the three most important men on offense. Jay Gruden, A.J. Green and Andy Dalton have each grown in their past two previous seasons. None of these men have fulfilled their potential yet and there are heaps of expectation on the shoulders of all three.

Dalton has become on those quarterbacks who take the most scrutiny during the offseason. Drew Brees used to be another guy who media and fans enjoyed pointing out his deficiencies. There has been a recent crescendo of criticism and then defense of Andy Dalton and while I think that he lacks the luster of more physically impressive quarterbacks, the fact his biggest criticism is that he can't win playoff games is a pretty good problem for a third-year player to have.

Like all of you, I have no idea what happens inside the belly of Paul Brown Stadium, behind the concrete, inside the coaches rooms. There, plans are made and we often see the perceived attempts but we never truly know. That being said, I suspect that last season a lot, if not too much, was dumped upon Andy Dalton's plate. What may have looked basic and doable in his first year, probably looked vast and complex in year two and the ginger needed more time than was given to fully understand it. His numbers went up which points to an expanded role, but outside of his stats, his pocket presence, field awareness and general comfort running the offense subsided and an overall improvement was not easy to discern. So then what should we expect to see in year three?

His main man, A.J. Green, is ready to blast off. He is a dynamo, talent is left in pools wherever he steps, only God and himself can keep him from his greatness. Yet Dalton too is at least partially responsible for how great Green will be and that is another unspoken burden upon the young QB. Getting the ball to A.J. remains numero uno on Gruden's to-do list, but unlike previous seasons, all three of these men have more viable weapons around them.

Now, before I dive headfirst into the new depth the Bengals have added to their offensive arsenal it feels responsible to point out that these men are rookies and unproven and that every year we Bengals fans anoint up-and-coming skill players as immediate impact players when sometimes the opposite is true.

That being said, the Bengals haven't had a running back prospect this bright since Kenny Irons orvChris Perry, both of whom were cruelly forced from the game as very young men due to injury. Marvin Lewis has made little-guy comparisons of Giovani Bernard to success stories like Ray Rice and Maurice Jones-Drew. He compliments a hard-working but rather singular back in BenJarvus Green-Ellis and will be running behind an offensive line that is growing up together. The running game had stretches of dominance midseason last year and Bernard will help switch up the sauce every now again and attack more on the outside, giving Benny a break.

Of course, Tyler Eifert is the new designer tight end, capable of being used in a variety of spots and pressures different positions in different ways. Also added to the mix is Arkansas wide receiver, Cobi Hamilton, who appears to be another possession guy and reminds me of Antonio Bryant. Lastly, Nebraska's tough running Rex Burkhead gets a chance to be mainly a special-teams grunt but could be used on some weird third down shovel passes (I can already see him being used in fake punts too).

The thing all of these guys have in common is that they are all players expected to run simpler routes and gain those crucial yards-after-catch. If hitting the passer is the one key to success for the defense, picking up YAC might be the same for the offense. If passing yards are being picked up without Dalton throwing the ball very long, everybody is then playing to their skill set. Eifert and Jermaine Gresham are big strong receiving tight ends, and while Gresham does drop passes, he also makes some grown-ass-man catches too. Mohamed Sanu and now Hamilton are also on the big and strong spectrum of wide receiver, and while not big (but in my mind pretty strong), Andrew Hawkins excels with the ball in his hands with blockers in front of him. Bernard comes with a reputation of catching the ball well and Green-Ellis can bring them in when thrown his way too.

If these guys convert on shorter stuff, it will force the double-team off of Green and then there's really no stopping him. Effective complimentary players are absolutely necessary for stars to be at their best. In the end, the players, the coaches, the fans and their writers want wins more than stats. If A.J. Green's stats go down but the offense is better and they win more games, life will be even sweeter.

One cannot sum up the inter-workings of a football season into simply this or that being the only variable of success, but we speculators of the sport are allowed to indulge in oversimplification and that is what you have read here. If Dalton can handle the scope of the offense Gruden presents to him, he should be able to utilize the many short-route, possession targets at his disposal which will allow Green freedom to run his crispy pass patterns and dazzle with his play. On defense, if the rotation racks up the hits on the quarterbacks, everyone's job becomes easier and they finish at a top-10 ranked unit again, maybe top-3.

Quarterback hits and YAC. Bengals 11-5.

Mojokong-first fire.

Tyler Eifert: The Flexible Addition

Mojokong — Sat, 04 May 2013 16:50:53 -0000

The word that comes to mind when profiling Tyler Eifert is: flexibility. I don't mean to say that he is a contortionist-though as an athletic young man, I'm sure he bends just fine-but rather, that he adds figurative flexibility in two ways.

The first way is the most obvious. On the field, he can be used in a variety of places. Tight ends have traditionally lined up hunched over with their fingers on the ground, appearing ready to either block or run out for a pass. The game has morphed with great strides since then, and while many tight ends still begin their play in the old fashion, many coaches have flexed these players away from the offensive line in either the slot or even wide receiver positions.

Watching highlights of Eifert, one can quickly see how the guy causes problems from all of these areas on the field. When he lines up in the traditional tight end spot, he becomes a threat in the seam route. He is able to find open space past the linebackers and braces appropriately for the ensuing contact by smaller defensive backs. Split him out wide and watch him jump over shorter players on long throws down the sidelines, or watch him scoot across the middle on crossing routes as an easy safety-valve target. In the red-zone, he can be used in the slot and beat linebackers or zone coverages on corner routes in the end-zone. In short, he is an expert pass catcher for the college ranks (even caught five interceptions his senior year in high-school) and his body-positioning, strength, and safe hands make him a dynamic playmaker and a mismatch extraordinaire.

The first concern that is always arisen when discussing Eifert, though, is his blocking. Eifert himself admitted that it's what he hears too and he's indicated that blocking has become his offseason priority. In other scouting reports, one can read that he has made terrific strides in that regard since first enrolling at Notre Dame and that the question mark is somewhat overblown. Yet, in those same reports, one can also read how he might have problems with NFL defensive ends if he isn't able to use his hands more effectively when pushing back these brutes.

Offensive coordinator, Jay Gruden, has already made his opinion known about Eifert's blocking. He recognizes that Eifert was not asked to do much blocking in college and that if he becomes a one-dimensional pass-catcher, the defenses can predict his role easier and adjust to him more comfortably.

‘In order to be a difference-maker at that position, you have to be able to block to help the running game,' Gruden told Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com.

One way he can assist the running game without being a tremendous blocker is simply securing the outside when split wide by blocking the defensive backs that line up against him. New running back and fellow Bengal draftee, Gionvani Bernard, could use some help out there when he blazes around the defensive line and finds open areas in the flats. I could also see Eifert being an effective blocker in the screen game for the same reasons.

Obviously, the Bengals already have a Pro-Bowl tight end in Jermaine Gresham, but Gresham is a more traditional version of the position. Gresham has demonstrated that he can block just fine. He's a larger guy than Eifert with a naturally thicker build. Strength is not Gresham's issue. Like other prototypical tight ends, though, Gresham doesn't have the greatest hands. I stand by my assessment that it derives from an inability to concentrate in the crucial nanoseconds that defines a play. They are both highly-touted prospects, but Gresham's potential is nearly realized. At this point, the world pretty much knows what he brings to the table, and that which he struggles with, Eifert reportedly excels. How they will both be used simultaneously remains to be seen, but Gruden recently chimed in about that too, explaining how easy it would be to adjust from the three-wide receiver sets the team used so often last season, to a two-tight end look. Ultimately, what Eifert brings to the offense is added flexibility to its scheme.

In the other sense, his arrival provides the Bengals some wiggle room on the business end when Gresham's contract runs out in 2014. As of now, Rob Gronkowski is the highest-paid tight end ever after signing a six-year, $54 million extension prior to last season. When healthy, Gronk has been an animal and a touchdown scoring machine, warranting big money, but he has suffered a number of setbacks on his broken forearm and teeters on the edge of being labeled ‘injury prone'.

Gresham has been relatively healthy and has put up decent numbers. His contract won't be of Gronk money, but he will command a sizable extension himself. The Bengals have been noticably shrewd in regards to free-agency, with the emphasis on saving money in order to resign their own stars. With A.J. Green, Andy Dalton, Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap and Michael Johnson all in line for their next payday, Gresham has to wonder where he falls on the team's priority list. Now with yet another first-round pick at the position, the Bengals don't seem to need him as much as perhaps it seemed last year. The development of Eifert's blocking and the hopeful improvement of Gresham's catching ability should go a long way toward clarifying the Bengals' long-term plans at tight end.

Many fans remember the letdown in Houston last year and pointed at least half the blame on Gresham himself. Then when Cincinnati drafted Eifert, some of those felt it was in response to that showing and that it was done to increase the pressure on him. While there may be a kernel of truth to that (or perhaps not), the pressure has been amplified nonetheless. The competition for the position and leading role in that area is now more important than it was before the draft and both leading competitors realize what's at stake. The organization gave itself flexibility while forcing a seasoned veteran to sweat a bit. Tyler Eifert is partly here to reinforce the underlying message of the profession to Gresham and to the rest of the team: this is pro football, where no is safe.

Mojokong-warming up with the weather.

Bengals 2013: The Great Power Shift

Mojokong — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:32:49 -0000

One could argue that the Bengals never panic. Even when their record and state of affairs warrant a heightened sense of concern, they keep their faces resolved and forge ahead with encouraging words.

This time around, though, there is no need for panic. Within the organization, one can sense a quiet calm of confidence. As other teams scramble around, tightening screws and battening down hatches, the Bengals have kept to themselves, whistling while they appraise their roster.

The draft reflects their satisfaction with their current team. Pundits and draft wizards sketched out needs-and perhaps the Bengal brain-trust agreed with them-but they weren't going to let that dictate their plans. There were viable safeties and linebackers and running backs available with the 21^st pick, but they eschewed those positions in favor of a football player they felt was skilled above the rest.

Tyler Eifert brings more to the team than just another tight end on the roster. As noted elsewhere, he should not be viewed as Jermaine Gresham's replacement, or his backup. He is an accent to the offense as a whole, a newly crafted weapon that was developed under a gold dome in Indiana.

The acquisition of Eifert points to the increased value the league as a whole has designated to the modern tight end. With prospects growing ever bigger and faster, these types of offensive threats are practically immediate mismatches against smaller defensive backs and slower linebackers. The defensive evolution against this new type of player has been slow to respond and we have yet to see the appropriately skilled and sized defender to counter them.

Other teams have used two tight ends recently with wild success. The New England Patriots are the easiest example of the kind of strains a potent double tight end set invokes upon opposing defenses. Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez have simultaneously exploded on to the scene and only their own health has prevented them from blossoming even further. In Baltimore, Ed Dickson and Dennis Pitta were major components of a Super Bowl-winning offense, and even the team they beat, the 49ers, found late-season magic with Delanie Walker complimenting Vernon Davis.

The Bengals have given in to this trend by selecting Eifert. The biggest difference between them and the others, though, is that only Cincinnati has A.J. Green. The Bengals want to get all their players involved and put up points in a variety of ways, but the true overriding logic behind all of it is to do whatever it takes to allow Green to dominate more easily. There is no question who their best offensive player is. No one else on the roster is composed of the same cosmic fabric that breathes life into football legends. He alone makes defenses fear the Bengals, and that fear must be utilized to their advantage.

The ability to spread out both tight ends wide and put Green in motion serves as a tangible example of how defenses will need to adjust. If Eifert's presence allows A.J. even a few more yards of open space to operate in, he was worth the pick, but Eifert is more than a serviceable decoy. The scouting reports rave about him with superlatives that emphasize the softness of his hands and the ability to win most jump balls. If there is a knock on him, it's his blocking, but for all the complaining fans do about Gresham, the one thing he has undoubtedly improved upon is his blocking skills. Sure, Eifert will have to learn that trade as well over time-one could argue that the lack of that very thing is what killed Chase Coffman's chances in stripes-but he was not brought here to showcase his blocking attributes. He will catch passes and stretch out defenses for mostly Green's benefit.

Andy Dalton should be thrilled with the Eifert pick. Here is a large, mobile target that reliably brings in what is thrown in his direction on a consistent basis. Gresham has concentration issues that plague him in the form of drops and penalties. For as physically gifted as he is, reliability is not Gresham's strong suit. Eifert comes with more dependability in the pass game and with question marks swirling about the rest of the receivers not named Green, Dalton sorely needs someone he can lean on in third-down situations.

The other new weapon is second-round pick, Giovani Bernard. In February, Bernard was talked about as the only first-round quality running back. Then the evaluation process began, and the wizards proclaimed Eddie Lacy as the best of the crop. Either way, no back was picked in the first round and the Bengals made Bernard the first one off the board.

Running back was a need, but Bernard fills more than the generic backup to BenJarvus Green-Ellis. This is an explosive player with supreme cutback ability. He's fast, has good field vision and can rocket through holes. The purported ability to catch well out of the backfield makes him a terrific new element for Jay Gruden and the offense.

These two draft picks cement the west-coast identity the Bengals have shifted towards under Gruden. Each serves as high-octane safety valves with an emphasis on yards-after-catch. Shorter to intermediate routes are the kind of passes Andy Dalton prefers to throw. Setting up, and then converting, third-and-four, should be the secret ingredient of this year's offense. Do enough of that with the host of complimentary players including the two rookies, and A.J. Green will quickly become the twisting of the knife for any Bengals foe. Their personnel now lend itself to a short-yardage, ball-control offensive philosophy which is rooted in the west-coast scheme.

The draft didn't only help the team strengthen its offensive identity. With the free-agent pick-up of James Harrison, and the drafting of both Margus Hunt and Sean Porter, Mike Zimmer now has a stockpile of pass-rushers at his disposal. With the emergence of Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap, the team saw it as an opportunity to be exceptional in one defensive category: hits on the quarterback. Because of these men and their success, other like Michael Johnson and Wallace Gilberry found their own jobs easier to perform and team records in sacks were set. Now the team has dedicated even more resources to this one facet of their defensive scheme by loading up on large guys who harbor a distaste for quarterbacks.

There is perhaps no more intriguing player in this year's draft to me than Margus Hunt. This man is a werewolf of a football player, excelling in every physical test set in his path but still a raw specimen to say the least. He is very large (6'8''1/2, 280 lbs.), very fast (4.6 40-yard dash) and very strong (38 reps at 220lbs.). He could create absolute chaos when rushing the passer, especially as part of a heavy rotation of constant fresh bodies along the defensive line, but his most eye-opening stat is the fact he blocked 17 kicks in his college career! The J.J. Watt comparisons may be jumping the gun on a fella who's only played football for four years, but even if he develops into a more reasonable comparison of someone like Calais Campbell, the Bengals will be thrilled.

This young roster, planted as a sapling in 2010, has matured before our eyes and now boasts a solid trunk and strong, fruitful limbs. It is poised and ready to make even bigger strides than the pleasant surprise campaigns of the last two seasons. Its depth is quality and its talent-level satisfactory. The division appears vulnerable and the Bengals' future gleams upon an intense silver lining. Still, divisions are not won and lost in my imagination and they must prove their worth on the field itself, but how can one not feel optimistic about their current state? How many other teams can boast the same refined identity that Cincinnati has shaped itself into?

This offseason did serve as a signpost, and to me it points toward success. I feel good about the team's decision-making and its perceived vision of the future. What you see is not a shiny façade covering a flimsy foundation. What you see is concrete and rebar, housing a sleeping monster. One day in July it will awake and those found on its schedule will rue that day. A new power is rising. May it lead us to triumphs unknown!

Mojokong-the coal wanderer

Bengals Bacon: Breakfast Food For Thought

Mojokong — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 00:50:14 -0000

Enemy Bacon

With the spigot of draft speculation left running and drowning all of us, I welcome you, as a change of pace, to look at the schedule. Thursday night, the NFL will pull back its curtain and dazzle us with a full slate of 16 games for each and every team. This is an annual occurrence and usually one I come to discover rather than await, but anything based on indisputable fact right now is heartily welcomed. Before such revelations are announced, however, we as junkies of the stuff, can give another thought to the who and where while we wait on the when.

Upon first glance, the the host of opposition appears a bit more tame this season compared to that of recent past. Of course, I'm not pulling out numbers to suggest any such claim, but it at least feels softer anyway. But after about 45 seconds of consideration, one begins to change their mind and wonder how they will beat most of these teams. Worry not, my friends, this is the schedule goes.

One thing that jumped out at me right away was the lack of West Coast games, save for San Diego, where they won last year. Some folks, particularly coaches, like to downplay the long-travel games, but I'm convinced that it's a disadvantage for any team to travel more than two time-zones away. These are men conditioned to follow strict routine and do the things the same way every time. That's why any road game is difficult, but a West Coast one is doubly so (Bengals all-time West Coast record: 16-48, 3-8 under Marvin Lewis).

Another element of the schedule that excited me was the fact that the Bengals will travel to three Great Lakes cities, increasing the chances of a snow game this season. Of course this all depends on the time of year, but if the schedule-makers decide any of these showdowns are to take place in late-November or after, fingers will be crossed.

I know there are those who don't always enjoy weather games, saying that it limits the tremendous athletic ability on the field, but it's pretty rare to get a real snow game in the first place and when it does happen,it seems to make the game more memorable. There are countless examples of weather games: the Fog Bowl in Chicago in the 80's, the tuck-rule game in New England in '01, and for Bengals fans, the painful late-season loss in Denver in 2006. Also, if BenJarvus Green-Ellis were to gain an advantage in any kind of game condition, it would be a game with snow.

The AFC East doesn't scare me much.

The Patriots are always formidable as long as their superhero quarterback remains under center and their supervillian coach remains on the sideline. Of course, both are getting older, but they will have to be sitting in yellow jackets before I totally count them out.

Miami spent a lot of money in March and gained the collective applause of the media, and they certainly appear to be a team on the rise, but they are unproven and an implosion of the season would seem less surprising than any wild success stories.

Buffalo continues to wander about in the void, looking for anything to hang their hat on. They have another coach and another quarterback and another chance to prove that they aren't permanently random. The fact they haven't already moved to Toronto astounds me.

Then there are the Jets who either have no plan, or are fooling us all. Rex Ryan is brash, yes, but he is not a bad coach. The situation he was placed in was doomed for any long-term success. When Mark Sanchez was winning, the team smashed their way into consecutive AFC championship games and could have done so with most quarterbacks in the league. Once the dominant offensive line and defense grew too old, the backup plan proved faulty and the rest is tabloid history. Now the Jets look upon each other with terror in their eyes. Even the unshakable Ryan comes off as unsure and listless. He intends to regain control of the defensive playcalling, but that side of the ball may not be the issue. They are an organization firmly in the grips of a downward swing and may be too beyond repair to have a shot at a winning season in 2013.

The NFC North could be a different story.

The Lions have some nice names on paper. Their big year in 2011 fueled Detroit fans with optimism only to be deflated with a sorry encore last season. When they were winning, they reminded me of the 2005 Bengals, with a young hotshot quarterback, elite receiver and a promising coach. That Bengals team never maintained any meaningful success after that and held on to many of the key pieces for too long in hopes of a revival. If the Lions think they can simply pass their ways out of the woes of losing, they will feel a similar fate.

Minnesota is a tough one to call. Greg Jennings is cool, but is Christian Ponder? And if Ponder isn't cool, is Matt Cassell? The Vikings have Adrian Peterson, and, like last year, he alone can be enough to get them to the playoffs, but I don't have a lot of confidence in that team. Perhaps I still have a lingering disappointment about Leslie Frazier and his time as defensive coordinator here, I don't know.

Green Bay is always going to be hard to beat as long Aaron Rodgers plays there. The guy is one of the best and is already matched up with Drew Brees to take over the legendary QB tandem once Manning and Brady hang it up. Their secondary remains a bit of a question mark for me and that offensive line dealt with some issues a year ago, but all in all, the Packers remain a legitimate Super Bowl contender even in April.

The Bears now have Marc Trestman as their coach who is said to be a quarterbacks expert. His goal is to squeeze the remaining talent from Jay Cutler and take him to straight to the Super Bowl. While they cut loose their captain on defense, they still have savvy veteran leadership decorated with Pro Bowls and awards. This game seems tough for the Bengals no matter what time of year they're scheduled.

It doesn't make sense to attempt to predict the wins and losses just yet-it barely makes sense to write about this at all-but I do like the way these opponents feel as a whole. Whether the divisional tables are shifting or not is day for a different bacon, but these other teams matter too, and are worth keeping an eye on.

Bacon-Wrapped Dates

Try this when you're grilling:

Buy some dates from a Mediterranean shop if you can-the Medjool kind. Get some bacon. Line the bacon with a little brown sugar-don't go overboard. Wrap the bacon around the date and stab it through with a toothpick. Grill them bitches. Keep in mind that the grease dripping off will create flair ups. Turn em every now and then. You know what cooked bacon looks like; take it off when it's ready. You'll love me for it.

Other bacon-wrapped dates.

Thursday is the final day for teams to host prospects (within the metro area of that team) and Friday is the final day for restricted free agency-the Bengals have no remaining restricted free agents. The NBA Playoffs begin Saturday and the NFL Draft is next Thursday, April 25. My birthday is March 12, and the Cincinnati Reds were founded in 1869. For all other dates, go to the library and look them up.

Mojokong-needs not told twice.

Bengals Bacon: The Candy of Meats

Mojokong — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:48:24 -0000

What's that sizzlin' in the fryin' pan? The bacon, that's what.

Welcome my early-rising carnivores to a guest bacon, whipped up by the ape who cooks, the Mojokong. Today we will start with the beginnings of an interesting week.

We have a pulse:

After radio silence on nearly all free-agent fronts in the past month or so, the Bengals finally appear at least mildly interested in fielding a full 53-man roster by means of acquiring a veteran or two. Working out this week were two one-time Arizona Cardinals in safety Kerry Rhodes and linebacker Karlos Dansby.

Rhodes was an early cap-casualty in Arizona this offseason as the Cards shed both of their starting safeties with the arrival of their new coach, Bruce Arians. He isn't terribly old (30), could be a capable starter right away, and put up solid statistics last year that a dumb-ass website created. Signing him would add some quality depth in an area that is sorely without much at the moment, but frankly, I'm tired of the revolving door at the safety position.

Reggie Nelson has been a pleasant surprise. Traded for a random corner (David Jones), Nelson has added at least some stability at a position that has seen little. I remember Rogers Beckett. I remember Chinedum Ndukwe, and Dexter Jackson and Ifeanyi Ohalete and Madieu Williams and all the other randoms Marvin Lewis has run out there at safety. Some hope was reserved for Taylor Mays to get it together but that expiration date is quickly closing.

The fact is, the Bengals need to draft a real safety. Not an old corner who can't cut it on the outside. Not a really tall college player who can't find his way into the game. There are some gems this year in the draft. Kenny Vacarro has a certain pro panache that I covet. He may not be on the board by the time it's the Bengals turn, but the team needs to prioritize the position to some degree and someday soon attempt to find a long-term solution back there. For the record, I think the same could be said for center but they may be bacon for another day.

As for Dansby, I remember him as a mouthy guy who was one of the first to brazenly sport the faux hawk. Yet, fashion statements aside, the man has over 100 starts and over 700 tackles during his nine years in the league. He too is over thirty, but he started every game for the Dolphins the past two seasons and doesn't seem to have durability issues.

His addition would relieve the squeeze put on the linebacking corps after Manny Lawson skipped town for Buffalo. We all know how most fans feel about Rey Maualuga, and undoubtedly, many of you hope Dansby (or anyone else) will supplant the USC letdown, but we also know how the coaching staff feels about him and, like it or not, their opinion matters more than ours. If Dansby ever dons a striped helmet, he will not simply be handed a starting job. In fact, we don't know who will play where in regards to the linebackers at the moment. Dansby has played on both outside slots as well as the middle; both Maualuga and Vontaze Burfict have similar versatility in regards to the areas they can play. Dansby has never played in a 4-3 formation in the NFL (neither has Kerry Rhodes, for that matter), and for some that may be an issue, but a 10-year vet should be able to weather that storm.

I would think Rhodes is a more likely signing than is Dansby, but one never knows just what's inside the mind of Mike Brown, or what's inside his striped money vault.

Shedding dead blankets:

One man no longer effected by Mr. Brown or his cash is corner Jason Allen. Last year during this time, the Bengals looked into the future and saw a heavy dose of injury issued to their corners. They reacted by signing multiple veterans and drafting two other corners. Like all future-seers, they were right and needed just about all of them at different points of the season, but one that never made the rotation was Allen.

I was never excited about this pickup in the first place. I remember watching him on Monday Night Football when he was with the Dolphins and thinking that he may have been the worst corner in the league. Then he went to Houston and looked better (how could you not?), and also looked decent in the preseason, but Zimmer never trusted him and the pine he rode for the entire season, save for three defensive snaps. If anything, Allen was the ultimate security blanket that never got cold enough to use. Now he clears the way for perhaps a languishing young special-teamer who just needs that one chance to prove himself to the world. Or maybe, the Bengals use the saved cash toward the Geno fund. Either way, it's money better spent.

Bearcats Bacon:

The last bit of bacon grizzle this morning goes out to the Cincinnati Bearcats for landing the Notre Dame transfer quarterback, Gunner Kiel. First off, he is a quarterback named Gunner-not sure what more you could want, really. Secondly, he was the top nationally-ranked quarterback in his high-school recruiting class according to Rivals.com. And lastly, he leaves Brian Kelly behind, which around here shows good common sense.

I feel it is safe to say that Gunner is the highest-profile recruit to play football for the Bearcats (or will play for the Bearcats). Because of that stupid rule fans everywhere hate, he will have to sit out a year before being allowed to suit up again in 2014, where hopefully he propels himself, Tommy Tuberville, and the entire Cincinnati Bearcats program into the stratosphere of championships and recruiting violations. While it serves as an excellent minor league for the NFL, college football is the biggest sham in all of sports and is nearly impossible to take seriously.

So carry on with the other parts of a complete breakfast, but hold dear to your hearts that sweet-smelling swine that fills these pages on a regular basis. Bacon is the candy of meats, it's indulgent deliciousness is likely unmatched in the universe. So too is Cincy Jungle, feeding you the fatty underbelly of Bengals news and information. These are the morsels you seek; all others are simply baloney.

Whispers Of Worry: The Hidden Concerns of the Bengals

Mojokong — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 19:06:00 -0000

A.J. Green is arguably the most talented player the Bengals have ever drafted. He is amazing and everyone knows it. Replacing him isn't possible; keeping him for a long time is the only sensible course of action. Does it matter how much he costs? It shouldn't. He will command Megatron money, and, in NFL terms, it will be well deserved. All compliments have been laid at his feet and he continues to be an effective role model in every way.

What life would look like for the Bengals without him, though, is rarely discussed. He is not injury prone, even though he did miss a few games his rookie season with a knee tweak, and he works hard to be the best, but he is still a mortal man. If he were to incur more injury, would the Bengals have the juice to move the ball in the passing game?

Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones have exciting upsides but both have been injured and neither have proven to be dependable receivers. Jermaine Gresham is a top-10 tight end who continues to get better, but every Bengals fan has developed a specific nerve that reacts to Gresham dropped passes. Orson Charles looked capable in the passing game, but was used too sparsely to get a comfortable handle on in terms of his abilities. Andrew Hawkins is a fun player who tries hard, but his lack of size makes him a tough target for Dalton to find and also prone to blow-up tackles in space. If he became the Bengals most experienced receiver, it would speak to the greenness of the receiving corps as a whole.

Out of that choir of question marks, Gresham and Sanu carry the most of hope making a long-term impact for the team and its fans. The others serve their role, but they aren't building blocks. It may not be enough, though. The team predictably ignored the wash of free agents that flowed past them downstream, but the draft approaches and that is where their needs are addressed. Yet even if they take a receiver as high the first round, like the others, that player will need time to spread his wings and show us what he can do.

Nonetheless, this team must acquire a receiver sooner than later that can become an effective lead receiver at least temporarily should Green ever go down. Firepower matters. There were times last year where it felt like they didn't have enough. I don't blame the team for ignoring the free-agent options (though the idea of Mike Wallace and Green together seemed enticing), but if Andy Dalton is as limited as the world thinks he is, and if the offensive line has any kind of setback at all, then loading up with more guns in the draft might be the way to continue to score points.

Speaking of the line, there also doesn't seem to be much of a concern about how tenuous that group appears to be at the moment.

The best lineman on the team last year was Andre Smith, and it appears he doesn't love the idea of returning to Cincinnati. He, in all likelihood, will be in Bengal stripes next season despite his brooding negotiation stance, but if that weren't the case, the thread the line hangs by would then fray even thinner.

Andrew Whitworth is a fine player. He is a warrior and a fierce protector of his quarterback, but he may have peaked and is now on the decline. He played with knee troubles last year and had a procedure to clean it out, but he has said good things about his recovery since. Still we've seen other once-great linemen rapidly deteriorate with knee issues.

Clint Boling has impressed his coach, Marvin Lewis, and has grown into a fairly quality starter. There is, I suppose, some chance of veteran Travelle Wharton competing for the starting job, but Boling is more athletic and plays into the new kind of lineman the Bengals are interested in. Wharton had success in Carolina, but his season was lost last year on the third play of the preseason and a 32-year old veteran coming off knee surgery is not assured of anything. It's hard to imagine Wharton being more trustworthy than Boling as a starter, but who knows?

Then there are the centers. Kyle Cook had a nice run as the Bengals starter but it seems evident those days should be over. Trevor Robinson became a confident young player who allowed the line to gel midseason and was an integral part of the team's winning streak. Installing Cook back in as starter could be identified as the real reason for the offensive swoon late in the season and into the playoffs. Robinson could be an anchor at center, but the coaching staff has to commit to him and develop him accordingly. If they hesitate on Robinson and go back to Cook, some may consider it a mistake made out of sheer loyalty.

Kevin Zeitler has the brightest future of all the Bengals lineman. He is flexible, a knee-bender, strong, and pretty tough. Selected in the first round for good reason, Zeitler impressed me a great deal last season.

As for Smith, he too has developed well, but he has given the Bengals a hard time twice now while trying to make a deal. For Bengal fans, he's hard to like. Without him, though, they may be forced to draft a tackle high and make him an immediate starter. Dennis Roland re-signed this offseason and has some starts and Anthony Collins also is a capable backup, but make these guys starters, and pass rushers everywhere on the schedule will rejoice.

The only position without some major question mark at the moment is right guard. There may be nothing to worry about. The coaching staff might know exactly what they have and what they need, and may have everything figured out in regards to the line, but with so many concerns there, consider me nervous.

While the needs of safety and linebacker and even running back are evident, receiver and offensive line may be just as important to invest heavily in during the upcoming draft. No one likes worst-case scenarios but contingency plans must be in place for them despite the discomfort they bring.

Mojokong-April is the cruelest month.

Trending: The Bengals Response To The Read-Option Craze

Mojokong — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:55:16 -0000

Like all things, the NFL is constantly evolving. At its core remains the conventional philosophy that it is a league dominated by accurate pocket-passing, but over the last decade or so, strange variations of the running game, variations the collective football community initially associated closer to the college game, have seeped into the professional ranks and have officially become trendy.

It only makes sense that the read-option would find its way into the NFL. Thanks to the pervasive coaching of the spread offense in high-school and college, the emphasis has rightly been on speed. At first, it seemed designed to get quick receivers into open space, but naturally speedy quarterbacks began to see the field open up and allow for easy rushing totals. Once defenses keyed on quarterbacks leaving the pocket in spread formations, the running back was freed up on the delay hand-off, utilizing the overzealous pursuit of frustrated linemen.

Now RGIII has bloomed into the perfected model of the quarterback mutation, able to run and pass on a seemingly elite level. He capitalized on that moment's hesitation by defenders as he shoved the ball into Alfred Morris' gut, leaving the opposition to guess which one would end up with it in the end. It made for a terrific rookie season for Robert Griffin III, made Morris into a surprising Pro-Bowl player, and got the Skins into the Playoffs.

Others, of course, have cropped up along with Griffin as read-option threats. Colin Kaepernick rolled the Niners to the Super Bowl last year, Russel Wilson led his team to great success, and while Cam Newton had a trying year, he remains one of the most gifted athletes in the league. Even the Bears have expressed an interest to see Jay Cutler run it next season.

The Cincinnati Bengals are typically ones to take a more struthious approach and do their best to ignore all trends. Yet this season, they allowed their backup quarterback to return to his native Pittsburgh and found a replacement full of wonder and intrigue. Josh Johnson in many ways, is a rather prototypical read-option QB. He has excellent maneuverability, is shifty in the open field,has good size and a rocket arm. He adds an unusual dynamic for defenses and seems unlike almost any other Bengals quarterback I can think of.

On the other hand, he is a backup for a reason.

Johnson has only started five games and has never won any. After his old college coach, Jim Harbaugh, cut him last preseason in San Francisco, he went football-less until the Browns signed him Week 17 once Weeden and McCoy were both hurt. Even then, Cleveland opted to start someone named Thaddeus Lewis instead, and Johnson recorded no stats in the 2012 season.

He is generally inefficient in the passing game. Most of his drawbacks are standard problems for inexperienced signal-callers and are correctable errors: he telegraphs his passes, does not direct traffic well before the snap, lets the play clock run down too often, has trouble going through his progression in the pocket, throws sloppy off of his back foot in the face of pressure, tries to make too much out of a play when there is nothing there, lacks touch on the ball, his receivers drop a lot of his passes, and there are often a lot of tipped balls at the line of scrimmage.

Jay Gruden knows Johnson from the year they shared in Tampa in 2008 and probably has a good handle of what the guy can and can't do. Gruden has already talked about using him in the read-option too.

"We ran it maybe one or two times last year," Gruden told Geoff Hobson from Bengals.com. "We'll see how it goes and where everyone is, but you could definitely see Josh doing some of that. The zone read certainly gets the numbers in favor of the offense. It's good to be able to show something a little different if he was your No. 2 and he had to go into the game. The big thing he has to do is get the basics of what we do first, and then it may be kind of fun to look at."

Gruden is not one to shy away from gadgetry in regards to his playcalling and having a "fun" package for Johnson sounds cutting edge, damn exciting, and atypically Bengal. If this actually ever happens is perhaps another story (or no story at all, I guess), because we all know Marvin Lewis ultimately controls the reigns on all of his horses, but if it's working other places, there's no reason to think it won't work here. Or is there?

Having the appropriate quarterback for the read-option is great, but like Rob Base once said, it takes two to make a thing go right, and the other member involved in the play is the running back. BenJarvus Green-Ellis is a serviceable back whose greatest strength is reliability. He surprised myself and others by busting some longer runs in the middle of the season, but by and large, explosive is rarely listed on his scouted report. There was lots of assumption that the Bengals would bring in another veteran tailback to at least compliment the Law Firm if not challenge for a starting spot outright, but the team clearly has other plans and merely sniffed at a few candidates in free agency. As it is, Green-Ellis hardly seems like the right fit for a read-option scheme as it requires field vision and patience when running to the outside; skills not found in his own set. If a back with these qualities is added in the draft, the playbook could really spread out and include a variety of looks. Oh, the possibilities!

Another key component to the success of the play is the quarterback's ability to recognize when to keep it and when to handoff-the word "read" is not included by accident. Any hesitation or mental breakdown could easily lead to a disastrous turnover. There are definitely concerns in regards to Johnson's comfort with the pro game and while he has flashed his upside on many occasions when he's had the chance, he also shows how tenuous the position can be as he is prone to irreparable catastrophe-plays.

For just a backup quarterback, Johnson has a ton of interesting qualities and the idea of mixing him into game plans each week sounds exciting, but if Andy Dalton where to go down and force Johnson in as the starter for any meaningful stretch, that same excitement would become nervousness and anxiety. The football world watched Joe Webb quietly implode in the Wild-Card game in Green Bay as he was unable to get any true passing attack in order. So while Johnson seems like an upgrade to Bruce Gradkowski and can be a sleek new toy for Gruden to play with, Andy Dalton remains the smart money and as long as Marvin is in charge, he will always favor the smart money. Look for Johnson to make his appearances, but expect them to be rare.

Mojokong-transitioning.

One To Rule Them All

Mojokong — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:30:52 -0000

Athletes have outgrown the rules to their sports. The guidelines put in place by the founders of our modern sports were designed to keep an orderly contest between mostly men who were generally below six feet tall and under two-hundred pounds. Now any man who enters a football stadium of that size is either blazing fast or can kick a ball a great distance. Otherwise, they're dead meat.

Because of the modern athlete's size and speed, the antiquated rules have been pushed to its limits. Larger, faster players incur too much damage upon one another and new applications of rules have been put into place in the name of player health and safety. NFL commissioner, Roger Goddell, admitted how terrified he is that someday soon a player will be killed in action.

Some of the new rules are impossible to accurately judge, and silly to even have in place if one is to call themselves a tackle-football league. Leading with the helmet makes at least some sense. For defensive players, it's been called spearing for ages and has been illegal for just as long. I also think that a defense has too many potential violations compared to the offense and deserves a bit more fairness in the balance of the rules. The defenseless receiver rule, though, is far too subjective, has no clear language in regards to the interpretation of the rule, and is rarely called correctly.

I do think that football is going generally soft and that someday tag or flag football is not out of the realm of possibility, but I also think we will still watch and pay millions to prop up the sport even without the hitting. Or, if we don't, another league will start up with less safety regulations and take over as the more intriguing spectacle.

I do not like rule changes based solely on safety, though I understand them. I also don't like rule changes in regards to season format, whether it be added playoff contestants, added games, or in some sports, more interleague play.

I do like rule changes that make the sport more exciting though. I for one love the idea of doing away with the kickoff. Like almost everyone, when I first heard Greg Schiano propose the fourth-and-15 idea, I balked. I have some strong traditionalist streaks. Then, I started thinking about how much I value the act of a kick-off and quickly realized just how boring they've become.

Even a kickoff returned for a touchdown is basically a very fast man running in a straight line through a lane which his blockers have cleared. And now since the kickoff takes place five yards further up the field, hardly any result in a return of any kind.

A punt return, however, is rife with drama. A punt is harder to catch, for one thing. I believe the verb "muff" is used 90 percent of the time to describe a dropped punt. Bill Parcells used to value a punt-returner's ability to catch a punt more than many other facets of his football team. Phil McConkey became one of his favorite all-time players for that attribute alone.

A punt returned for a score usually necessitates some shifty elusiveness to allow the returner to break it in the first place. Unlike the straight-line run that a kickoff promotes, punts require jukes and broken tackles and are much more impressive feats once the endzone has been reached.

For those who point to the possibility that some teams would never relinquish possession and go for it on fourth-and-fifteen every time, think about how often that happens in the game's current form. Even with the most risk-taking team, no one goes long with that down and distance on their own 30-yard line, so why would Bill Billicheck of anyone else start now because of a rule change. Gaining 15 yards on one play is hardly a gimmie. I agree at first such a dramatic change would feel gimmicky, but I don't think it would immediately revolutionize the game into something foreign or extreme.

The NFL has the perfect balance of number of teams, number of playoff teams, and number of games. Their format is in harmony with the sport. The safety element should be more emphasized on equipment rather than rules. Referees are already asked to evaluate the impossible on a nanosecond basis and by refusing to challenge bad calls; the league has made them into the scapegoats of the sport. It seems completely backwards and unfair to coach players throughout their lives one way and then demand they change their game into something else once they've refined their skills to a professional grade.

In the end, Roger Goodell will be blamed for football devolving into what the Pro-Bowl looks like today if things continue on their current path. Rather than make changes that make the game more exciting, he and his administration are working the other direction by cultivating a culture that keeps the players afraid to mess up rather than just play the way they've been coached. Some conflicting reasoning is brooding within the league office and the long-term future of the sport is in jeopardy whether the league wants to admit it or not.

Mojokongs-an ape of many rules and customs.

The Strong, Silent Type

Mojokong — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 15:13:05 -0000

Many of us knew the Bengals wouldn't be major players in free agency this season because they were more interested in locking up many of their younger stars long term. Their outright disregard of just about anyone available, however, feels like an almost snobby approach to team building.

More: Bengals free agency news and rumors

In a sense, one can gauge the desperation of a team by their involvement in free agency. Some teams are forced to plug in multiple veterans in starting spots to assist the rebuilding phase they find their franchise in. In places like Kansas City, Cleveland and Philadelphia, stopgaps have been acquired at multiple positions to afford the time needed to develop their draft picks and future starters. Second-year coaches in Miami and St. Louis are also heavily tinkering with their rosters in order to discover a team identity they can live with. Then there is the old, upper-echelon teams like New England and Denver who have made some splashy moves early on to hopefully remain relevant for a few more years before their aged star quarterbacks call it quits.

Then there are teams who wish they could be more involved. Oakland would do something rash and borderline illegal for an additional $10M in cap room if they could, but as it is, they are strapped and forced to negotiate with second-tier guys like...Pat Sims? Closer to home, but in the same boat, is Baltimore who opened the doors of its facilities only to watch a plethora of its starters wander off to either retirement or to other teams. After winning the Super Bowl and pouring cash all over their quarterback, Joe Flacco, they simply do not have the loot to keep much else right now. General manager, Ozzie Newsome, has been forced to rebuild, like it or not.

Then there are the Bengals who have only invited perhaps third-tier players in for visits and haven't signed anyone who has never worn their helmet in the past. Before I go on to claim that Cincinnati is satisfied with their own roster more than the rest of the league, it's important to remember the modus operandi of one Mike Brown when making off-season moves. Typically, the man is not all that interested in the hoopla big-named free-agents come with. Win or lose, he never tosses money at players just for the sake of being "active" in March. He has always believed, like most sage football executives would repeat, that the best teams build their foundation through the draft and that free agency is simply expensive window shopping.

In Cincinnati's case, no team has drafted better in the last four years. It has homegrown talent brimming at its edges and all that cap-space they have squirreled away over the years will help secure them seeing the fruits of their recent drafts bloom into full harvest. In other words: they like their own players more than anyone else's, and that, as Marvin Lewis would say, is a good thing.

In Cincinnati's case, no team has drafted better in the last four years.

If one were to read into the limited interest in the players they have hosted for visits, one might be able to catch but a glimpse of the team's thinking. First and foremost is the lowly caliber of these players. Beanie Wells stopped in and presumably didn't pass his physical. He has since been described as having "a bad wheel" and his football future appears in doubt. Next was Mike Goodson who peaked the Bengals' interest but was lost to them when the despondent New York Jets gave him the Champaign treatment and signed with Gang Green. Then Ted Ginn Jr. was sought to have "chats" with Bengals management about taking over as the new return specialist in town though nothing official has yet to materialize there either.

Hardly headline maneuvering but action nonetheless.

Jay Gruden admitted to the media he wished for a speed back that could be mixed in for big plays in the running game. To see the Bengals bringing in potential compliments to BenJarvus Green-Ellis is hardly surprising, but like everything else in stripes, they aren't going to pay a lot for that muffler. Despite murmurings of interest, Steven Jackson and Rashard Mendenhall never really appeared on their radar. A few veterans with higher mileage remain like Ahmad Bradshaw and Felix Jones, but it's that clear Cincinnati doesn't just want a recognizable name, they want a specific type of player and is more than willing to let the market come to them. The Bernard Scott experiment seems to have concluded with disappointing results. He had his explosive moments to be sure, but the pro game proved to be too grueling for the little guy as he was unable to remain consistently healthy. It is certainly not impossible to see him return to the Bengals in a pinch, but it seems obvious that he isn't their first choice as a complimentary back anymore. Also in the discussion remains Cedric Peerman who the team did re-sign to a few more years this offseason, indicating the offensive brain trust may picture him with an expanded role in the ground attack, but his solid special-teams play is more likely the reason for his extension.

The position of kick-returner has been historically a secondary priority when assembling a team. There have been a few individuals who bring notoriety to the position in the pro game, but by and large it is performed by players operating in an ephemeral role. Either it has been young prospects yet to crack more meaningful snaps at their natural position, or it is expendable fast guys who don't bring the required skill set to ever be handed a larger role on either offense or defense. Last year in Baltimore, however, Jacoby Jones made a real impact for the Ravens as returner, typified by a kick-return for a touchdown in the Super Bowl. His speed did allow him a minor role in the passing game and he scored big there too in the post-season, as he tied the game late on a Hail-Mary to send it into overtime during the Divisional round in Denver.

Ginn has similar abilities to Jones and could give the Bengals a real weapon as a returner. While Brandon Tate put up solid stats for the Bengals in his time here, he didn't pose quite the same threat Ginn and Jones do. Ginn can also be another speedy receiver that defenses have trouble containing on deeper routes. Anyone lined up opposite of A.J. Green will find a bit more space to run their routes in, and someone with world-class speed could make a cornerback on an island nervous in man-to-man coverage.

There will likely be a few other players the Bengals will examine, but they too are expected to be of the manager-special variety. A linebacker or two appear to be on the shopping list and the safety position requires attention of some kind. If they were to sit back and do nothing, though, would any of us assume they aren't doing their due diligence? Another draft is coming up and Cincinnati has a bonus second-rounder this year. They have a big wad of cap-space to lock up the Greens and Daltons and Dunlaps and Atkins' for the next era. They have arguably been the most effective front-office in the past four seasons. They have a young roster that improves more every day and requires limited to no maintenance in its current form. The future is gleaming in Cincinnati these days and the lack of money on the table for outsiders is a strong indicator that the Bengals wholeheartedly agree.

Mojokong-out like a lamb.

The Chance He Took

Mojokong — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 18:34:29 -0000

Even though Carson Palmer is now thousands of miles West, he remains on the playbill of the Marvin Era theater and will therefore continue to be chronicled within these pages. He was a major player in the early going of the saga and was largely responsible for making football fun again in this town, but he was dealt a heavy hand of great expectation which, through cruel twists of fate mixed with his physical limitations, he was never able to live up to. Here in Cincinnati he had a contract that was as sure as the setting sun and an owner who drooled over him, positively mystified by his face-of-the-franchise charm. Yet as generic and routine as Palmer portrayed himself to the outside world, he apparently also had a brooding side that unexpectedly lashed out when he announced his immediate resignation as quarterback of the Cincinnati Bengals.

That must have been an emotionally challenging moment for Carson. Something frustrated him enough for him to leap into that wildly unpredictable void of a future rather than to carry on with his safe and blasé life with the Bengals. Whether it was the lackluster season his team turned in after the 2010 campaign, the fans, the city, his wife or all of it, has yet to be shared by the man himself, but it had seemingly built up over time before erupting into one giant and rash decision.

The Winning Trade

During the week Cincinnati hosted the Oakland Raiders last season, Carson Palmer was asked by the Cincinnati media about his reasons for leaving. Being an otherwise enigmatic character, the former 2003 first overall pick shrugged off the media's attempts for answers. “Just a culmination of things. Some things that I had learned that ownership ... just some things that built up over time, and it was just time for a change.”

If not for consecutive postseason appearances, the sting of his betrayal could have been more severe. However two draft picks inside the first two rounds over a two-year period, including this year's No. 37 overall pick, the Bengals clearly won the biggest headline trade in recent franchise history.

-Josh Kirkendall

Had Carson not gone public with his frustrations, I think he would still be the Bengals quarterback today. Mike Brown wasn't going to cut him; he was going to pay him. He may not have resigned him once he became a free agent, but he wouldn't cut him. Palmer would have had A.J. Green to play with and be coached by Jay Gruden. Life wouldn't have been so bad here after all in retrospect.

I think he is happy in Oakland, though. He is a California dude, been there most of his life. He probably feels more comfortable operating in the Pacific Standard Time zone. Probably eats way better tacos on a regular basis. His daily life has likely become more comfortable for him.

The football side though isn't as sure of a thing outside the cozy and forgiving confides of Paul Brown Stadium. Here he could have coasted on decent numbers but lower win totals for a good five or six more years before some mutual departing decisions would be necessary, but already in Oakland his value is now being scrutinized.

When the Raiders traded for him, they signed him to a funky contract that paid him only $2.5m in the first year but double-digit numbers in the next three years. That means he makes $13m in 2013 with a cap number north of $15 million which forces the front office to fix their eyes a bit more firmly on the young and athletic backup quarterback, Terrelle Pryor, as the team's future at the position. The Raiders gave him a start in the season's finale and the kid didn't look too bad, a clear indicator what the thinking might be this offseason.

Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore just signed a two-year deal worth $8m and was considered the best QB available in this year's free-agent class had he hit the open market. Moore is a backup to Ryan Tannehill, and is likely one of the better-paid backups in the league.

This forces the question: has Palmer reached backup status at this point of his career?

I still think he is a pretty decent player. His numbers were good last year (4,018 yrds, 22 tds/14 int, 85.3 rate), he's been healthy with Oakland, and he is well-trained for his position. Yes, his turnovers are a problem. Yes, he still throws too high too often, and yes, his mobility gets worse every year, but his arm is still strong and his mind still sharp and in this league, that alone will find you a job.

But what kind of job?

If Oakland were smart, they wouldn't low-ball Palmer out of town. Sure, Pryor is an interesting player whose skill set fits in nicely into the perceivable future of the quarterback position, but you can hardly call the guy proven. Also, can Pryor take a season of hits? If that answer is anything other than a resounding yes!, than it would be prudent to have somebody around who can. Pryor might dazzle from time to time, and might even turn out to be a great player himself, but to go "all in" on the young man seems hasty.

I'm sure Palmer would rather not be a backup quarterback, and I think he would command a bit more coin elsewhere (Arizona?), but I think he might sign a contract around Moore's number and risk riding pine in Oakland because of how comfortable life is in California for him. It's not all that unlikely that the offense and the game itself is still too large for Pryor to lead his team to the playoffs any time soon and that Palmer could be reinstalled fairly early to salvage the season. Though, in fairness, I have read how diligently Pryor has prepared for this season and is working his way into serious contention in regards to the starting job. I would think Palmer would also be of tremendous value for Pryor as a person to learn from, and while I don't know exactly what kind of guy Carson is, I would also think he would help Pryor in this way.

Like many of you, I relished seeing him sacked numerous times by the Bengals when he returned to town last November, and felt vindicated after they kicked Oakland's ass all the way back to the West Coast, but I have made my peace with the man and would like to see him succeed again. The parallels between him and Drew Bledsoe continue to be spot on, and if that comparison carries on this way, Palmer will bounce around to a few different teams before hanging it up, but I would rather not see it that way. I would rather see Palmer stay a Raider and lead them back to respectability. I would like to see him win a playoff game and be remembered as a good quarterback in his later years. And someday, I would like him to tell us why he left Cincinnati they way he did.

No matter how it ends up, it will be detailed here. He is a polarizing figure in the annals of Bengal lore and invokes feelings of both gratitude for his many years of service here and betrayal for his abrupt and heartless departure. He is so predictable, so hum-drum as he heavily tows the company line, yet at the same time was so mysterious and surprising with his "retirement" that no one can know for sure what he will decide. For a pretty regular guy, he brings about a thick cloud of drama wherever he plays football. I'm not sure he wants it this way, but such is his life. The unpredictably mundane.

Mojokong-the written word can reach any coast.

Inside Marvin's Tower

Mojokong — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:13:16 -0000

Now that the dust has settled on the 2012 season, Marvin Lewis has once again locked himself in his tower to torment his poor drawing board. It's become a rickety thing, with its wood wearing thin and its wheels broken, but as long as its master can see his own handwriting on the caked chalkboard, it will do.

He stares at it now and wipes the chalk dust on his shirt. He narrows his eyes and shakes his head. There's still something missing. A deep sigh emerges from him and he sets the issue aside momentarily. He flips the drawing board over to its other side. It creaks painfully, but flips nonetheless. On it are written sketches of the rest of the division, each team listed with many details about them, and Marvin steps back to take it all in.

He hates this part-comparing his team to others-yet he values its prudence enough to force himself through it every year. Typically these comparisons worry him and distract him from his own flock, but this year feels better. The others find themselves with salary-cap difficulties and will be perhaps weakened as a result. "Easy, Marv" he tells himself, "you've thought this before only to have underestimated the resiliency of your foes." He sits back down and crosses his arms.

First is Baltimore. Divisional winners, Super Bowl winners. The bastards. They pummeled the Bengals in the opener, embarrassed them on national television. Then they pulled their starters in the finale and gave the Bengals a meaningless second-string win, hardly a triumph. They will be significantly different now, though.

Their spiritual leader and walking overdose of testosterone, the venerable Ray Lewis, leaves the game behind as a legendary champion, not easy shoes for his replacement to fill, and with him likely goes the all-time pirate and Bengal terror Ed Reed, maybe to another team, maybe from the game itself. The others of possible Hall-of-Fame ilk, Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata, are not to be discredited, but both have been hampered with injuries in the past year and are racking up the mileage themselves.

A bigger concern than age for the Ravens, however, is money. They are over that unforgiving cap number and unfortunate cuts will have to be made. To make matters even more difficult, their quarterback needs a new contract and he fancies himself pretty good even if many are still holding out on that same feeling. Joe Flacco has done what it takes to lead his team to the top. He has a strong arm, he's smart enough, and he stays healthy. The Ravens can't afford not to pay him whatever he's asking. He will hinder Baltimore financially for years to come, but he would ruin the Ravens in the short term if he were to walk away to another team.

So that means that Baltimore will need to create even more space under the cap to sign Flacco long-term. Sacrifices must be made. Veteran Anquan Boldin appears to be glued to the chopping block thanks to his high cap number. Linebacker Dannell Ellerbe is a fairly attractive player for other teams and could be lured away to places with more cash to offer (the Bengals?). Pass-rusher Paul Kruger had a terrific season in Suggs' absence and earned himself a contract the Ravens are unlikely to afford. Old grizzly-bear tackle Bryant McKinnie is large and battle-tested but may no longer fit in the rebuilding phase the Ravens would rather not admit is currently taking place. Their GM, Ozzie Newsome, is one of the best and will continue to make smart organizational moves for his team, but it's a good thing they won it all last year because it appears there is a perfect storm of front-office headaches just on the horizon.

Generally speaking, I would look for Baltimore to continue to acquire speedier receivers in order to capitalize on Flacco's big arm. On defense, they will need more linebacker depth if Ellerbee and Kruger end up leaving too. I don't see the Ravens sinking to despair and suffer from the lash of losing seasons in the near future, but they should feel a setback at best due to this salary-cap quagmire.

Things seem a bit less rosy in the Steel City. Here a proud people feel surly and deflated after their treasured football team failed to win most of their games a year ago. An 8-8 season is an outrage along the shores of the great Confluence and if the trend continues, those people will become deranged and rip their hair out, or worse yet, treat the team like they do the Pirates and ignore them altogether. Pittsburgh has no allies in the world of football thanks to the brash and verbose reminders the Steeler faithful felt inclined to constantly express throughout their glory years. There is a word synonymous with payback and that word will be felt throughout all of Pittsburgh should the Steelers continue to falter.

And why shouldn't they?

Because they too have an upper-echelon front office and scouting department and their ownership will do whatever it takes to win? Because they too have a franchise quarterback and defensive legends in place? Those are the same replies heard in Baltimore and are good answers, but they don't overcome the same cap squeeze the Ravens plan to battle this spring. Pittsburgh also has a negative cap number and have written "roster pruning" on their to-do list. They have six defensive players that make a combined $60 million bucks. Ben Roethlisberger comes into the 2013 season with a $19.5 million cap number all by himself. How are they gonna pay the other 45 guys?

Like Boldin in Baltimore, James Harrison may feel the cruel blade of the salary-cap clever. He is older, slower, more injured and less feared than only a few season ago. The Steelers front office may beg LaMarr Woodley to restructure his contract or they may have to let him go as well. Ike Taylor is a quality player, but missed four games last year, is 32 years old and costs Pittsburgh almost $10 million next year. Troy Polumalu is also over thirty, played even less games and makes more money than Taylor, but may have too much marketing power for Pittsburgh to release him. The defense will have to shuffle in the new crop of youngsters and hope the transition goes well, but with Dick LeBeau at the controls, one has to figure they will come out of this mess alright on that side of the ball.

On offense, Mike Wallace seems certain to set sail to other shores in free-agency. The franchise chose to go with Antonio Brown by signing him to a long-term contract last year for good or for ill. Now there is really no chance that the Steelers can retain Wallace and may not even be able to sign Emmanuel Sanders either. The team also appears prepared to completely overhaul the running back position and let all three free agents walk this offseason. The offensive line dealt with a lot of injuries last year and a player like Willie Colon may prove to be too expensive to keep as well.

Questions abound in regards to the Pittsburgh Steelers and there are whispers that even Roethlisberger may be settling into a decline thanks to his injury history and a strange relationship with his offensive coordinator, Todd Haley. The team has shared that they will administer a zone-blocking run scheme in the mold of Mike Shanahan and Gary Kubiak next season which leaves one to wonder if a new foil to their offense will keep defenses on guard, or add to the confusion.

This franchise has calmed troubled waters in the past, but the tide is high and the waves are choppy this go around. It is a moment of great magnitude for the team and the city, and in order to sustain the glory that Pittsburgh has enjoyed for so long, one man, general manager Kevin Colbert, must steer it all in the right direction, lest those northern river people lose their minds.

Along the great lake of our own state, rests a team struggling to drag itself from the mat. The Cleveland Browns have started and restarted, built and rebuilt so many times that the construction site that is the organization appears nothing more than a muddy hole with dormant heavy machinery around its edges. This time, though, they have new personnel on every organizational level from ownership down to assistant coaches. A new day has dawned in Cleveland and the time seems ripe for better things to come.

Unlike Pittsburgh and Baltimore, the Browns are positively swimming in cap space and could afford the moon itself were it an unrestricted free agent. They have a young quarterback who they may not be completely sold no but had a respectable rookie season last year nonetheless. They have a gem of a running back in Trent Richardson who some think is made up of supremely high-grade material. They have some nice offensive linemen, including perhaps the best in the league, Joe Thomas, and they have yet another high draft pick with the sixth overall selection. Their defense also has some bright spots, but it seems like that's the side that needs the most attention.

Since money is no object, the team's biggest challenge is to convince free agents that they are serious this time. They're switching to a 3-4 defense and typically when a team makes a dramatic shift like that, some short-term stop gaps in free-agency are needed to serve as fill-ins until the drafted talent develops as needed. Rather than make any huge signings right away, I expect Cleveland to rack up a lot of second-tier guys in order to let the new scheme take shape, similar to how Marvin Lewis changed the Bengals into a 4-3 defense in 2003.

The Browns future is exciting because of the great potential they have created for themselves, coupled with the plethora of new faces within the building. The list of their current players don't necessarily leap off of the page, but there are a handful worth building around and with all that cap room, they could quickly grow in power within the division.

After thinking deeply about these other three AFC North teams, Marvin allows himself the slightest of grins. While other teams scramble to reduce or to add, the Bengals wish only to retain what they already have. Their core is in place and comes at a bargain price. They too have gobs of cap space and look to spend it on their own free agents-to-be, but also have the additional cash reserves to pick up an impulse buy or two should something alluring float their way. They have an extra second-round pick, sitting pretty at the 35th slot. They kept both coordinators despite each name often popping up on many teams' short list for head coaching jobs. Organizationally speaking, very little has gone wrong in Cincinnati in the past two-and-a-half seasons and they have positioned themselves in the divisional cat-birds seat for the future.

Marvin raises from his chair and erases the sketches of the other teams. They no longer matter. At this point each are desperate and shapeless and do not warrant specific roster changes in response to stopping them. The tables have seemingly turned and it pleases the man who stands at his drawing board. He is wise enough to know that resting and complacency leads to misery and eventually unemployment, but he also knows that he has finally taken the lead in the power race for the division. He flips the board over, back to the sketch of his own team. He will obsess over this side of the board and not worry about the other until May. He puts his hands in his pocket, nods at the black board and kicks it for good measure. He whistles softly as he flips the light switch off and closes the door. He won't return until after free-agency has ended. He will sleep well tonight.

Mojokong-there are many treasures locked in towers, but none greater than the one locked in yourself.

In Search of the Keystone

Mojokong — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 20:31:56 -0000

Time is relentless. It shouldn't seem so long ago when Marvin Lewis was known as the brightest defensive mind in the game. It shouldn't surprise us so much to remember that it was he who developed some of the greatest defensive players of his era, but true nonetheless. These days, he is just a head coach and is even progressing beyond that title as we speak. Many observers-this one included-have decided that Marvin is now more general manager than coach. As he has grown professionally, so has the scope of his duties and he is now the trusted confidant and the esteemed right-hand man of his owner, Mike Brown. No one outside of the Brown family has earned the ear of the man on top as successfully as Lewis has. No one has thrived professionally within Paul Brown Stadium the way Marvin has.

Yet as much as he has established himself as a football program director, a talent evaluator and team administrator, his success with the Bengals has not translated on reaching the pinnacle of the football field itself. Like everything that is human, career paths and personal outlooks are inherently unique. While some coaching philosophies remain tried and true for nearly everyone, the more nuanced details of an individual team's success hinge largely on the preferences of the men in charge. Some coaches need that one specific type of player in order to succeed. In San Francisco, Bill Walsh needed running backs and tight ends that were better pass-catchers than their peers to effectively run the West-Coast offense. For Bill Parcells, he needed a kick returner who would catch every punt to protect field position. Bill Cowher always looked for a power runner to plow its way into the playoffs. The question is: does Marvin Lewis have a keystone position that he has yet to adequately fill?

If the answer is yes, then a seek-and-destroyer type of middle linebacker seems like the missing ingredient.

In order to understand the man's personal attachment to the position, one must go back to his college days at Idaho State and dust off the record books of that forgettable time in a forgettable place. From what I've read, Marv was a pretty good linebacker himself. There are no readily available scouting reports on him, but his former coach, Dave Kragthorpe, said the only thing that kept him from being an NFL prospect was his lack of size. There are claims that he was a three-time Big Sky all-conference linebacker from 1978-80, though nothing in my research could validate that claim. Nonetheless, we know he played some linebacker and probably learned a great deal from first-hand experience while in Idaho.

One interesting (and verifiable) piece of information is that he played on some very bad teams. In 1979, his second year playing, they lost all of their games. His final year as a player, though, things turned around and the Bengals (yes, Idaho State are the Bengals too) finished at a respectable 6-5. After that season, Marv hung up the cleats but stuck around Pocatello as an assistant coach, and in 1981, Idaho State won their only Division II Championship in the school's history.

Linebackers became his thing where he coached the position in college at both New Mexico and Pittsburgh. Then in 1992, a changing of the guard took place within the Steelers organization when legendary Chuck Noll retired and a young Bill Cowher took over. Cowher was a defensive guy too, coordinating that side of the ball in Kansas City prior to landing his gig in Pittsburgh, and he loaded up his coaching staff with some other promising minds around him. Dom Capers was pegged as the defensive coordinator, Dick LeBeau was named defensive backs coach, and for the linebackers, Marvin Lewis. Marvin came into a nice situation. Already in his unit he had greats, in the tenacious pass rushing Greg Lloyd and the rangy Hardy Nickerson. Lloyd would go on to record memorable sack totals during his time in Pittsburgh, but it may have been Nickerson that revealed to Marvin the luxury of a stud inside linebacker. Nickerson moved on to Tampa Bay after that first season with Lewis (where he recorded an incredible 214 tackles in 1993), but was replaced with Levon Kirkland and Chad Brown on the inside-both future pro-bowl players. Also added that season was Kevin Greene and the foursome of Lloyd, Kirkland, Brown and Greene remain one of the best groups in linebacker lore. While in Pittsburgh, Marvin established himself as a developer of superstar players.

Then in 1996, he got a promotion. The Cleveland Browns had become the Baltimore Ravens and owner Art Modell began his tenure in his new home by turning over the coaching staff. Out were Bill Billechick and his hotshot staff of future head coaches and general managers, and in was Ted Marchibroda and his new defensive coordinator, Marvin Lewis. The team had two first-round picks that season and with the second, they selected Miami University middle linebacker, Ray Lewis.

Ray was made of the cosmic stuff that is found in exceptional talent. He was rare, but raw clay and it was Marvin that applied the glaze and the kiln that would fix that cosmic stuff in place for the next 16 years. Unlike in Pittsburgh, though, it took time to get the unit as a whole to play on a championship level and the first few years did not boast impressive win/loss totals. Marvin kept at it, and the next year added Peter Boulware and Jamie Sharper, another tandem destined for Pro-Bowls. The record improved slightly but it wasn't until 1999 when head coach Brian Billick came aboard when everything clicked. Billick was clearly the offensive coach and seemed to leave the other side of the ball to Marvin. Essentially, the Ravens played with two head coaches and a deep sense of unity began to form along the defensive ranks of the team. Their league rank went from 22^nd in 98', to second in '99. The team only managed to finish at .500, but the table was set for the next season where his squad would go down as one of the greatest groups ever assembled on defense. They set the record for least amount points given up in a season and went on to win the Super Bowl. They were known as a defensive team and Marvin was given the lion's share of the credit. The next season, in 2001, they encored with another second-best league ranking and lost in the divisional round of the playoffs to the Steelers. Marvin made a prominent place for himself in the record books and became known as a true wizard of linebacker coaching.

His name caught fire among the pundits who were eager to see him take control of his own team as a head coach. The sense was that he had grown too big for his britches to remain simply an assistant coach. The football world felt it was the right time to strike, but in typical Marvin fashion, he would not be swayed by outsiders.

He did leave Baltimore, but he didn't like the head coaching vacancies at the time. Redskins' owner Dan Snyder cracked his enormous vault in order to write a nice check for an expensive coordinator like Marvin Lewis and the deal was made. The sports world was confused at the lateral move, but Lewis liked the course he found himself on. In Washington he once again had quality linebacking talent to work with. Jeremiah Trotter never blossomed all that much in Washington, but Jessie Armstead and Lavar Arrington picked up the slack with sterling seasons. The Redskins missed the playoffs and went 7-9 but the defense still finished fifth and his reputation was upheld.

Then the big move came: coaching the Cincinnati Bengals.

The striped ship Marvin took over was a floating inferno. The bottom had completely fallen out of the franchise with the epic failure of the highly drafted Akili Smith coupled with the flawed team program predecessor Dick LeBeau tried putting in place. If Lewis was to succeed, he would need to completely overhaul the roster and start from a rough beginning. The world expected a terrific defense right away but the pieces were not yet in place-particularly at linebacker.

One of the rare stars on Cincinnati the year before was inside linebacker, Takeo Spikes. Here was an animal at the position, one who even prompted Jerome Bettis to state that Spikes was a better player than Ray Lewis. In response to this claim, the verbose but hardly eloquent Shannon Sharpe went on to say that the comparison was as useless as comparing the movie Titanic to Dude, Where's My Car? Despite this insult, Marvin valued Spikes more than perhaps any other player on the team, but lost him to Buffalo in the offseason before he even had a chance to coach him up. Spikes explained that he didn't fit into Lewis' 4-3 scheme as his reason for departing but some felt he was dismayed by the firing of LeBeau. Marvin would later go on to say that Spikes not buying into his system was one of the biggest regrets of his coaching career. If things had been different had Spikes stayed is not for us to know, but what was certain is that he left a gaping void in the defense's middle.

As a failsafe, Lewis brought in veteran Kevin Hardy to patrol the middle and put the other inside backer, Brian Simmons, on the outside. The plan worked well enough to allow for an 8-8 finish-a total which far exceeded expectations for the year-but didn't turn many heads as a full body of work. The team finished 28^th in defense and had a lot of work to do.

Over the next few years, Marvin tinkered with things. He drafted both Landon Johnson and Caleb Miller to fortify the linebacking position but neither was able to find any prolonged success in the league. Only one draftee showed the kind of promise observers of Marvin's work came to expect but he proved too good to be true.

Odell Thurman was made of that same cosmic stuff that Ray Lewis was. The problem was that the stuff is a volatile substance and the same craziness that is required to make a great linebacker can also ruin the man beneath the pads. Ray Lewis' legal battles are well-documented and need not be dragged out here, but in the end, he redeemed himself both in the courtroom and on the field. Thurman, however, proved more vulnerable to the challenges of the outside world and was lost to substance abuse and alcoholism.

There is no better example of the waste of what should have been than in the case of Mr. Odell Thurman. The man was a terror on the field, not only zooming around to force five fumbles and pick off five passes, but the explosion he used to hit people was unparalleled in this world. Like no one I have seen in stripes since, when Odell made the tackle, everyone present knew exactly who was doing the hitting. Here was a man who could do Ray Lewis-like things but better and sooner in his career than even Sugar Ray. Here was a play-maker in every sense of the word, as if a rogue creator of football players decided to mix a Ray Lewis with an Ed Reed into one single player. He dominated without struggling to; success of the game came to him effortlessly.

Yet, sadly, it was not meant to be. Odell failed and failed again all the chances the NFL provided him once it became known that he struggled with addiction. In the end, he only played one season, not coincidentally Marvin's best season in Cincinnati, but because he went supernova so soon, Lewis was never able to build around him.

Eventually, Marvin cycled through his own defensive coordinators before landing on a gem not unlike his former self. Mike Zimmer may not have been a young man, but he paid his dues and found a nice home in Cincinnati. The past five seasons have been ones of stout defensive play and a sense of respect has bolstered the Cincinnati franchise around Marvin Lewis. He still has a nice reputation across the league, but his defensive ingenuity has been somewhat forgotten. Zimmer and his clan get the credit for the modern Bengals defense and the team is still seeking that gem middle linebacker. Rey Maualuga was once hyped up to be exactly that kind of savior, but he has not lived up to that billing and alcoholism may have hindered his career as well.

There is immediate hope, though, that the missing piece, the keystone, may have been found. There are times when I think that Vontaze Burfict also shares that cosmic stuff though it isn't as pronounced as it was with Thurman. He is a fearless hitter that plays with tremendous instinct and he has shown himself to be a diligent worker and has showed improved ability to quickly diagnose plays. He too came into the league with personality fears, carrying with him such labels as lazy and selfish. He was not handed anything in Cincinnati and has truly earned his projected starting spot next season. He is not of the Red Giant variety just yet, more of a gaseous Dwarf at this stage, but he too has potential for going supernova and could remind Lewis of the good old days of his own linebacking upbringing once he discovers his full capabilities. Perhaps Burfict is the next generation that cements a Marvin Lewis team into a true championship contender. Marvin's past history indicates that he needs a great middle linebacker to field the best team he can possibly manage, and all of us Bengals fans invest our collective hopes heavily upon the young shoulders of Vontaze Burfict.

As for next season, the outlook is bright, but the keystone must be in place for the structure to be as fortified as possible. It takes time to find the right mix of players to win the Super Bowl. Many have no idea what it takes since they've never drank from that improbable chalice, but Marvin has and should attempt to return to what made that drink happen in the first place. He has discovered, molded and fielded some truly great players, but not so far where it counts the most: middle linebacker. At least not long enough for it to matter. Only the presence of that cosmic stuff can make these great things happen to Marvin and his Bengals. The jury is still out if Burfict has enough of the stuff to do it, and if he does, if it will ruin him too.

So while time has eroded our memories of what Marvin once was and what made his defenses tick, it is only time that can bring it back and remind us again. Yet his chances are limited. Nothing is forever, not even the cosmic stuff.

Mojokong-recalling the miracles.

The Power of Name: The Real Meaning of a Bengal

Mojokong — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 02:36:24 -0000

There was once a man who loved football. He lived in northern Ohio with his family and soon became a legendary coach there. The problem with him, and like many other great men, was that he figured he knew best, but a richer and more powerful man fired him and took away the thing he loved.

Our man was not a timid soul-probably wasn't even a nice guy-and he would not go quietly into that gentle night, so he strengthened behind the curtains of unemployment and negotiated shrewdly enough to obtain his own team; a new team; a team he would go on to name: The Bengals.

The man is of course Paul Brown, a name we still say in Cincinnati every Sunday in the fall and winter. It is believed that he named his team the Bengals to pay tribute to history. Another Cincinnati Bengals played in the fledgling football leagues of the late 1930s and early 40s and Paul certainly had his finger on the pulse of pro football then. He also seemed determined to match the uniforms of his former team, the Cleveland Browns, so a tiger of some kind makes an easier leap in that direction. Some may think such a jealous move would be too petty for a person like Paul Brown, but he was often known to be, if not petty, transparently vindictive. Then there is also the claim of the local zoo, keeping some Bengal tigers there-which they still do-but how much of a zoo eunthusiast (zoonthusiast?) Mr. Brown was is not well known.

What he probably didn't realize was exactly how much tribute he was paying to history. The word Bengal is an ancient one. The etymology is unknown. It has been spoken for over 3,000 years and has had many variations from Bongo to Vanga. Vanga is the name of a people that dwelt in the mountainous regions of northeast India and western Bangladesh and were originally a separate race from the Indo-Aryans of the West. The Vanga traded well with neighboring nations and grew strong enough to rid off Alexander the Great at one point. It was an old province of Hindustan, now India, and is still called Bengal today, only it's West Bengal now. It's home to 91 million people, probably almost all of whom aren't aware that an American football team is named after their region.

I don't think anyone in the Bengals organization or in Cincinnati or possibly the world thinks that Paul Brown named his team after an ancient race of proto-Indians, and not even the place that has a famous bay named after it. It was the animal, the tiger, where his real tribute lay.

It too is old and majestic. The Panthera tigris arrived in India 12,000 years ago and has been weighed in at over 600 lbs.. There are only 2,500 of these bad boys left and the future looks grim for the species. As noted, Brown was not likely concerned with extinction or zoology, but he liked Tigers because of his old days at Massillon High School who are nicknamed the Tigers. He had to have known how bad ass the animal looks and acts and his imagination didn't need to wander farther than that in the decision, but the fact he chose Bengals and not Tigers seems like an interesting quirk when you think about the history.

Bengal is such an exotic word. This 60's expansion team with it's daring striped helmets and foreign sounding name was somehow matched up with a hard-nosed curmudgeon who owned a sports team in a humble Appalachian river valley. How do thousands of years pass with this name ringing out time and again in a whole continent's history while we on the other side of the Earth only know it as football related?

I'll tell you why. Because we are like that man from northern Ohio who loved football and not much else. We too keep our fingers firmly on the pulse of the sport and we know everything there is about our team which are the Bengals. And now you know one more thing which is the origin of the word itself and not many others can claim that. Thanks for tuning in.

Mojokong-the celebrator of roots in all fashions.

To the Ones Who Weren't

Mojokong — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:27:57 -0000

This one goes out to the guys in sweat pants. Most of the roster performed admirably, some underwhelmed, and yet a handful never had a chance at all. They cheered from the benches throughout the season, pacing the sidelines and looking relaxed in their sock hats and gym shoes. These men led a conflicting lifestyle, pining for more playing time yet living comfortably and out of harms way. They were paid the same despite not playing and they of course had a bevy of sweatpants at their disposal. They lived in luxury and, in a sense, had Sundays off.

Some of this was due to sheer injury. Bengals fans have no idea how good Travelle Wharton is. The guy seemed to blow his knee up before he even put his pads on. I honestly forgot he existed. He returns next year as a ghost that will haunt Clint Boling around until he gets his job back. The only thing we can be sure about is that his presence adds depth, which is always important along the offensive line, but other than that, the jury is out.

Thomas Howard was another guy that had a ruined 2012. He's been a lovely fit in Mike Zimmer's scheme since coming over from Oakland, and his torn ACL ripped a hole in the Zim Clan fabric that took time to stabilize. He is now a 30-year old free-agent coming off of a major injury. The Bengals soldiered on nicely without him and he appears to have little leverage with the team at the moment. Many draft wizards are pointing toward outside linebacker for the Stripes this year as high as the first-round. Vontaze Burfict showed tremendous NFL readiness in his rookie year and gives the Bengals options there. I would assume Howard's days are numbered here in Cincinnati and that we should all thank him for his efforts.

Not everyone who wore sweats, however, was dressed that way because they were hurt. Some of these hooded lurkers simply were not needed on game days. In fact, a few were actually called upon once or twice, but largely ignored and buried within the depth chart. Of these were two robust rookie defensive tackles, drafted high and brimming with potential. Whether they were truly in the Bengals' immediate plans or not is unknowable, but once Pat Sims returned from his injury, their already limited opportunities dried up altogether. They were rendered useless and team managers ordered extremely large sweats for the two of them. In their brief appearances, only Devon Still comes to mind getting a half sack on Monday Night Football against the Steelers. Brandon Thompson was an ever rarer whale to behold, only surfacing three times last year.

Their future may still be bright, but as of now, they find themselves stuck behind Big Geno, Peko and The Pat Sims Stop-the-Run Foundation. The Bengals also liked shifting Wallace Gilberry and Robert Geathers inside on occasion, making it even more difficult for the rookie pair to fit into the short-term plans of the defense. Marvin Lewis has given them generic praises like "very good football players" and we know that Still is the pass rusher and Thompson the run stuffer, but at what point does this beef become a viable commodity and not just a future investment? If they are only depth, they are of the most valuable kind. So valuable in fact, one might even call it a waste.

Within that same vein, another premium backup struggling to get a chance is one Mr. Anthony Collins. I've always been high on Collins and I think he is of starting pedigree, but he finds himself displaced by such pros as Andre Smith and Andrew Whitworth. Collins can play either tackle spot, has accumulated 18 starts in his career and has remained pretty healthy. Smith is a free agent and was a dominant run blocker for long stretches of the season in 2012. He will command a healthy contract to match his healthy appetite and if the Bengals are thinking that dinner with Andre is too pricey of an affair, the name of Anthony Collins will be heavy on the collective mind of their fans.

These men in sweats will wear pads again soon enough. They will don a helmet too and crash themselves into another person wearing the same. They are eager to earn their money in a more worthwhile way-to show that they are football players and not mere spectators. Which way the future will take the Bengals is anyone's guess, but I have a feeling that these men in grey jersey-knit material will play a big part in the team's decision making at some key positions. Proof once more that every person along that sideline matters. Every person.

Mojokong-the unturner of all stones.

Exit Interview: Running Backs

Mojokong — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:43:46 -0000

It is understood that reputable law firms do not advertise. The same could be said for BenJarvus Green-Ellis. He is a quiet workhorse that goes about his business stoically and steadily. One is not meant to be amazed at his talents-he is without flare and gusto-but he is as steady as boulder and at the end of the day, the job has been done. He does not seek out the approval of others nor draw attention to his craft. If you need his labor, you give him the ball and see the thing through. Otherwise, you forget he is even on the team.

That isn't to say that no one doubted the move to bring him in early on. Most knew of his reputation as a reliable back with physical limitations. The idea of the Bengals management was that he was safe: a sentiment valued by both the head coach and the owner. A year earlier, Cedric Benson developed a bad case of the fumbles and allowed his attitude and public opinions to become overtly grizzled, rankling the men who signed his checks. He was cold-shouldered by Cincinnati during free agency and was effectively replaced by Green-Ellis. The thinking by most observers outside of the organization was that he was to be a compliment to the team's other backs and that his load would be lighter than his predecessor's. The Bengals had other horses in their stable and Bennie-as he came to be known by his comrades-was only there for certain situations.

Once the season began, though, it became evident that he would be used more than most of us thought. Then, once Bernard Scott was lost for the year thanks to an injured knee, his abilities became the cornerstone of the running game and the team hitched their playoff hopes upon his thick legs.

In the first quarter of the season, his production was dreadful. It appeared that he was blind to running holes and he showed a disappointing propensity to break tackles. Worse yet, is that he experienced a rare rash of fumbles, coughing it up three times in two games after never having fumbled in his career previously. Once the ball began hitting the turf, we fans worried that his best attribute as a supreme caretaker of the football was a myth and that we'd been duped into buying a useless back. The team started to lose games and the yards-per-carry were precariously low.

Then, after the bye week, a change was made to the offensive line, installing the young and unproven Trevor Robinson at center, in for the old and useless veteran Jeff Faine. This switch breathed fresh air into the running attack and suddenly not only was Green-Ellis effective, he became explosive. Never before had teams needed to worry about the Law Firm ripping off huge yardage on the ground, but there it was happening seemingly once a game. The offense purred during this stretch of the season and the wins came free and easy.

Bennie returned to Earth against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 16, but the poor performance was deemed permissible against the league's top-ranked defense. He, like the other starters, was used sparingly in the season finale in order to rest up for the first round of the playoffs. In that Wild-Card game, the Texans dressed two backup middle linebackers who struggled stopping Green-Ellis when he got his chances. Sadly for Bennie and his team, the running attack was abandoned throughout the course of the game, and despite gaining more than five yards per carry, his impact on the game was minimalized by his own play-caller.

The season was a strange ride for Green-Ellis. Fans weren't all that excited to hear he had signed. Then they (and myself) wrote off his acquisition as a failed experiment after a half season of underwhelming results. Then the line improved, and Green-Ellis showed us things we didn't think possible of him. Once he could relax in his arm chair and rest his weary legs upon the season's conclusion, he could be proud that he'd set new personal highs in carries and yardage. He'd fumbled three times, but got that act together before nasty labels were applied to him. He converted all but one third-down attempt when he was given the chance. In the end, he'd been the back that the Bengals had paid for and no one could feel they'd been cheated.

There are some things Green-Ellis will never be. He will never break any speed records, and his size is fixed at "moderate". He will not learn the arts of the juke move or learn to be a great receiver. But what he does well-and has done well since entering the league-will not change. There are no surprises to this man. His potential has been reached. What you see is what you get.

The only surprise about him is the regularity of his carries. In New England, he was the feature back, but that feature was never all that prominent compared to that team's other offensive facets. They had Tom Brady behind center who could make magic with his arm all by himself, and they never needed Bennie to do much more than not fumble and run clock.

Many figured a similar role would be used by Cincinnati, but a very different philosophy is enacted within the Bengals organization. No matter what the team's brain trust says aloud about splitting carries and getting their youngsters more of a chance, they remain a one-horse team. Bernard Scott faced a critical "contract year" in 2012 and had hoped to up his value and responsibility to the team by seeing more carries. The coaches said they were on board to get him more involved, but never committed to that sentiment. Scott's chances were brief, and against Miami when he finally started to show some life, he hurt his knee and was lost for the year. Now he is a jobless backup running back that hasn't proven anything to anyone. He will always have the big play lurking somewhere in his arsenal, but his inability to stay healthy has frustrated too many important men who decide his fate. I would imagine that his days in Cincinnati are over and that he will be viewed as an embodiment of unfulfilled greatness.

Without Scott, the Bengals were down to two complimentary backs in Cedric Peerman and Brian Leonard.

Like Scott, Peerman had youth and promise swirling about his scouting report and had shown flashes of brilliance in the past. But also like Scott, he chances were like crumbs on the plate and no one got a true sense of his role on the team. Peerman has serviceable football instincts and shows value on special teams. I have always felt that if given more opportunity, Peerman could demonstrate a richer skill-set to the world. There seems to be a trust issue working against Peerman. Perhaps he fumbles in practice-who knows?-but it feels more like the offensive coaches would like to use him more but can't allow themselves to trust him enough to pull that trigger. He has shown the team enough on special teams to remain on the roster for the foreseeable future, but one can only wonder what more he has to do to be a more viable piece to the offense.

Brian Leonard on the other hand, may be out of chances. It was clear that he was the true backup to Green-Ellis by midseason, despite never showing off his big-play ability we've seen in the past. Perhaps it is a matter of age. Leonard, who is not that old even in football standards, for whatever reason feels too old. He used to video-game his way around the field, hurdling defenders here and spin moving there, but now he runs straight ahead until someone tackles him easily. A three-yard gain became a good play of Leonard, which means we severely lowered our expectations of the man. His moments in subsequent years had been positively glorious, coming through in the clutch unlike any other Bengal, but 2012 produced nothing but the mundane and mediocre. His place on the team should be endangered after such a blasé season.

Finally Dan "Boom" Herron was the fourth back used this year, and really only made a name for himself as a kick-blocker. In the one carry I can remember him getting, he appeared very quick and rather explosive hitting the hole. Boom is not a large man which may have affected his draft position, but he certainly plays with spirit and may someday become serviceable in the running game.

Until the Bengals acquire new legs at the position, one can only assume to see more heavy doses of the Law Firm next season. We've learned how much Marvin Lewis craves safety, consistency and reliability when handling the football, and no one embodies these traits more than Green-Ellis. He has not proven himself to be an injury concern. He takes on the same mileage other backs do without the apparent wear-and-tear of his body. Still, the team needs something more than the ho-hum if they want their offense to really turn heads. Offensive coordinator, Jay Gruden, has admitted he wants the home-run hitting speed back seen on other teams in order to jazz up the attack and add a new element to the rush. I would suspect that Peerman returns to add to the position's depth chart, but the others future with the team is very much in doubt. I think most would agree with Gruden about the need for a more effective compliment to Green-Ellis, and I think the team could stand with a bit more pizazz when running the ball. So while the Law Firm may continue to work steadily and quietly, an Advertisement Firm may be needed to make the right kind of noise for a Super Bowl run.

Mojokong-the horse whisperer.

NFL Playoffs: Packers vs. 49ers Preview

Mojokong — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 16:19:34 -0000

Many years ago, the San Francisco 49ers were dealing with a quarterback problem. They had too many good ones. Steve Young eventually took over for Joe Montana and won a Super Bowl. The same is true today to a less legendary degree. Alex Smith was doing little wrong for the Niners this season, leading them to wins, not turning the ball over and completing his passes at a high percentage. The problem for Jim Harbaugh and his staff was that they felt they needed more explosive plays and that Smith couldn't bring that to the table.

Enter Colin Kaepernick, a razzle-dazzle kid that lopes around and flings passes on the run. He is a tattooed dynamo, often grinning foolishly and turning the corner faster than defenders. While not officially a rookie, Kaepernick is still very fresh to the league and not fully understood by his competitors or by his spectators. What is this guy? What can he do? There are moments where I wonder if even he knows.

The San Francisco defense needs no introduction. As far as elite defenses go, they are the last of the Mohicans. Their linebacker corps ranks with the historical greats and the safeties are cagey hit men-both of whom have been named Pro-Bowl starters. They face one of the most lethal aerial assaults in football with the Green Bay Packers, but they are confident in their ability to slow Aaron Rodgers down enough to win.

The game comes down to Kaepernick. We football people have decided the term "game manager" is an insult to the quarterback position. Alex Smith is widely viewed as the quintessential example of this. Kaepernick is a little of the opposite, though. He has all the physical characteristics that limited QBs yearn for, but due to the lack of gameplay wisdom, he struggles at times managing the game. His biggest test under these conditions was in Seattle where the whole team melted in the rain.

Mauling the Packers in the run game would go a long way for young Colin and his mates. Harbaugh and his brain trust are more creative than most offenses when scheming together their running game. They can run the read-option, the standard option, the quarterback draw and a thousand others, or they can simply maul straight ahead behind their tremendous line highlighted by my favorite lineman in football, Mike Iupati.

Green Bay's defense has gotten by on turnovers and reputation for a couple of years now. The offense is so potent it overshadows the defensive deficiencies except when they get bounced in the playoffs. Clay Matthews and Charles Woodson are certainly notable play makers, but they aren't all that scary. If they struggle stopping the 49ers running attack, Kaepernick can coast his offense to enough points to win by the Bay.

I felt last year that the 49ers were the most cohesive team in football and again in the earlier part of this year. Then the quarterback switch was made and suddenly a crack of uncertainty could be seen in their façade. While things have still come up largely roses for the Niners in 2012, Kaepernick's performance on this kind of stage will be closely examined. If he pulls of his Road Runner routine and run the Packers out of town, the hype machine will crank back up to full blast in San Francisco. If he lets the pressure consume him, though, then Harbaugh will be accused of midseason meddling.

Harbaugh and Kaepernick should be okay, and I'm sticking with them as my preseason pick for the Super Bowl. Defenses like this don't come around too often and the offense is good enough to get them to that promised land.

49ers 25, Packers 24

Mojokong-the butcher, the baker, the Candlestick quaker!

Divisional-Round Preview: Ravens vs. Broncos

Mojokong — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 20:23:23 -0000

High atop a mountain in the dead of winter, Peyton Manning quietly herds his goats and awaits a group of legends to come and attack him. He's done this a thousand times before but never in the mountaintops. He headed west from the prairies of Indiana to seek a new chance at glory and ride off into sunsets unseen in quarterback lore. The purple wraiths on their way have been sent there to snatch away his orange ring and keep it for their own. The setting is an NFL comic book.

While it's true that the names involved in the Divisional Round game in Denver read like a Hall-of-Fame ballot, they are all closer to that mustard jacket than they are from their primes. The Ravens "big four" are like the current Rolling Stones, dragging themselves around and still performing despite all the aches and pains. Ray Lewis is hanging it up after the season and plays with what looks like a robotic arm at the moment. Ed Reed is always the gamy pirate, but the scurvy and the neck/shoulder problems are getting the best of him. Terrell Suggs came back from a ruptured achilles only to tear a biceps muscle. Things fall apart.

For Manning, however, he still looks like a Jedi to me. Arguably the greatest offensive mind in the NFL today, he runs his show with surgical precision and is rarely ever surprised anymore. He is devastating on third down and sees everything before it happens. The pass protection has help up remarkably this season and the unit as a whole has put up astounding numbers.

The Ravens also have a quarterback that knows his way around the playoffs. Joe Flacco is always in the postseason and was one drop away from making the Super Bowl. He is certainly not of legendary status and is criticized more than praised, but he will always be a big guy with a strong arm and that alone can take you places in this league. Sadly for Joe, though, he is susceptible to pressure and Denver had more sacks than the Bengals this season. Elvis Dumervil and Von Miller are going to bring the heat from the outside, and Justin Bannan and Derrick Wolfe are strong interior guys. If Flacco can step up in the pocket and make clean throws, Baltimore would have a great chance to escape with a win, but the Broncos have too much along that front line to allow that to happen. I suspect the Ravens will become frustrated and resort to throwing dangerous deep balls in an attempt to get the passing game going.

If that becomes true, it goes back to the Stones and their last hurrah. The Ravens corners are weak, and Denver's wide outs are big and fast. It will be vital for Baltimore to limit the Denver running game to make third-down conversions more difficult. When Manning can operate with third-and-medium, he is nearly unbeatable. There is talk that Willis McGahee could return next week, but for now it's the Knowshon Moreno show. Moreno has been up and down in his career, but he has the physical skills needed for success and he gouged the Ravens in Week 15 earlier this season. If they can't stop him, they really can't win.

Even though it seems crazy that John Harbaugh should feel pressure regarding his job after making it to five straight postseason trips, one can sense his seat warming a little bit. This game is fairly critical to his career in Baltimore. I'm not suggesting he will be fired, but if he loses this game and has a hard time again next year, the patience will be short.

Baltimore is a solid team that is always built in a steady fashion, but they've lost some teeth over the years and they find themselves in an awkward transitional phase of a franchise. Denver is riding high in a dream season, lapping up the euphoria Manning has brought them. They are perhaps oblivious to even the possibility of a loss, and maybe that helps the Ravens, but I can't see Manning the goat herder going out like that.

Broncos 30, Ravens 17

Mojokong-mile-high milieu.

The Wild-Card That Wasn't

Mojokong — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 19:38:39 -0000

Disappointed? Of course. Surprised? Only a little.

When you look back on the year as a whole, what happened on Saturday makes perfect sense. The Bengals entered this year with tepid expectations. There were some talented pieces in place for sure, but there were still holes abound and a first-round playoff exit seemed to be the max potential this group could muster.

In a season where the defense did all of the heavy lifting to actually get them into the postseason, the Wild-Card game unfolded into one where the offense need only the bare minimum of output to advance. They had a chance to put a dreadful performance behind them and sneak out with a win, but a lofty toss to an open A.J. Green in the endzone with under three minutes remaining drifted 12 inches out of reach and doomed the hopes of a Bengals Super Bowl run. With the game lost, and the blame squarely on the offense, some mental unpacking is in order to fully gain closure on the year.

Understandably, a lot of backlash has come upon the red crown of Andy Dalton's head for such a lousy showing in his second chance at some franchise glory. He was positively rotten against the Texans, freaking out nearly every time he dropped back to throw. The confidence of the passing game looked shot after Jermaine Gresham dropped the first toss by Dalton. A nightmare ensued where the team's best player became invisible and the offensive brain-trust invested their future upon the abilities of unproven complimentary receivers that flamed out under the pressure. Sure, Dalton is the man that makes the throws, but there is a chain-of-command in place with every offense, and when things break down as thoroughly as they did over the weekend, the whole chain needs examined.

First off are the guys up front. Offensive line coach, Paul Alexander, was dealt two huge blows in the preseason when Trevelle Wharton and Kyle Cook went down with significant injuries. Replacements Clint Boling and Trevor Robinson filled in admirably and really appeared to be a cohesive unit after the bye week. Then Cook came back and regained his starting spot and the line was never as effective again. I'm a believer in the center position. When it is stable, the offense flows rather seamlessly, when it isn't, its production suffers. I was against bringing Cook back into the starting spot. I know the old maxim about not losing a starting spot to injury, and I realize the expertise the Cook brings when making calls at the line, but the production speaks for itself. With Robinson making the snaps, Dalton got in a groove, BenJarvus Green-Ellis became suddenly relevant, and the wins started stacking up. Then against Dallas, they eased Cook back in to the rotation, ultimately making him a starter again, and the offensive output became increasingly less. The tailspin continued until it culminated into one of the worst offensive showings in playoff history. I'm not blaming Cook entirely, but the switch at center allowed for a disconnection along the offensive line that was never adequately repaired.

The line didn't protect well at all against the Texans, baffled and helpless to counter the stunts by the Houston pass rush. This breakdown added to the already alarmingly pronounced anxiety Dalton has demonstrated in the pocket this season-stunningly opposite of what he showed in his rookie year-and kept that elusive rhythm we hear so much about from ever fully developing. What they were doing well, though, was creating running lanes for Green-Ellis, but strangely enough, Jay Gruden turned his back on this style of attack.

Gruden has allowed this offense to overachieve for two straight seasons with his sensible scheme and play-calling sequence, but his ideas got the best of him in this past game. I felt he got too cute. I heard Brian Billick say that defenses can take away any threat they want to, but they do so at a cost. Cover one player too much and you run the risk of leaving someone else open. This is what Gruden saw. Houston decided it wasn't going to get beat by A.J. Green in the first half, so they shaded him and took him away. This, in theory, meant the other receivers had more room to operate, especially Gresham. The Texans were down to their fourth-string inside linebackers and Gruden probably assumed they couldn't cover. He may have been right, too, but Gresham's pervasive lack of focus haunted him again and he was unable to convert on his targets at all in the first half.

So, with Green eliminated and Gresham too zoned out, it was either up to Marvin Jones, Andrew Hawkins and Ryan Whalen, or go back to the running game. When Green-Ellis got his chances, he tore off yardage, and those backup middle linebackers showed their vulnerability. The line looked ready to maul and even John Conner was getting his hat on the right guys. Gruden, though, convinced the Bengals weren't a running team, persisted to try and throw it, especially on second down. This trend proved disastrous as incompletions and sacks got the offense "off-schedule" and set up desperation third-down conversion attempts.

Prior to the game, I advocated that the Bengals should have spread out their formations and throw to as many different receivers as possible coming out of the gate. I wanted to see them pressure the questionable back end of the Texans defense early to set the tone and score early. Once that became painfully obvious that it wasn't working and that the run was, pounding Green-Ellis more on second down became the logical move. Logic, however, never worked its way into the equation and The Law Firm ended with a 5.7 yards-per-carry average on only 11 attempts. Had the Bengals chose to grind it out a bit more, the time-of-possession battle would have been closer, the defense would be less worn out, the offensive line could get in rhythm and a field goal or two would have had an effect on the closing minutes of the game. Bumbled screen attempts, bad passing reads and an insistence to keep trying to move the ball through the air, killed any semblance of a balanced attack. I think Jay Gruden is quality coordinator with a lot of good football ideas, but he got away from the basics and I think it lost the game.

Dalton himself will hear the grumblings about his inabilities, but there isn't much he or the organization can do to radically change the quarterback position. We fans (and media) assume that every franchise relentlessly search for the next "franchise quarterback". We had the Golden Boy with the Golden Arm in Carson Palmer, the exact prototype that scouts drool over. He was big, sort of mobile, had a cannon arm and was intelligent. It didn't work out. Then they drafted Dalton, physically meh, and not coming from a collegiate power house, the front office were satisfied with their guy even if the pundits and draft wizards weren't. He exceeded all expectations by taking a bad Bengals team to the playoffs his rookie year, and then followed it up by doing the same the next year with a marginally improved group. After losing both times in the first round, though, folks are up in arms about what he can't do.

Dalton will never have a great arm; he isn't that kind of guy. You're not getting Jeff George when you draft Andy Dalton. Instead you have the quintessential "game-manager" filled with interesting intangibles that only exist from the neck up. The team likes him because he is emotionally unflappable. Not too high, not too low. Even Steven. His first year, he flashed an uncanny pocket presence, but since the middle of that year, the ability has strangely subsided and now looks to have vanished altogether. I don't know how one improves on such a thing-Zen Buddhism perhaps-but unless he can figure out how to get back to playing loose, this offense may never be up to snuff.

What we should remind ourselves, though, is how hard it is finding a better replacement. Those calling for his head now, would have to kick themselves if they got their wish only to end up seeing Kyle Orton or someone of similar ilk taking the ball under center. The "franchise guys" don't grow on trees, and if you think you've found one, you may just end up with Carson Palmer or Drew Bledsoe. There are no guarantees. I don't think Andy Dalton is a premier player at his position, but I don't think it's realistic to ask the organization to always have one of those waiting in the wings of their roster. There have been other examples of mediocre quarterbacks making it and even winning the Super Bowl. To say Dalton can never take the Bengals that far seems fatalistic.

In essence, these Bengals made it as far as they should have. No underdog won in the playoff round. The postseason is a harsh reminder of a team's true identity. The Bengals' identity is made up of a tremendous defense that plays with passion and pride and an offense still learning itself and the league. To say the Bengals should have made it further by now has some truth to it, but if they return to the playoffs next year and arrive at the AFC Championship game, will it matter then? Sometimes babies fall when they're learning to walk, but that isn't to say they will never walk at all.

Mojokong-disappointed but not disheartened.

Bengals Wild-Card Preview: Moving Past

Mojokong — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 05:29:47 -0000

Imagine the Bengals arriving in Houston and piling out of a relieved tour bus. With bags in hand, they bypass Reliant Stadium and head straight for NASA where they blast off into outer space and put their past behind them. Funny thing about outer space is the further you travel into it, the further into the past you go, so really they aren't putting anything behind them, and nor should they need to.

This Bengals team is growing up fast and the rematch against the Texans is an enormous litmus test to the Marvin Lewis Program. They seem ready, the fans seem ready, the media seems ready. Are we ready? We obsess with the team's past. These young Bengals have to haul all those dubious stats around with them like chains on a ghost, even though the vast majority of them are used to winning. Now when asked about their upcoming game, they can say, "this ain't my first rodeo," and actually mean it! I hope those that can are growing out some tough cowboy mustaches for the showdown. Why not?

Why not indeed. The Texans are ripe for the pluckin'. Comments about them of late typically include phrases that start with either out of, or off. Out of sorts. Out of rhythm. Out of gas? Off kilter. Off balance. Off.

That begs the question then: are they a good team due to turn things around, or are they a team unraveling as we speak? I think their swoon is a bit overblown. I agree that they are not at their best at the moment, but honestly, neither are the Bengals. Houston is still a solid team built from the ground up. They have great players in key positions and their collective talent always makes them dangerous. That being said, the Texans were never quite the same on defense once Brian Cushing went down and now it appears that they are struggling mightily to stop spread formations.

Jay Gruden should go to the jugular and have Andy Dalton come out firing. Use every player that can catch a pass within the first few possessions and sprinkle in the run once a two-score lead is in place. The foot should be firmly applied to the gas pedal on offense and get an early lead or die trying. I don't see the point of easing into this game. They did this exact thing one year ago; they know what to expect. Having early success in the spread and throwing to a variety of players would allow for a lot of operating space for the running game and the underneath stuff, but getting comfortable right away and putting up points would jolt this team's psyche and allow them to have fun playing. The offensive line has a big test against the wild banshees that are the Texans pass rush, and moving Andy Dalton out of the pocket to find better passing lanes might be a good idea against the indomitable J.J. Watt and his pass-swatting skills. I think the initial style of play demonstrated by the Bengals offense will determine how the whole game is played. If they come out conservative, it will be another slug-em-out game where Josh Brown becomes uncomfortably important. Come out blazing, though, and I think there will be some shots of Andy Dalton joking around on the sideline in the fourth quarter.

On defense, the Bengals must stay at home. The Texans do so many screens and play-action roll-out passes that an over pursuit by just one player could become a touchdown. Arian Foster is a master at following zone blocking and misdirections and draw plays could also be killers if Cincinnati isn't careful. They must stay at home and be patient.

That may lead to slightly less pressure on Matt Schaub than what would normally be the case, but it's necessary in order to stifle the dreadful explosive play. That might be a problem for the typical defense, but not for the Zim Clan. This is a sharpened bunch, fueled by their confidence and by their undying loyalty to Mike Zimmer. These men will do what it takes to make it happen and that won't change on Saturday. The pass rush will be good enough, the coverage will give up some yards but not a ton of points and everyone will tackle this year, especially Chris Crocker. If they stay at home and disrupt Houston's screen and play-action game, they can control the game on defense alone. As long as Pat Sims (founder of the Pat Sims Stop-The-Run Foundation) is in there on Saturday, we have little to worry about.

I honestly don't even feel that nervous about the game. The fact that they traveled to the same place at the same time of year for the same game last year only helps the Bengals' situation. There are seldom unknowns left in this match up. They are healthy, hungry and fairly experienced already. In the end, they will rocket out of Houston with their first playoff road win and give a giant middle finger to their dubious past.

Bengals 31, Texans 20

Mojokong—never been to a rodeo.

Bengals Week 17 Preview: Strangeness Abounds

Mojokong — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 04:35:38 -0000

The game of football is largely shapeless. The prolate spheroid that is the shape of the actual ball is but one of the many oddities of the sport. Throw in a league of 32 teams with 53 men on each roster and the strangeness is virtually limitless.

Over the years, we as an interested populace have found some comfortable parameters of expectation to work within. Now we can somewhat accurately predict the outcomes of games and seasons.

This game, though, seems to have no handle to grasp. It's the most slippery Bengals game I can remember. How do you call a game like this?

It's strange that the Bengals schedule is encased with Ravens bookends. That Monday Night game was so long ago it seems surreal and nightmarish. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour or the looseness of the rye, but the whole event is blurry. I remember a deflating ass-kicking followed by waves of panic, but not much detail in general.

The good news is that I don't have to remember it. Things turned around for the Stripes and they're a different team than the one that crapped the bed in the opener. They didn't have Pat Sims then.

The Pat Sims effect is real. He isn't their best player—he's a damn fine run-stuffer—but once he rejoined the ranks, the defense snapped into place and the Zim Clan was once more. Now their back to the bare-knuckle brawling bunch we grew to love last year, led by the most fearsome front four in football. Baltimore faces a much stiffer opponent this time around and may need to think of the health of their quarterback during various stages of the game on Sunday. If Joe Flacco is getting roughed up, he may have an abbreviated outing.

The hard part is knowing the mind-state of these teams. The Bengals have won six out of seven but haven't exactly been blowing the barn doors off lately. The Ravens are pulling out of a nosedive and regained a dose of much-needed confidence with a nice win against the Giants last week. Both teams are going to the playoffs, yet neither want to lose momentum and back into the tournament. Players want to win but they don't want to get hurt. Coaches want to show as little strategy as possible to the following Wild-Card week opponent, yet still look respectable in their duties. It doesn't get weirder.

Marvin Lewis talked earlier in the week about how his young players need the reps more than the rest. A reporter reminded him of how he rested his starters the last two times his team had clinched a postseason birth, and Marv fired back, “Yeah, and how did that go?” This team is too young to know it's place in the league. It doesn't know that it should panic against the good teams. Doesn't know it's not supposed to make the playoffs. Marvin just tells them to do it and they do it.

The Bengals will play hard and probably win. I don't know about Baltimore. They're settling into a new playcaller, have a lot of guys hurt, and seem off kilter. If Cincinnati can contain Ray Rice, they should win. I expect sackos on Flacco and a couple of turnovers. I think BenJarvus Green-Ellis has a good enough game to give everybody confidence in him again, and I think Dalton doesn't have to do too much in the finale.

It would be fitting if the Bengals should have to play Baltimore again the following week to make things even weirder. Who knows where this strange rabbit hole will take us next? In football no one ever knows. Ever.

Bengals 22, Ravens 15

Mojokong—what's the surface area of a prolate spheroid?

Not Quite Fantasy

Mojokong — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:46:00 -0000

It had been a while since the Bengals beat the Steelers in a meaningful game—or at all, really—but not only did the Bengals win the big showdown that secured them another playoff birth, it felt like they had finally caught up to their long-time bullies. That's a good feeling for a Bengals fan, but the win lacked something truly satisfying.

That Steelers team that walked off the field—black helmets lowered in shameful defeat—did not resemble the no-nonsense teams of the organization's proud past. That was a very mediocre group we witnessed last Sunday, and the arrow on their future is pointing straight down and flashing red. Sunday felt like beating up an old man. Their defense is still top-ranking and they make it tough to move the ball as witnessed by the putrid offensive output generated by the Bengals, but even that side of the ball is fraying at the seams thanks to mileage and old age. There is a wide gap between veteran and young players in the Steelers locker room. For the first time in decades, they are visibly transitioning and unlike the successful patchwork of the past, this new chapter will be more of an abrupt change than what we're used to.

The Bengals, meanwhile, are building steam and are a team on the rise, evidenced by their second straight Wild-Card invitation, but their conquering in Pittsburgh was far from pronounced and hardly marked much of an arrival. I don't mean to downplay the accomplishment of the team and its coaching staff—the season they have put together has truly surpassed most expectations—but I always dreamed that the Bengals would gain divisional supremacy with an epic vanquishing of the mighty Steelers at the top of their game; a clear indicator to the football universe that a new champion had come to take its rightful throne atop the AFC North. Instead, Cincinnati squeaked out a missed field-goal contest and shot a limping old dog out behind the shed.

All this being said, the Steelers will hardly go quietly into that gentle night. Their ownership, front office and coaching staff are too capable and too qualified to sink to the pits of despair like Cincinnati did in the 1990's and like the Cleveland Browns are still stuck in today. They will rebuild quickly and fill the gaps, but they do face an aged roster, salary cap issues, and a spoiled yet disgruntled fan base. The time is ripe for the Bengals to rise up and be somebody when it comes to the annual playoff picture, and so far the youngsters are getting comfortable becoming regulars at the post-season party.

I know how pretentious it sounds to complain about the lack of style in which the Bengals achieved a playoff spot, but I had really braced myself for either a glorious victory or a heart-wrenching loss. Instead, I kind of shrugged and nodded. Perhaps when they win the division next year by knocking off another team firmly within their twilight years, the Ravens, I will get that signature win I crave so much. I just want an indelible image I can replay to the world over and over again that says “what you see before you is a good Bengals team winning a game that really matters, so suck it.” Until then, I will be happy for their successes, but still not quite satisfied.

Mojokong—whether a landform is called a mountain may depend on local usage.

Bengals Week 16 Preview: Therapy

Mojokong — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 18:33:31 -0000

Seeing is believing. Nothing sums up the game this weekend more than that. We can roll out the stats and look microscopically at footwork and play design, but how do you really feel about the game? It's all football psychology going into this one.

Andy Dalton feels a little shaky at the moment. His comfort in the pocket has become a fragile issue for him this season and last week's debacle can only add to his panic and maybe even turn his hair more orange. His best receiver, the all-everything godsend, A.J. Green, has slowed down. BenJarvus Green-Ellis is suddenly our best offensive player in large part to the improved run blocking. All of this spells out pass-protection. It's the most vital element to their success as a team. When Dalton has time, like any decent passer, he's fine. Get him comfortable and in rhythm and the Bengals can compete with anyone.

This week, though, is not just anyone.

There is little need to further espouse upon the cunning brilliance of Dick LeBeau and his defensive-strategic mastery within these pages of football lore. We, who know anything about anything, have lauded this sage wizard with the utmost of praise and he remains omitted from the seething hatred Bengal fans direct toward Pittsburgh and its football team. Most of that has to do with his strong Bengal ties as the defensive coordinator here in the good ol' days and later as the head coach in the darkest of days. He is perhaps the greatest defensive mind in the history of the league and has a mustard-yellow blazer in his closet for a reason. You simply cannot dislike Dick LeBeau.

He will certainly release the hounds against Dalton and test Andre Smith on the edge. Last week, Brandon Graham went through Goo like he was Slimer from Ghostbusters and I imagine LaMarr Woodley is dreaming of doing the same. Keeping backs in to chip and help out on edge rushers might be imperative until Smith can prove he can hold up one-on-one. It only takes one bad read in protection to change the game and, at this point, the season.

As porous as the offensive line has been the past two games, their run blocking has really grown up right before our eyes over the course of the season. Green-Ellis has redeemed himself to some degree from his awful showings earlier in the year, but most times, any back could run through the giant running lanes this line has provided of late. Old men in rocking-chairs will tell you that good defense and a running game is what matters most in cold-weather games late in the year, and while I'm not sure that's entirely true, I do think it keeps games close.

At this point we all know the three goals Marvin Lewis wants to see accomplished in every game: win the turnover battle, win on third down, and limit explosive plays. His whole philosophy on the game seems founded upon these three factors and he has assembled his team accordingly. With the hopeful return of Cedric Peerman to the lineup, and knowing Marv like we do, I would expect them to lean on the running game for as long as they can afford to. Marvin wants to see caution above all else. It has prevented his better teams from being dominant but has also allowed some bad teams to finish with respectable records. Jay Gruden has helped shake things up as far as predictability and playing it safe goes, but in such a huge game, I think it's Marvin's instinct to limit the risks and play not-to-lose.

That isn't what Pittsburgh will do. Ben Roethlisberger is pure sandlot. He's bigger than the other kids so you can't tackle him, he scrambles around like he's evading cars on the interstate and he has proven that he can stand in the pocket and win games that way too. He does invite sacks with his willy-nilly style of play and the best a defense can hope for is to get him on the ground when they touch him. Defensive backs have the biggest challenge of the day as they will be asked to cover three very speedy receivers for longer than usual as Ben makes the majority of his big plays on the run and out of the pocket. I expect the Steelers to try a lot of quick outs, slants and shallow crosses in order to get the ball in the hands of their kick-return like receivers. Safety play becomes especially important against such speed.

Despite winning five of their last six games, it feels like the Bengals are experiencing some problems, but it's become obvious that nearly all of those problems stem from poor pass protection. The Steelers appear to be dealing with a much more systemic flaw. This is the second time this season the Bengals face a Pittsburgh team in the throes of a losing streak. One can sense a disconnect in the offense that hinders an otherwise very talented group. Injuries to the offensive line are partly to blame, but the vision that Big Ben and Todd Haley shared for the season hasn't at all shaped up to form. It seems there is a lot of frustration around the Steelers at the moment and that things are tense. Sometimes that can be motivating, but in sports it seems the looser and more easy-going team stands the better chance.

Cincinnati is the underdog coming into this one, but I think the Steelers are the more dysfunctional team. I think it could be an ugly game that Pittsburgh gives away. Even though it would solidify a playoff birth for the second straight season, it still wouldn't be enough to convince most people that the Bengals are any good. And they might be right, but neither are the Steelers, and, for at least a week, that would be good enough for us.

Bengals 17, Steelers 13

Mojokong—not the average dragon to slay.

Bengals Week 15 Preview: Mostly Harmless

Mojokong — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 05:51:07 -0000

The Bengals want to write this game off and get on to Pittsburgh right away, but they know they can't. It seems like such an easy win on the surface that it's hard to blame them for looking ahead.

This is an Eagles team made up of backups led by a coach who epitomizes the expression "lame duck" (lame walrus?), and have nothing at stake any longer in regards to a postseason birth. It's surrounded by an angry fan base who have soured on Andy Reid and there seem to be more Eagles on their way out the door than in. Nothing is certain that wears green and stalks the sideline in Philadelphia these days.

Yet despite all that negativity and uncertainty, the backup-team trotted out by Andy Reid and his mates aren't all that bad. Close observers of Nick Foles can see his progression take leaps and bounds each week. The guy has a strong arm, throws surprisingly well when rolling left, and is establishing a report with his receivers. He still doesn't sense pressure well enough, still telegraphs his passes with his eyes too much and still has a long way to go, but the kid's got talent. Philly has slowly expanded the playbook with Foles and while the wrinkles in the offense remain fairly basic, one can see the complexity growing as he becomes more comfortable within the offense.

Nonetheless, the current Bengals defense should devour a rookie quarterback with only four starts under his belt.

Tony Romo played like a veteran and let the game come to him last week. The Bengals couldn't close it out efficiently and allowed the savvy old swashbuckler to checkmate them as time ticked down. Nick Foles, unlike Tony Romo, hasn't seen a front four like he will on Thursday night though. The Zim Clan is back to its true identity, but now appears to rush the passer even better than before. Michael Johnson is doubtful yet that doesn't discourage my enthusiasm toward the Bengals pass rush in this matchup. Mix in the fact that the Eagle offensive line is patch-worked thanks to injury, and you have yourself a regular old sack attack. Of course, I think that every week, but lately it's been mostly true.

Reid and company would like to further showcase the explosive newbie running back, Bryce Brown, to take some of the pressure from Foles. Brown is an exciting young man. He runs hard, has really nice open-field speed and scores touchdowns. However, he does have a knack for fumbling. Coaches can put up with a lot, but they can't put up with fumbling—at least not for long. Brown holds the ball away from his body, looking more like a discuss carrier than a football carrier. Like Jon Gruden said during a recent Monday Night Football game, if he continues to hold the ball like that, he will continue to fumble. Even if he doesn't, Tampa Bay showed last week that if a defense "sets the edge" and takes the corner away, he becomes rather powerless. Running off-tackle is what he does well. Limit that and he becomes just another guy.

As for the Philly defense, they too are hurt and depleted. They haven't been a real force since the Jim Johnson days, and they are currently a shell of that proud time. They are not without some quality young talent to build upon with likes of Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham and even DeMeco Ryans, and of course us Cincinnati folk love Trent Cole, but you won't see many other notable names in this game on the Eagle defense. The safeties look especially bad—particularly without Kurt Coleman. The vastly overpaid Nnamdi Asomugha still resides somewhere on the field, but he rarely makes plays anymore and he is nowhere near the shutdown corner he used to be. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is also no longer very good and either one of these guys should be roasted by A.J. Green on a regular basis. The Eagles secondary gives up chunk yards on blown coverages—mostly down the middle of the field—at least once a game. As long as there aren't any major pass-protection breakdowns, I don't see why the passing attack shouldn't have a great game.

There aren't many reasons why the Eagles should win this game but that isn't to say they can't. The young guys on their bench don't care about the misery Eagles fans feel in regards to all the injuries. They want to demonstrate to the next coach of the Philadelphia Eagles that they can play and should be one of the few pieces worth keeping when the rebuilding starts. They want to get paid too.

The Bengals have to take it very seriously. They need to come out as professionals and handle a lesser team on national television the way good teams do. They need to prove that they belong.

Bengals 35, Eagles 20

Mojokong—trepidation.

Bengals Week 14 Preview: All Blitz, No Glamour

Mojokong — Sat, 08 Dec 2012 19:32:56 -0000

Jerry Jones and Mike Brown represent opposite ends in the football-owner spectrum. Jones is all glamour, thrusting himself in front of the cameras and throwing vaults of money at every new problem. Brown is all miser, preferring to own a mom-and-pop operation and staying out of the limelight. Their organizations reflect their personality and also the way each build their team.

The Cowboys are sparkly with all of their expensive skill positions. Their offense was made to zing with all that speed and with Tony Romo behind the wheel, but the talent of the line was misread and hasn't lived up to its price tag. Now they find themselves winning again and keeping the season meaningful despite really not playing that well.

They face a Bengals team on a four game high, beating the crap out of teams and even overcoming the California Curse last week in San Diego. It certainly is nowhere near a perfect team, but it is one that is solidly built for the future, and even the present. Brown scrimps where he can and always will. He will not be remembered as a friend to the community. His general management skills will always be vilified, fairly or not. Yet this team is a highly talented group of really young guys and he should get some credit for putting it together. Throw in an additional second-rounder next year, an astounding amount of cap space and a collective bargaining agreement that forces him to use it up and you have yourself exciting things to come, my friend.

The Bengals have minimal excitement in their skill positions. Of course there is the crown jewel of the entire team, A.J. Green, and Jermaine Gresham has finally elevated his game this year, but outside of that, no one cares about the rest of the names on that list. We Bengal fans know the other guys and what they can do, but for the most part, they are an unknown commodity.

Especially Marvin Jones. What does he bring to the table? We know he's fast and that he's a deep threat, but that is one small dimension in being a receiver. Last week he dropped a ball on a crossing route that was intercepted and really never did much in his first real chance to make a difference in the game. Losing Mohamed Sanu hurts more than we would like to admit. The reason the offense became so effective after the bye week was both the consistency of Trevor Robinson at center and the emergence of Sanu in a variety of ways. With Sanu out, Jones has to make an impact. Armon Binns flamed out really early in the season. Brandon Tate hasn't looked like much of a wide receiver. They both missed their chance to become starters. Jones is the last unknown experiment and the pressure is on him to perform well this Sunday.

As for the aforementioned center position, there is a rather vital decision to be made there for Marvin Lewis. Robinson has brought stability to the line, and the results—especially in the run game—speak for themselves. Now Kyle Cook is healthy again, has practiced all week, and probably wants his job back. A lot is made of left tackle, but center is such an underrated position for the offensive line. Robinson didn't just keep things afloat during his time as starter, he made the team better. Jeff Faine showed what happens with poor play at the position. Kyle Cook is way, way better than Faine and is without a doubt starting material in this league, but why mess with success?

The Bengals take on a Cowboys defense riddled with injury. Beginning the year, they had maybe the fastest linebackers in the league. Now they play without Sean Lee or Bruce Carter and things have slowed down a bit as a result. They are also without Jay Ratliff or Orlando Scandrick this week and only have a few difference-makers left.

The main difference maker is DeMarcus Ware—nicknamed Shark Week for his prolonged intensity and violence (D.O.)—and he will somehow find Andy Dalton know matter how much the Bengals emphasize stopping him. The attention he draws usually leads to more space for Anthony Spencer and a player that has caught my attention of late, Jason Hatcher. These guys are going to get a sack or two, Cincinnati just has to minimize the damage.

The Bengals can throw on these guys, though. The Dallas safety play is vulnerable. The corners are good, but the youngster Morris Claiborne is prone to drawing flags. Gresham and Hawkins can beat the intermediate defenders and should be important on third and mediums. Green really isn't all that guardable and defenses will continue to give help to whomever has that unfortunate task of going up against him. As long as Dalton isn't being devoured by Shark Week and his shiver (a group of sharks), he should be able to move the ball in the air well enough to win.

Thing is, the Bengals offense may be immaterial. This Mike Zimmer defense is back to its bare knuckle brawling days, now leading the league in sacks. Geno Atkins is the best pass-rushing tackle in the league, Carlos Dunlap is a growing force of quarterback evil, Michael Johnson is playing for a new giant contract and even Wallace Gilberry has become an effective contributor. These guys quietly get it done and lately they have been the difference from a mediocre team to a playoff-caliber one. The underwhelming Cowboys protection should fold like a wet napkin against this fearsome foursome. While Romo is shifty and slippery in the pocket, unlike Ben Roethlisberger, he goes down when you touch him. The Boys offense want to go vertical and use their speed and explosion, so it's important for Zimmer's gang to disrupt the timing and not allow Dez Bryant and Miles Austin to go deep. Jason Whiten is going to get his catches and the Bengals will just have to live with that, but they cannot allow the long pass over their heads. Take that away, mixed with heavy doses of pressure, and Romo will have to dink and dunk his way downfield and settle for three instead of seven.

The scariest matchup of the day for Zimmer is stopping DeMarco Murray. This guy is strong, fast and runs hard. He can tear off large chunks of yardage regularly when he's in there. Staying healthy has proven difficult for the young man, inhibiting his production and ultimately his value, but he is plenty scary once suited up. Cincinnati has been terrific against the run recently. They are disciplined about staying in their run gaps and the secondary has tackled well of late. Rey Maualuga was thrashed earlier this year for his sloppy technique and a multitude of mistakes, but his lost weight has seemingly revived him into becoming a capable middle linebacker again and he deserves some love. Also coming back to life has been Manny Lawson. While Rey took a lot of the heat, Lawson practically disappeared from my television while watching the games in the first half of the season. Now he's getting after the quarterback again and he adds yet another element to the pass rush. Murray is going to run like a wild horse this weekend and the linebackers must continue their workmanlike approach to contain him.

Ultimately, the Bengals pass rush makes the difference in this game. Cowboys right tackle, Doug Free, seems extra weak in protection and I have a feeling he will be mauled by Dunlap all day. This forced chaos by the defensive line will be enough to get some turnovers and win the game.

Bengals 23, Cowboys 13

Mojokong—ignoring the pressures of a win streak.

Bengals Week 13 Preview: Traveling Tips

Mojokong — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:32:42 -0000

This week the Bengals travel to the football oasis of San Diego in December. There they will see palm trees, beaches and incredible women, but like Odysseus tied to the mast, they must do whatever it takes to stay the course.

The historical trends aren't encouraging when Cincinnati heads to the Pacific timezone. We fans can downplay those kinds of stats all we want, but the Vegas guys take them seriously for good reason. The weekly routine is different—Marvin Lewis flies his team out there on Friday—and teams find comfort in their routine. Any disruption from the norm can have larger negative consequences, especially for a team on a roll like the Bengals. They were able to overcome the West-Coast blues last year in Seattle, and clearly it can be done again, but it's just one more obstacle to overcome.

Last time they were at The Murph, Chris Henry had just died. The Bengals came up short on a valiant effort against a then high-powered Chargers offense. Later, the Jets would run roughshod over both teams, knocking each from the playoffs. It was a bummer all around.

These are much happier times. Every Bengal is playing well right now. Since the bye week, a switch was flipped and the production is cranking along at season high levels. For the first time in the Andy Dalton era, they feel like a playoff team. They are confident, healthy and extremely dangerous all of a sudden. A team that catches fire like this in December has proven to be a fearsome contender in January and beyond. It's exciting for now, but are they really ready to take that next step? Skepticism abounds.

Despite the pessimistic view of a larger, historical context surrounding the Bengals franchise, there are plenty of good football reasons why Cincinnati should win this week.

The Chargers offense is in a major rut. Their receivers struggle mightily getting open and most meaningful third-down conversions or touchdown passes require perfect throws coupled with spectacular catches. Nothing comes easy to this group. Their most dangerous play is probably a screen pass and they often kill their own drives with dumb penalties. The biggest problem facing San Diego this week, though, is their weak pass protection.

The Bengals front four is high-ranking. They stay in the face of pocket passers and knock them to the ground repeatedly. It's made a once lambasted secondary of slow has-beens into a polished group of savvy veterans. Even the linebackers have stepped it up. All the collective success, though, goes to the pass rushing abilities of the defensive line. It's allowed every other defender to do their jobs better. If the Chargers can't keep Philip Rivers upright in the pocket, then they will have to rely on screens and dump-offs to score touchdowns. Good luck with that.

They do work the sidelines pretty well on out routes and back-shoulder comeback routes, and their receivers are larger prototypes, so don't be surprised to see the taller Dre Kirkpatrick used more this week. He and Terence Newman are both bigger corners who tackle well and can match up well in man coverage against this group, but none of that will matter if Rivers is getting hit every time he drops back.

The San Diego defense is a different story, however. They play the run nicely by staying in their gaps and keeping the ball carrier from getting to the outside. The Bengals finally have their ground game up and running thanks to the stability of the offensive line, but against the Chargers, they may not have the success they've enjoyed the previous two weeks.

On passing downs, San Diego plays man on the outside with their corners, they drop the safeties deep and they zone off the middle with linebackers and nickels. They allow short passes underneath and try to make open-field tackles to prevent first downs. They did a very good job of doing just that last week against the Ravens for about 58 game minutes. Then they allowed Ray Rice to convert on 4th-and-29 on a dump off pass that set up the tying field goal. Charger fans will always be a scarred from that play.

The Bengals should be able to pressure the safeties in two-deep coverage with A.J. Green. If one of the safeties shades to his side, it could leave the middle open deep for someone else like Jermaine Gresham or Andrew Hawkins, and if they don't cheat to A.J.'s side, they're nuts. On the other side, Marvin Jones may finally have the chance to go deep on a somewhat slowish secondary. The Bengals clearly want to get him into matchups where he can win deep. They like his straight-line speed and the team could really excel with another deep threat opposite of Green. That leaves Mohamed Sanu as the other viable option; a man who has flourished in his expanded role since the bye week. Sanu looks to be a terrific possession receiver that becomes extremely valuable in the red-zone. His versatility and ability to take handoffs and even throw the ball makes him a wildcard player that crafty offensive coordinators can have a lot of fun with. Jay Gruden has unveiled Sanu in a variety of ways already this season and there should be more to come. Others can dismiss this receiving corps as random and unproven, but when they are playing to their potential like they have of late, they are as effective as any other group in the league.

This marks the fourth week in row where the Bengals opposition is coming off of a loss, and like last week with Oakland, there are questions about the psyche of the Chargers. Norv Turner sits in a boiling witches cauldron of hot water and could be fired at any minute, really. The scene in San Diego has soured over the years and the whole Turner, Rivers, Gates thing feels old and stale. The fans have given up on the team and it seems like only a matter of time before the team gives up on its coach. If the Bengals get an early lead, it may be too much for the Chargers to emotionally deal with and they might just pack it in for the season. Playing for a lame-duck coach can't be a good time for the players and eventually they will begin to ask themselves what the point is. It's a bad scene in San Diego, despite all of it's natural beauty and climate there.

Ultimately, I think the Bengals overcome the jet-lag and all the exotic temptations. I see them handling business over a team that is crumbling at the end of a coaching era. I don't think it will be a blowout, but it won't feel all that close either. The Bengals will continue to win the turnover battle which will keep the spread manageable for Cincinnati throughout. This is team in full momentum, steam-rolling along. A fourth consecutive win would speak volumes to me. Perhaps they're ready even if no one else is. We shall see.

Bengals 24, Chargers 16

Mojokng—with beeswax in my ears.

Bengals Week 12 Preview: A Lot Of Pride On The Line

Mojokong — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:32:34 -0000

The idea of quitting is an interesting one. Usually the act is pretty stark—either you quit or you didn't. We all quit something: little league, smoking, book clubs, the Bengals. Carson Palmer quit on the Bengals but not on football, so did he really quit at all? No one seems to care anymore, except for this week.

Even then, no one cares enough for a sellout or much national media coverage. The Bengal fan remains a kind of mystery to me. How do you not want to go to this game and see it unfold before your very eyes? There's no chance of rain, temperatures in the low 40s and the most notorious turncoat in franchise history makes his first trip back to the Queen City. I circled this game on the schedule so vigorously that I poked a hole through it with my pencil. I hear you about the cost of an NFL ticket, but sometimes you have to remind yourself about only living once and collecting memories for later on, I think. Live football in meaningful games is a different level of sensory perception; one that cannot truly be captured on television. My point is not to guilt-trip anyone into selling out the stadium—I'm well versed in the arguments against ownership—I just want to know what game is big enough for Bengal fans to sell it out? I don't mean Steelers fans nor Peyton Manning fans nor Cowboys fans, but dare I say, The Jungle, a dying moniker for our fan base. I can't disguise my mild disappointment in the lack of enthusiasm for such an event. Those fans downplaying it as no big deal are not reveling in football enough. The drama is rich, enjoy it while you can.

Of course the players and coaches say they aren't making a big deal of it, and that's to be expected, but I don't think it's true. Even to the player who never played with Carson Palmer, they know what happened and how he left, and even they should want to show him that he quit on the wrong team. There's a lot of proving to be done on Sunday. A lot of pride at stake. When the Bengals take the field against Palmer, they are playing more for us than for Mike Brown. We are eager to beat our chest and yell our throats horse in victory. One giant "I told you so, mother******!" A visceral instinct to lash out against a person we harbored such high hopes for.

I think that's why Bengal fans will boo him. Not because they are simple hominids who are eager to hate, but because we all really believed in Carson Palmer and he walked away an ultimate failure. The disappointment is too great not to succumb to its ugliness. In that same spirit, though, a win would allow the Bengal fan to feel vindicated and ease up hating him so much. It would allow for acceptable closure on the matter and everyone can move on amicably.

Yet with all the stored up venom to be undoubtedly spewed in his direction, he too has reason to play at his best. This kind of revenge is a two-way street and if he pulls it off, he could ride off into the western sunset with a smirk on his face and a sack full of stolen Cincinnati pride. It's a chance for him to stand up for himself and show that he isn't a chump after all. A chance to remind us of what we're missing.

If the stage wasn't set enough, enter Hue Jackson, the seemingly double-agent for the Bengals, who orchestrated the trade for Palmer, gave up some prime Raider draft picks, and took a job with the Bengals the next year—the name Bob Bedinghaus comes to mind. Hue knows the Raiders like Palmer knows the Bengals—probably more so—and his input in the coaches room this week will be more valuable than usual.

There are many things we know about the playing ability of Carson Palmer without being an insider. We know he likes to throw it deep. The deep ball is a siren that lures him into trying it more often than he should. It was a major problem in his last year in Cincinnati and it still crops up often in Raider games. Denarius Moore and Darrius Heyward-Bey are very fast, but neither are very reliable in both receiving and staying healthy. Nonetheless, CP3 will look for them streaking down field. Safeties must play a true center field on Sunday and show the range necessary to stick with the burners on deep patterns.

We also know that while Carson can throw far, he doesn't throw particularly fast. I still see him throw a lot of incompletions on out patterns to the sideline simply because the ball takes too long to get there. Since 2010, Palmer has thrown 47 interceptions in 36 games and a lot of that is because the defensive backs get good breaks on Palmer's slow ball. While the Bengals corners aren't speed blazers, they do play with good technique and jump routes well, particularly Terence Newman. Look for the veterans to be chancy against Palmer and bait him into a pick or two.

The other thing we know about the California Golden Boy is that he panics easily under pressure. His maneuverability has become extremely limited over the years and he needs a good pocket to succeed. The Bengals pass rush is built to sack pocket passers. The scramblers and the improvisors tend to give this structured defense problems, but go against them with a standard drop back and throw style and your quarterback will be hurried. The Raiders offensive line is not that impressive while the Bengals defensive line appears rejuvenated over the last two wins. Unlike the more mobile quarterbacks, if Palmer can't get comfortable in the pocket, he has no chance.

The Raiders best player is their fullback who was once a receiver and is now their starting tailback. His name is Marcel Reece and he has an impressive skill set. His ability to run routes and catch may be his best attribute, but he has shown himself to be an effective runner when taking hand offs and is good in the open field on screens and such too. I became a big fan of him last season before the Jason Campbell injury when he became a terrific compliment to Darren McFadden and Michael Bush. Then Palmer wisely warmed up to him once he arrived and now Reece is the focal point of their offense. There's no one way to stop a player like that; you just have to keep a person on him at all times. When he goes out for passes, it will probably be up to the linebackers to cover him since the safety help will likely focus more on the speed receivers on the outside. That means the Raiders have an advantage on third-and-short situations and it will be up to the Bengals defense to win on first and second downs to avoid those kind of scenarios.

The other man to watch within the Raiders offense is Brandon Myers. Carson throws to this guy a lot and he seems like a fairly trustworthy safety valve, but he has dropped touchdowns in consecutive weeks. Between Myers and Reece, Mike Zimmer may have to use a nickel back to mark one of these bigger guys. If that's the case, open-field tackling becomes paramount for the secondary.

As for the Raiders defense, it's still about their front four. They are oversized guys who get a good push on the line of scrimmage, though Drew Breese showed them last week how good footwork in the pocket can lead to touchdowns. The interior linemen seem to have stabilized to some degree thanks to the health of center, Trevor Robinson. Since he became a steady starter, practicing every day with the number ones, the protection has become stronger, and Dalton appears way more comfortable than he did earlier in the year. Those inside guys will be challenged by Pro-Bowlers Richard Seymour and Tommy Kelly, but those guys are getting older and don't have quite the bite they used to. With a terrible defensive backfield, giving Dalton time will allow him to score enough points to win.

It was lovely to see BenJarvus Green-Ellis eclipse the century mark for the first time in stripes, but the whole rushing offense needs to prove that wasn't an aberration by doing it again. Cedric Peerman getting more carries is showing positive results, but any real improvement that might exist in the running game is, once again, the stability of the offensive line.

The Raiders aren't terrible, but they are close. They still rack up a lot of penalties and simply lack the talent necessary to mask their weaknesses. The Bengals aren't a good team, but they are close. There is a positive vibe about the team right now, and the sense of urgency now appears real. If Cincinnati strikes early again, Oakland may mentally pack it in for the season. Blitzing Palmer, knocking him down and sending the brutal crowd into a frenzy, should result in turnovers, which should result in points and should result in a win. With so much pride and drama on the line, I can't see the Bengals letting us down or quitting on us. I think they're strong on Sunday and really stick it the former No. 9.

Bengals 30, Raiders 17

Mojokong—big enough for me.

Bengals Week 11 Preview: Separate Directions

Mojokong — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 18:49:18 -0000

The Bengals face a Chiefs team limping on its last leg. After coming up short in a valiant Monday Night effort, and already feeling downtrodden due to a 1-8 record, it seems logical to assume that Kansas City has checked out on the season.

Last week in Pittsburgh, they found themselves in an ugly game. The Chiefs became the first team I can think of that actually knocked Ben Roethlisberger from the game, and then proceeded to blitz the crap out of backup Byron Leftwich but to no avail. They bumbled along in the rain with terrible penalties and a horrific passing game, but still managed to force overtime. They received the kickoff and then promptly threw a pick that sealed any chance to stick it to their former coach, Todd Haley.

On the flipside, the Bengals are coming off of their most complete game of the past three seasons. The beat down of the New York Giants earns a rousing applause. The secondary, labeled as too slow to guard NFL receivers, completely eliminated any threat of a Giants passing attack, blanketing the New York stars on offense. The linebackers flew around and made tackles and the defensive line put twenty hits on Eli Manning. Twenty! The offensive line blocked like the Great Wall of China, Andy Dalton was accurate, and the receivers showed muscle as they pulled in tough grabs in the end zone. In a word, it was perfect.

How can the Chiefs compete with all their strength and attention this week? They must be deflated in nearly every way after a late, cold, rainy, and oh-so-close loss last week. The 2012 campaign has been an epic bust. Prior to the season, I thought Kansas City would be strong after getting back so many crucial pieces that were injured the season before. Turns out their depth is nowhere near stable enough to win and the coaching staff has been flummoxed by an abundance of turnovers, penalties and bad luck. There are still seven games on the schedule, but these matches are merely formalities at this point. The Chiefs will win at least one more game before the end, but I feel they are too mortally wounded right now to come out on top. The players and coaches are probably wondering what the point of football is these days and who can blame them?

That being said, the Bengals have laid down against lame ducks like this before. The Cleveland loss in Week 5 stills stings like rubbing alcohol on an open sore, and hopefully the acute pain of that game still resonates in the psyche of the Bengal players. The euphoria they earned with the slaughtering of the Giants could be swiftly blown away in the breeze of a letdown in Arrowhead Stadium this Sunday. They must come out with energy and urgency to keep the torch of the season aflame.

If the Bengals defense can repeat even a fraction of their output from a week ago, they will win with relative ease. Matt Cassell has been deplorable this year. I don’t know if it is his backup-quarterback colors shining through or if he’s reached a premature end to his effectiveness in this league, but either way, he looks really bad. The Chiefs will desperately attempt to avoid throwing the ball. For all the negativity swirling around the Chiefs, they can sometimes run the ball well. Their line has been depressingly bad pass-protecting—free agent tackle Eric Winston has made more enemies than friends in KC due to his lackluster pass blocking—but they aren't bad run blockers. They like running to the right behind Winston and guard Jon Asamoah, but Asamoah is out this week and the Bengals defense is good at moving laterally and stopping the stretch handoff and other long-developing running plays. Jamaal Charles is shifty, fast, and elusive, but because he goes outside on most of his runs, I find him less of a threat against this defense. Instead, I find Peyton Hillis to be a larger threat, both literally and figuratively. The Bengals have struggled against straight-ahead runners this season. Jonathan Dwyer and Montario Hardesty both tore off big gains against Cincinnati, running straight ahead. Sometimes KC gets too cute with Hillis and asks him to make the same kind of runs that Charles excels at, but from what I've seen, these attempts result in very limited success. The Bengals must be stout up the middle, andwith a healthy Pat Sims in the fold, that seems to be a doable mission.

When the Chiefs are forced to pass, I expect them to be mauled by the Cincinnati front four. I've seen a couple of different men line up at left guard for the Chiefs and each one seems to pass protect poorly. If these guards play at their standard back-up level, Geno Atkins will feast upon their unfortunate souls. And if that isn't bad enough for KC, Carlos Dunlap appears to have awoken from his midseason slumber. The pass rush continues to be the most feared facet of this entire Bengals roster and they should really hit their stride against such a maligned group.

Offensively, I wouldn't expect a point explosion. There are still some quality defenders on the Chiefs roster, namely Tamba Hali. Derrick Johnson, Brandon Flowers and Eric Berry are also notable players, but Hali hustles his ass off and is truly a force to be reckoned with. The Bengals offensive line was sterling last week against what many consider one of the best pass-rushing groups in the league, but they cannot let up against Hali and his mates. We all saw what happen to Big Ben, and Andy Dalton surely is not as tough as Roethlisberger.

If they do keep Red clean, though, there’s no reason they shouldn't enjoy at least a moderate amount of success in the air. The Chiefs have been lousy containing opposing tight ends this year and Jermaine Gresham continues to progress in his career, albeit slowly. It’s the other tight end, Orson Charles, though, that I expect to garner some postgame praise for his play. Charles has quietly put together a pleasant rookie season, displaying the ability to be a viable pass catcher and he and Gresham should be able to find an advantage in double tight-end formations on Sunday. No one can contain A.J. Green, so there isn't concern there, and Mohamed Sanu appears increasingly comfortable in his role on the offense. In general, the Bengals passing attack is really their only real way to score points for this team, so I would expect more of the same, but it is vital that Dalton is protected well to really put up some larger point totals. The running game is still a mystery and there is no sign of improvement with the current personnel, so don’t expect much help on the ground this week. Knowing how Marvin Lewis goes about his business, however, against such a turnover-prone team like the Chiefs, look for the Bengals to play ultra-safely on offense and wait for KC to throw a pick or put the ball on the ground.

As it has been proven countless times, nothing ever makes total sense in this league, and nothing is ever that easy, so no one should go into this one feeling certain about anything. Still, this is a bad and worn out Chiefs team with nothing left to play for other than pride and money. The organization can say it isn't giving up, but it’s run by humans who are subject to emotion. They will come out flat and be physically handled by a cautious and focused Bengals team. I don’t expect many points, but I expect a win.

Bengals 17, Chiefs 6

Mojokong—climbing the rungs of the football ladder.

Week 10 Bengals Preview: Last Chance

Mojokong — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:46:34 -0000

At eight games into the season, things haven't gone according to plan for the Cincinnati Bengals. This last quarter was a nightmare, blowing two games against rookie quarterbacks and then two more against hall-of-famers. Not only can they not beat the playoff teams, they can't beat anyone. The Giants game marks the beginning of a new quarter, and the Bengals must start well, or that's it.

Epic Bengal collapses are nothing new to this town, and they seem to occur every other year. In 2008, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Carson Palmer teamed up to lose the first eight games right out of the gate. Then in 2010, Batman & Robin suffered through a 10-game string of losses, crushing the mega-hyped expectations of that year. Now the same Grim Reaper lurks around Paul Brown Stadium again, threatening to consume the season and all of its joys. The season is in a nosedive and looks to be out of control, but for silly reasons, I think they get it together this week.

The Super Bowl Champions are a bad-ass team. They can score a lot of points, having already scored 41 twice this year, or they can wrestle away road wins like the thumping they put on the 49ers in Candlestick. They have a renown pass rush and a no-nonsense coaching staff. They are better than the Bengals in nearly every way.

Yet maybe the Bengals are close to getting back on track offensively. The center position continues to be a problem with Jeff Faine and Trevor Robinson frequently subbing in and out due to either bad play or bad hamstrings, or both? Now there's talk about Clint Boling at center if necessary; the whole position is a quagmire right now. Kyle Cook's injury has proven to be somewhat catastrophic to this team, thrusting either too old or too young replacements into the mix. The whole thing reminds me of the Eric Ghiaciuc fiasco in 2006. If the Bengals can clean up the position by having one guy practice at center all week and make it through an entire game, things will improve.

The offensive line wasn't great against Denver, giving up five sacks and allowing Andy Dalton to panic more than he needed to. The quarterback has not felt comfortable in the pocket for the majority of the season. Individually, outside of the center position, the linemen have been graded respectably, but collectively they have rarely felt dominant, particularly when run-blocking. The line is a symbiotic entity that must work as a group and it's just not happening right now. Too many sacks and too many penalties last week drew attention to a group who prefers to work anonymously. I think the line will improve as the center spot solidifies.

At the midway point, even Andy Dalton has come up short. The organization relied on his incredible intangibles, namely pocket presence, leadership and general unflappability, yet the young ginger has faltered in his development in these areas, appearing to have regressed more than improve. While in the pocket, there is a trust issue somewhere in his thought processes. He either doesn't trust himself to make the throws, doesn't trust his receivers and their ability to get open, or doesn't trust his line to protect him. This trust breakdown, whatever it is, has led Dalton to appear, well, flappable. Once the line gets better, Dalton will progress as well. Dalton is better-than-average but it takes the right blend of factors to put him in the best situation.

A major part of that blend is a better running game. The Bengals rank in the bottom five in nearly every important rushing statistic. This offense is not one built for 50 passes a game. It simply doesn't have the firepower to compete that way. When Trevelle Wharton and Cook both went down in the preseason, coupled with letting Bobby Williams go in free agency and drafting Kevin Zeitler as his replacement, the front office went with younger, lighter and more athletic linemen who can pull and get out in space. Yet BenJarvus Green-Ellis has shown himself to be more of a power back, and the two styles have not coincided nicely. Now with Bernard Scott out too, there aren't many other players on the roster who can get out in space and let those sprightly young linemen roam free to find linebackers to block. Instead, they are asked to maul and shove fat defenders backward. It hasn't happened with much success at all. The combinations of injuries have hit the Bengals where it hurts in the run game. In order to find some success there, the coaching staff must try to use Green-Ellis and there other personnel in ways that have yet to be tried. At this point of the season, trends are obvious and real and if the Bengals are too slow to adjust—as has historically been the case under Marvin Lewis-led teams—then it will be too late and they will begin to build early for 2013. This week and beyond, I think we see some new wrinkles in the running game that hopefully include an expanded role to the other largely unused backs in Cedric Peerman and Boom Herron. Got to try something new and the time is now. Bold prediction: Bengals rush for 125 yards as a team this week, which is a big deal for a struggling unit.

Defensively, the rest of the year will be an uphill climb against the pass.

Things have really fallen apart within the linebacking group. I heard Dave Lapham say how important Thomas Howard was to this squad and I think he's dead on. Since he went down, coaches and fans alike have turned up the pressure on Rey Maualuga and Manny Lawson. Both have underperformed in their larger roles, especially Lawson who seems to have been removed from the scheme almost altogether. Only Vontaze Burfict has played on a level that I would describe as starter material, and even Emmanuel Lemur immediately elevated the position once activated from the practice squad. There is a lot of fixing to do with the linebackers and the position should be paramount on the team's priority list this offseason, but for now, they're going to have to rely on the younger guys to continue to make a difference because the veteran starters aren't getting it done.

The secondary continues to be filleted. I still think loading up on aged defensive backs was an organizational mistake this off-season. What was the plan? Perhaps they expected the pass-rush to be so dominant that they wouldn't need a bunch of fast guys back there. They wanted slow, tackling corners and that's what they got. Nothing can be done about it now. They have to wade through it. They aren't a good blitzing team. After all the preseason linebacker blitzes we saw, I thought they would be but that's not been the case. Because of that, they go zone a lot, and they're not so good at that either. The phrase I hear myself say while watching the Bengals play pass defense is “slow to react”. Changing directions, moving vertically, the swiveling of the hips, none of it is done quickly. I don't foresee a huge improvement in the second half of the season in pass coverage so the best we can realistically hope for is limiting other offenses to field goals.

The Giants have a real blazer on their team in Victor Cruz. The guy is ultra-explosive and is the perfect person to kill an old secondary like the Bengals. Even if they do somehow slow down Cruz, his counterpart, Hakim Nicks, can do the same thing. Nicks has Terrell Owens-like talents and could be a perennial monster, but he is always nagged by injury. Nonetheless, he's strapping them up tomorrow and that is threat enough for me. Like almost every week, I say the Bengals drop back into zone, allow passes underneath and come up to make the tackle. If that seems okay in the beginning and NYG are only scoring field goals, they then can ramp up the blitzes in the second half, but Cincinnati has to limit the early big plays. If Eli Manning and his mates storm down the field for a pair of quick touchdowns, it could easily zap all the enthusiasm and optimism that may still exist in Paul Brown Stadium.

The Bengals must make this an ugly, physical game. If it's a shootout, they lose.

The center position is the key. Improve that, and you improve your line. Improve your line and you improve Andy Dalton. Improve Andy Dalton and you improve the running game. Improve the running game and you get sustained drives that eat clock and rests old defenders. Rest old defenders and you limit enormous passing totals. Limit enormous passing totals and you keep the score within reason. Therefore, it's all up to Trevor Robinson this week and this season. Good luck, Trevor.

Bengals 20, Giants 19

Mojokong—for silly reasons.

Bengals Week 9 Preview: Show Me Your Mean Face

Mojokong — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:06:58 -0000

We learned this week that even Marvin Lewis can surprise us A man once seen as predictable as the sunrise, famously went off script this week and said he wants Andy Dalton to be more of a dick. A lot has been made of it, and I wonder if he now regrets saying it, but it remains a mind-blowing statement only because of its source.

In the past decade, Marvin has firmly demonstrated a rather Buddhist football philosophy that emphasizes balance and trust in ones self and ones teammates. They are never the worst team, never the best team, and have lingered in the middle for the duration of his tenure. He and his team stay the middle path.

Early in the Lewis administration, he was dealt handfuls of problem children who weren't mentally ready to be great despite their tremendous potential. Then his team became complacent and vanilla made up of boring football robots, primarily Carson Palmer. Now he says he wants a mean streak in his new robots. Villainous robots? Who is this man? I feel like I don't know even know him anymore.

Fact is, I never did and neither did you.

I haven't talked with Marvin Lewis outside of some standard questions at the 2009 Scouting Combine. Like everybody else on the outside, I just go by what I hear him say and closely follow his experiment. From that, we form a sketch of his personality and assume his team will reflect the same traits and characteristics, and for the most part, it has. Whether it's a fair assessment of Marvin's personality or not is immaterial. It's what we got to work with, so we go with it.

Now, though, he sees his team as too nice—has said so a few times already this season—yet is there anyone else to blame other than himself? He can say that Andy Dalton is a softy on his teammates, and it may just be Red's personality, but like anyone, Dalton can be toughened up. While Marvin's program is professional and on-par with most NFL standards, it is rarely if ever characterized as grueling or hard-nosed or intense. Instead you hear words like quiet, loose and relaxed when the culture of the current Bengals is described. The Marvin Lewis we've seen clapping on the sideline, smiling at everyone, whispering on the podium, is not a tough guy. Now he asks for more than just toughness from his troops, he asks for meanness. Especially from his quarterback and middle linebacker, he says.

I don't think this is a mean team, just like I don't think Marvin is the hard disciplinarian type of coach that can cultivate one. I don't think Dalton will ever get the "aw, shucks" out of him and become a raging maniac like Phillip Rivers, but I do like Marvin's new attempt.

Why not? We've seen the Bengals fall into horrific relapses and binge on losses like this before. The negatives compound on top of one another and the losing becomes all-consuming, crushing seasons and careers under its weight. While not quite circling the drain, the Bengals have positioned themselves at least on the rim of the sink itself. Marvin needed a new approach to salvage the season and he chose meanness this time. He even cussed in a press conference. It feels kind of desperate and forced, but I like it. Funny thing is that it's true.

The Bengals do need to be meaner. They have been a go-through-the-motions team forever it seems. Sometimes the motions they go through work and translate into a quality defensive showing for the season like last year, but over time, a team needs more than just motions. They need some kind of presence to them. They shrink in the spotlight. They panic easily. They get punked by tougher teams. They have a few guys who wanna lay the wood on somebody every play, but by and large, there is simply not enough pushing around going on along Cincinnati's side of the ball. I thought the Andy Dalton comments were interesting, but I thought the mention of Rey Maualuga by position only was more of an indictment.

Rey has been under the microscope this year and has flat out looked bad. The man lining up next to him, Vontaze Burfict, looks far more capable to run this defense than does Maualuga. He loafs, takes awful angles, guesses wrong, is easily blocked and still doesn't wrap up enough. More than anything else, he doesn't want to stick his nose in the action. He's tentative. Perhaps he's worried about getting hurt, but he should ask himself what is more important: keeping a starting job in the NFL and racking up more injury, or fading out as a limited backup and remain healthier later in life. Either answer is a respectable one, but if it's the latter, the Bengals coaching staff needs to make the switch soon rather than watch the production from arguably the defense's most important position continue to decline. The next few weeks will be pivotal for Rey's future with the team. This is one of those defining moments for him.

As for Dalton, Marvin did mention another concern other than his meanness. He said that he wanted Andy, and the rest of his team, to make more unscripted plays. When asked to define an unscripted play, he explained that they were plays where improvisation is needed to make it better than they had planned. Like the meanness, this is a rather vague request, but again he's right.

Dalton's pocket presence has dulled since his rookie season. I still think the reason is because he has more responsibilities that include more reads and all this extra thought has led him to panic more often and has resulted in a host of breakdowns. While the offensive creativity that was so abundant earlier in the season has seemingly lulled of late, there is something programmed in the players to only get what the play calls for. That sort of programming can only come from coaching, but now the coaches are saying the players need to do more on their own. Go further than what we've taught you to do, they tell them. Override the shackles we've placed on you. Sprout wings and fly.

The fact that Marvin is talking to reporters about these ethereal elements of his football team tells me that he and the organization are convinced that their game planning is good enough and that he's out of ideas on how to get his team to execute it better. It's like a math equation that isn't producing the right answers or a pot-roast recipe that is still missing something once you've tasted it. The entire team knows that it should be at least one game better than the record states, and if they don't know why they are only 3-4, they are in trouble.

As for this week...

The offensive line has a big task taking on the Broncos. They have not one but two quarterback-sack extraordinaire in Von Miller and Elvis Dumerville. The offensive tackles, Andre Smith and Andrew Whitworth, have to keep these guys at bay if Dalton is going to be at all successful at executing unscripted plays. Also along the Denver defensive front are two burly lumberjack-like defensive tackles. Derrick Wolfe and Justin Bannan don't get a lot of credit but are disruptive, especially the rookie Wolfe. Clint Boling and Kevin Zeitler have been graded well so far this year, but the center spot has had some rough patches. Pass-protection up the middle is almost as important as it is on the outside. Everyone has to hold up well for the Bengals offense to find any comfort and rhythm. The needless panicking from Dalton must end now.

Also, more of a ground presence would be nice. A 100-yard rushing day seems more remote than it should, but we say this every week and the results seem sadly the same. Fans and media have turned some attention to Cedric Peerman for an expanded role and increased amount of carries, but the coaching staff appears cautions when mixing him into the game plan. BenJarvus Green-Ellis desperately needs somebody on the Bengals roster to take some of the pressure off of his underwhelming production by showing the defense a change of pace with another back. The Law Firm has never before been used as heavily, and I think at this point we see why. The rushing attack must be more of a committee effort no matter who is on the roster. If we have to see some Boom Herron to get some variety, then that is what needs to happen. Handing the ball of to Sanu is interesting—reminds me of how Minnesota uses Percy Harvin—but I feel the team has to be serious about using their other backs to find any true success in the ground game. Until I see some sustained success when rushing the ball, I'm just going to assume they can't do it and focus on the pass.

Problem is, so do other defenses. Then they focus on A.J. Green. Defenses are going to double and eventually triple-cover Green until other offensive players can prove they're dangerous. The way to defend the Bengals is to drop the secondary back, dare them to run, let them make short catches and come up to tackle them. Shade a safety toward Green all game, leave the other wide out in single coverage, only rush four and watch Cincinnati limit their dimensions until they have only the desperation deep-passing game left. If Mohammed Sanu can come on and become a new viable weapon, great! If not, Armon Binns peaked and flamed out early, Brandon Tate has shown good hands but isn't a true receiver, and Marvin Jones blew a tire before getting to show his stuff against Pittsburgh. There is no one else left. The Bengals were relying on the collection of "other guys" to step up enough to allow the offense to get loose, but they haven't met the professional expectations of an NFL starter. Andrew Hawkins has flashed, but also faded as he deals with the grind of his first full season. Cincy Jungle's Joe Goodberry predicted Sanu taking over for Hawkins at the slot as the season progresses, citing his observation that Hawkins is wearing down. The angle makes sense, and I agree that his role will likely be lessened, but I don't think that Baby Hawk will vanish altogether. Regardless of who it is, one of these guys needs to do more with both scripted and unscripted plays.

On defense, the Bengals face Peyton Manning. The hype is immense right now surrounding Manning and the Broncos. They smashed New Orleans in Mile High, running the ball very well against the league's worst defense. Willis McGahee does well against Cincinnati, so does Peyton. The Bengals defense was gashed by Johnathan Dwyer two weeks ago as he simply ran straight ahead through running lanes (the same way Montario Hardesty did the week before). Denver runs more stretch plays that call for cutback and off-tackle runs, and Cincinnati is usually better at rallying to ball carriers to the outside rather than stop them up the middle, so I expect a lesser rushing total against them this week.

Problem is, defending the play-action off of the stretch play is a long-time Bengals weak spot . The Houston Texans do it masterfully and now the Broncos have the master of all masters running it the same way in Denver. Bengal linebackers are extra vulnerable to this kind of misdirection and if they aren't keen to who has the ball, they will be lit up in a hurry.

I expect Manning to add to the struggle Cincinnati has dealt with on third downs this season. Obviously a strong pass rush annoys any QB, but this is truly a bend-but-don't-break defense Mike Zimmer has to work with. The playmakers, the ones who change games single-handedly, are rare within the Bengals defensive ranks. Only Carlos Dunlap has that kind of prowess and lately it's been subdued to say the least. If Cincinnati can allow field goals rather than touchdowns, they can stay in the game, but big passing totals are coming like it or not. Limit the bleeding, and they might survive.

All in all, I don't love the Bengals chances. Both teams are moving in opposite directions and the best kind of motivation Cincinnati can muster for this weekend is desperation. The road is long and hard from here on out. Letdowns have occurred, mistakes were made. There is much ground to make up and according to the man in charge, the best ways to turn it around is to be meaner and more improvisational. Good luck with that, nice guy.

Broncos 31, Bengals 20

Mojokong—make or break.

2013	$13 Million
2014	$15 Million
2015 (Voidable)	$15 Million
2016 (Voidable)	$15 Million