As Bengals fan, now is the time to focus on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now is the time to focus on buying playoff tickets, reserving your parking spot, and finding the perfect grill for your tailgate. It's the season that we watched a defense coalesce, and a new quarterback learn a new offense with new receivers and be good enough to win - in some cases, even be the the reason that the Bengals have won some football games this year.

Still, when I read the post today about doubt, I couldn't help but feel uncertain about this year and the future myself. And what better time to establish a time capsule to refer back to after the season than at the mid-way point? Let's see if I'm right at the end of the year.

The questions this year are simple:

• Will the offense continue to progress into a league average unit? Can they continue to play mistake free football and give themselves a chance to win?
• Is the defense really this good? Are the last 2 weeks indicators of flaws (poor nickel coverage, weakness against an offense designed to neutralize the blitz), or blips on the radar (we won, after all, and the defense made adjustments in both games)?

Looking forward, I have more questions. I'll go position by position after the jump (I hear the front page likes jumps, and I'm really hoping this gets published on the front page one day).

Continue reading this post »

The Bengals probably lost, but at least we got to see Chad Ochocinco throw a pass. Use this thread to bemoan how bad the Bengals are after the game ends, or whatever you want to do.

Carson Palmer has thrown two interceptions and 3/4 of the starting secondary is missing and the Jets out-gained the Bengals 178 yards to 129 yards. The Bengals have been outplayed in every phase of the game besides points and penalties. But points are cool, let's win that category.

Chad Ochocinco was robbed of a touchdown on a beautiful catch in the first half - the second beautiful catch that hasn't been statistically a catch for Chad in recent memory. He's played better than his stats this year, I think, on average. He's not been consistently great and he's not the Chad that led the AFC in receiving yards for three straight years, but he's made some great catches and has quietly shown some heart lately.

Revis has been okay. He hasn't done anything spectacular. Neither has T.O. The defense has been good enough, but looks prone to being torn open. Hopefully that doesn't happen. Go Bengals! Win points!

The Bengals are pretty bad at football. Ryan Fitzpatrick has thrown 4 straight touchdown passes, and I'm leaving, so here's your postgame thread.

It's really nice this week to be a Bengals fan. At least for the first half - even if the entire secondary and Cedric Benson are injured some way or another. Dennis Roland has been really awful, but Carson Palmer, Jonathan Joseph and Cedric Benson have been pretty good.

The defense has been pretty touch and go. They've made some really awful mistakes - roughing the passer on an interception led to a Buffalo touchdown - but they've also scored a touchdown and taken the ball away another time. Chris Crocker and Roy Williams injuries have been particularly damning today, as Buffalo has found daylight around those safeties in the second half. Of course, since we're Bengals fans and we don't deserve nice things because Mike Brown owns our favorite team, the Bills became the NFL's best offense for one minute and put a 4 play, 56 yard drive together to score a touchdown.

Can the Bengals survive the injuries and escape the lowly Bills with their third win of the season? They'll have to keep Mr. Bratkowski in his cage to do so. He reared his ugly face toward the end of the second quarter, and it really wasn't pretty. The offense could also do well to possess the ball a little longer and  give the depleted defense a breather or two.

They were pretty great in the half though, scoring on four of five possessions, including their last drive on the first half after Ryan Lidell continued his ineptitude and pushed his kickoff out of bounds. The big play was a 36-yard Palmer to Shipley hook-up, taking the Bengals to the 5, followed by a PI call against Drayton Florence covering Terrell Owens. The big mistake was letting 30 seconds run off the clock between those plays. Ed Hochuli bailed the Bengals out by giving them one second after Bernard Scott failed to score on the goal line, and Aaron Pettrey kicked the 19-yarder to salvage some points after the Bengals squandered the clock as only they could.

40 yards stood between the Bengals and victory this week when a new goat emerged. Jermaine Gresham's fumble was the Bengals' 5th turnover of the day. He was just fighting for more yards, refusing to go down, but then he actually started to go down and the ball squirted loose. Colts recover, game over barring a miracle.

The Bengals beat themselves for the 6th time this season, racking up turnovers and penalties while outplaying the opposition in some statistical aspects of the game - things like yardage, anyway. They lost in points and they lost in turnovers and they lost the game. This team has been simply amazing in finding ways to lose. They dig holes, they turn the ball over in unimaginable ways, they drop big passes and ALMOST convert huge plays, but they lose.

The Colts did absolutely nothing on offense in this entire game. They didn't drive- they scored when the Bengals gave them the ball 20 yards from the endzone. Woopsies! Story of the season. There's talent and we all know it. But you know, when you turn the ball over 5 times and lose by 6, you really should have won that football game. When you get sacked twice in the row with the game on the line, well, I guess I take that last sentence back.

Oops! The Bengals pulled a Bengals and made the same exact mistakes they did against Pittsburgh last week. Bad turnoves dug the Bengals a grave they will have a hard time getting out of. This game is so similar to last week's, I have nothing unique to say about it. I won't be surpised if the Bengals lose 27-24 or something, throwing incomplete at the 5  yard line to end the game.

This really isn't a football team that's as bad as its 2-7 record. Don't get me wrong - there are problems. There are penalties and missed assignments and mistakes a plenty, but they do a lot of things well and are playing at or above the level of the competition (Steelers, Colts) when they're not giving the ball away on their own 20 yard line. But since the Bengals hae a propensity to make these sorts of turnovers, they're 2-7. 

The Bengals tried and they tried. The usually reliable Mike Nugent and Jeff Reed missed kicks left and left and left. When it was said and done, the game came down to mistakes leading to points. All 27 Steeler points came after either a turnover, a blocked punt, or a missed field goal. The Bengals scored 14 off turnovers, and the decisive touchdown off of a missed field goal. They overcame the usual suspects (turnovers, penalties) on this night and overcame a 20-point Steeler lead - the first time that's ever been done - and won a game I never thought they would. I wrote that last sentence at 11:42 EDT. That's how confident I was at 11:42. I'm going to leave it in the post-game thread, even if I'm wrong.  What an ending!

What really happened? Chad caught a 15 yard pass on 2nd and 20. On 3rd and 5, Carson Palmer overthrew Owens, and it was time for the decisive play of the game. Will Jake eat his words? They go against everything he thought going into the game. He will. The Bengals couldn't close it out as rookie Jordan Shipley dropped the should-have-been-4th-down-conversion. Ballgame.

The Bengals had my heart pumping and my mouth dry and they had a chance to win. But as has been the story all year, the Bengals beat themselves. They played a clean game but didn't overcome the final holding penalty. They couldn't overcome early turnovers and missed field goals and a block punt. Plenty of blame to go around, but plenty of praise too. Terrell Owens played a hell of a game. Carson Palmer only made one mistake - and it was a bad one. Bernard Scott's fumble was a dagger, and so was Jordan Shipley's drop.

At 2-6, the playoffs are no longer a possibility, but this team showed some heart tonight. 6 losses and a -23 point differential. Trent Dilfer summarized the season in a nutshell: the Bengals have dug themselves holes all year they can't get out of. They clawed their way out of their 6-foot grave tonight, but suffocated before they got to oxygen. I'm afraid the same will be true of the season.

The Steelers haven't impressed me that much in this game. They look like every other team in the NFL this year. Troy Polamalu looks really good, because he is really good. But the rest of the Steelers defense looks average, without looking at the stats. The offense looks average - Mendenhall has broken off some runs, and the passing game - aside from some dumpoffs to Mendenhall and Heath Miller - has looked subpar. Of course, as I write this Mike Wallace hauled in (questionably) a big pass on the sideline as he beat Leon Hall on a fly. I'm not sure if that would be called a fumble if the ball was caught in the middle of the field, but Hall got beat.

The Bengals looked equally mediocre, but probably below average offensively. I think the defense played a pretty solid first half - but faced with a couple of short fields, Pittsburgh took advantage, jumping out to the early 10-0 lead. When the Bengals got the ball back on the turnover by Bengals-fan-favorite Hines Ward, and Terrell Owens ran a brilliant corner-post to score a wide open touchdown in the middle of the field.

Unfortunately, the turnovers really bit the Bengals this half. Bengals turnovers (including the blocked punt, which isn't technically a turnover) led to... all of the Steelers points. 

Also unfortunately, the Bengals sucked terribly on third down. Without looking, I'm guessing they didn't convert a damned one. Following a great little return from Bernard Scott on his fourth or fifth return of the game, the Bengals choked again on third down - Gresham the culprit this time (if it's not one guy, it's another!) - and following a blocked field goal attempt (well, it was just missed, but it doesn't make much of a difference), the Steelers scored more of all of their points, reaching 20 before the half.

The Bengals need to have a mistake-free second half, and they need to start converting 3rd downs and force at least one more take away to win. But the Bengals are beating themselves into the ground this year, and they're 6 feet under tonight.

Carson Palmer threw three interceptions. Cedric Benson ran for well over 100 yards. Tampa Bay turned the ball over 3 times. Which correlated most strongly with a win today? Apparently Palmer's interceptions, which lead to 17 Tampa Bay points off of turnover, including a pick-6 and the decisive field goal that ended the game and the Bengals' hopes of getting out of the only easy part of their schedule with a winning record.

Today's game marked consecutive losses to two of the worst teams in the league. The vaunted defense couldn't hold up when it counted. Palmer was remarkably un-clutch. The weapons committed interference and deflected a ball into the oppositions' hands. The Bengals have lost to two teams in a row that they have to have believed they could beat. 

There's no good excuse. The Bengals just aren't a good football team, as things appear. They can't put teams away. They give games away like they're candy on Halloween. Importantly, they committed an immense amount of damning penalties in this game. 

It's really not fun anymore, boys. This team does absolutely nothing well - and this is against bad teams. 8-8 would be pretty lucky.

This team simply can't put a complete game together. If they get pressure on the quarterback, receivers have a 3 yard cushion. They can't pass the ball and they're not calling running plays. Pre-snap penalties are killing drives. Is it a problem of heart? Perhaps. Or maybe it just looks like they're not trying because they're not that good. 

I remind you again, sadly, that these are the easiest teams on the schedule. The boys really need to start executing out there... in this case, I think that means keep feeding Benson.

The Bengals are false starting the game away. This offense is clearly sub-par. Good thing the pass defense is pretty good, because the rest of the team kind of sucks. These are the cupcakes of the schedule, let me remind you.

Was it all the refs' fault? No. Turning the ball over and having a field goal blocked sucks. Some of the calls were right. But the ones that really stand out after the game are the ones that changed the game. A phantom defensive holding on a stuffed running play that would have brought up 3rd and 9 with about four minutes left was just the nail in the coffin. Sure, maybe the Browns manage to convert that 3rd down on their own - but did they need the officials' help after benefiting from questionable no-calls (pass interference on a Terrell Owens target in the endzone that may have taken 4 points off the board) and calls gutted the Bengals' chances to come back late in the game.

The part that wasn't the referees' fault was certainly the Bengals' fault. They never really got the running game going, and the offensive line gave up 4 sacks. They failed to recover a Cleveland fumble. When it really mattered, they let Peyton Hillis run for 24 yards and a first down. Allowing Scott Fujita to block a field goal is unacceptable. Coverage was loose and shaky for much of the day. But really, I believe the refs took this game out of the Bengals' hands with the defensive holding call at the end of the game. The Bengals need to clean up pass protection and pre-snap penalties, but the real point swings in the game came down to:

1. The blocked field goal and subsequent "unnecessary roughness" call. Borderline call at best. -3 points for Cincinnati (Cincinnati's fault) +3 points for Cleveland* (sort of Cincinnati's fault).
2. Uncalled pass interference against Terrell Owens on an incomplete pass in the endzone in the second quarter. Textbook call. Them's the breaks, but likely -4 points, and that's mostly on the zebras.
3. Cleveland's first drive in the second half. Totally unacceptable showing by the defense.
4. Defensive holding on the last possession of the ballgame. Completely unacceptable call. Maybe Cleveland converts the subsequent 3-and-9-to-go. I doubt it. Game over.

Carson Palmer has connected on a few big plays in the first half today, completing passes of 78 and 42 yards to Batman and Robin. In the last 4 minutes of the half, the Bengals offense was emphasizing the big play and Palmer's timing with Terrell Owens seemed to finally be improving. 

The Browns blocked a field goal, though, with just over a minute to play and benefited from a stupid rule that says "you're now allowed to hit wide receivers in the back, at least, not very hard to try to knock the ball out of the receivers hands." After that, the Browns took a failed shot at the end zone - but only after attempting an uncalled illegal substitution - and settled for a 33 yard field goal to take a 13-10 lead at halftime. 

At this point, I'm most upset about officiating in this game. I don't think the Bengals have been bad in any other phase of the game. But Terrell Owens was interfered with in the endzone. That's a textbook call, and the officials missed it. Arguable 4 points off the board. The personal foul call on Chinedum Ndukwe was laughable, although that might just be a rule that the officials have to call. I'm just really confused by some of the calls in this game - as I was with some of the late hit calls last week. 

Besides that, I'm not sure what to make of the first half of this game. The passing offense is better and the running offense is non-existent. The offensive line has picked it up in the pass blocking department, but can't open holes or the running backs can't make the right reads quickly enough. 

Carson Palmer has made a few mistakes (not running for the first down preceding the field goal and one really awful throw on the same play), but has played good football. The defense has been touch and go. I think the Bengals are very obviously the better team in this game, and if the team on the whole can get a little more consistent - particularly on first down, they win the game.

The Bengals are even in turnovers, are losing time of possession by almost 2 minutes, have outgained the browns be a negligible amount. 

Sure is a lot of whining around here for a team that's 2-1. It's not 2005. The defense is really good. Carson Palmer looks off - for a number of reasons from coaching, to the offensive line, to his arm - and Shayne Graham isn't around to miss important kicks. 

If you're judging by penalties, it's still very much 2009. This team lacks discipline. The two personal foul flags at the end of the game were unnecessary, terrible calls. But in the end, they didn't really matter as Jimmy Clausen's last throw fell incomplete in the end zone. A win is a win is a win. At the end of the season, it doesn't matter how you got there. 

This one was ugly. The Bengals had 4 takeaways, but gave the ball up twice on Carson Palmer interceptions. There were dropped passes, bad throws, bad blocking, bad penalties, missed opportunities. But hey, they're taking care of business, and it's so early in the season that I'm not getting too worked up about any of it yet. If the offense picks up even a little bit, with the way the defense is playing, the Bengals will be a very tough team to beat. 

Real tests don't start until after the bye week. Cleveland and Tampa Bay are the next two opponents. Anything less than 4-1 going into the tough stretch of this season will not be good enough. Luckily, it shouldn't be that hard to get to.

Boy, this sure is a different team than many of us expected before the year started. It's like Trent Dilfer is our quarterback and we have one of the best defenses in the league or something. When did that happen? Don't you just wish it was 2005 when the Bengals had one of the best offenses in the league and a defense that relied almost entirely on takeaways to be successful? Man, that sure was fun to watch. The Bengals won the Superbowl that year right?

Today, Jimmy Clausen has been everything we've expected of him. He's barely thrown the ball and his one completion was a 11-yards-after-catch toss to a guy I've never heard of and will probably not hear of again. He threw an interception on an amazing diving play from Leon Hall and lost a fumble on a botched center-QB exchange, then another on a terrible QB-RB handoff. The defense has been pretty awesome. The Panthers have averaged 3.4 yards per carry, and that's with 26 of their 44 rushing yards (60%) coming on one play early in the game.

The Bengals offense hasn't looked so great either. Carson Palmer has been errant on at least 4 throws, receivers have dropped at least one ball (as has Carolina's defense) and receivers have fallen down on routes more than a few times. Dennis Roland cost the Bengals points at the end of the second quarter by forcing them to take a timeout after a false start (to prevent the 10 second runoff), and then was late getting to the line of scrimmage, preventing the Bengals from stopping the clock before time expired. Oh, Andre Smith and coaching, where art thou?

Still, Bengals lead by 10, even if it should be 13 or 17. Did I mention Dennis Roland is a big screw up? Man that guy sucks. Jermaine Gresham is my player of the first half. He's done a pretty nice job of blocking and has put forth excellent effort all half.

This game feels like it should be a Benson-fest, but run blocking hasn't been great. It needs to pick up in the second half so the Bengals can continue to wear  down the clock and bank another win. And that Carolina defense will be tired. They've been on the field for 70% of the first half. Let's keep that up, and we'll move to 2-1.

The Bengals win! Carson Palmer is really awesome at winning games against Baltimore when he starts at quarterback for the Bengals. Today - credit goes to the defense. Four interceptions and consistent pressure on Joe Flacco really won this game. The last two times the Ravens had a chance to win the game, the Bengals got pressure to Flacco that resulted in intereceptions.

On key statistical metrics, the Bengals were roughly equal with the Ravens. Both teams had 14 first downs and converted very few third downs (4/15 for Baltimore and 3/18 for Cincinnati). Cedric Benson had 23 carries, adding to the statistical evidence that handing the Predator the ball wins ballgames. You're not allowed to take away big plays, but if you did, the Bengals gave up 124 passing yards on 16/38 passing. For most of the game, Joe Flacco was awful. Ray Rice, too, has stats that look better than he played today. Take away his big run that led to a Baltimore FG, which counts in real life, he had 15 carries for 57 yards, which is pretty pedestrian. The Bengals defense was awesome for most of the day.

Penalties reared their head after a relatively clean week in the loss to the Patriots last week. Palmer's accuracy continues to create questions. Dropped balls are a concern. The combination of Palmer's perhaps not-great accuracy and drops led to 11 targets at Terrell Owens leading to just 3 receptions. Chad Ochocinco was targeted 9 times and had 3 catches and at least two drops. 

In the trenches, the Bengals had 8 QB hits and a lot more hurries than that. 9 passes defensed and 4 interceptions are further evidence of consistent pressure. The only Bengals sack was a .5/.5 effort  from Geno Atkins and Michael Johnson. The Ravens logged 7 QB hits and a sack with 2 TFL, largely resultant of the offensive line disintegrating in the second half. 

But hey, a win is a win! Mike Nugent is perfect this year, and was 5/5 today including a 46 yard try. Kevin Huber struggled punting the ball, but Bernard Scott, who returned the only kickoff of the day for the Bengals, broke a 60-yard game changer. 

Game ball? Defense! The line, really. Flacco never got comfortable (besides one drive) and made a lot of bad mistakes. Honorable mention to Terrell Owens, who put forth some great individual efforts after the catch this afternoon. Also to Mike Nugent, who didn't go Graham on us.

While the offense looked okay in the first half today, it just didn't do enough to finish drives. There were too many stuffed runs, too many penalties, and a solid two passes that Palmer just didn't throw in the right place. None the less, the Bengals were much better than the Ravens in the first half. They held the ball for just over 18 minutes and gained 135 yards. The big play was lacking, and Palmer may have overthrown a few should-have-been completions, but it could have been worse, that's for sure.

The main positive I'm taking away  from this half is that the Bengals' secondary and trench play was vastly superior to the Ravens'. The Ravens did step up and get stiff against the run in the second quarter, but Palmer had pretty nice time all half, and most of the stuffed runs didn't work because, in large part, they were stretch plays that allowed the linebackers to get too involved. Flacco was under pressure on just about every snap, and the Baltimore offense was only good for 78 yards in the first half; Flacco was 5/18 for just about 1 yard per attempt. That's pretty solid secondary + QB Pressure play. 

Areas for improvement? I can think of a few. First, let's cut it out with the pre-snap penalties. They're getting old. Dennis Roland and Evan Mathis aren't going to cut it. Neither is settling for field goals, neither are the dropped passes on catchable, but not perfectly-thrown balls. But the offense's struggles in the first half were of the penal variety. Six penalties for 35 yards is bad. One holding penalty was declined. So really, for all of the success, penalties did not give the offense a chance to get into rhythm. I've seen and expect to continue criticism of Palmer and Bratkowski. And I won't let up on Bratkowski. But Palmer hasn't made any game-ruining mistakes and the Bengals are leading on the strength of their defense, who, thanks to the offense not being completely terrible has had time to rest.

Let's hope the offense picks up in the second half. The Ravens are a good, but not great team right now. They've still got a nasty linebacking corps, but I've got a feeling that there are some secondary holes to be exploited. Hopefully "adjustments" happen, but knowing the Bengals, well...

Here are some neat notes from James Walker at the half. Here's the box score. Go second-half Bengals!

There are a lot of people to blame for this loss. Carson Palmer made mistakes. The offensive line got pushed around in the first half. The defensive line got pushed around for the whole game. The secondary and linebackers were on their heels for the whole game. Kick-off teams gave up huge plays and couldn't get passed the 20. Tom Brady's hair is too perfect. Bob Bratkowski's playcalls were either bad or didn't work because the offensive line sucked today. The Bengals only rushed for 71 yards. The New England Patriots don't lose at home. Lots of reasons, none of them satisfying, none of them make it any easier to stomach. But it's one game, it's the first game, and it's in New England. Can't take too much out of it.

The Bengals lost this game, and they lost just about every phase of it along the way. But at least the second half gave us some positives to look at. The offense picked up and scored 3 touchdowns after being very quiet and mistake-prone early on. They are tenacious. They did not give up. They battled, and even though they suffered an interception-touchdown and a kickoff return for a touchdown, they didn't roll over. That was the difference in the game, as it turns out. But at least they didn't go down without a fight. I'm hopeful for the rest of the season and I hope you folks tag along for the ride.

I know things didn't start so well for the Bengals, but I mean it when I say you can't take too much away from a season opener AT New England. The offensive line got manhandled and Carson Palmer has looked confused, but it's only one half of football. New England was 8-0 at home last year.

But, on topic, the Bengals got absolutely dominated at the line of scrimmage in the first half. Brady had tons of time all day, and tackling was lacking. The Patriots stopped themselves a few times, and the score is gracefully not 38-0. 

Fortunately, after a pick-six on an awful throw that had just about everyone questioning which Palmer should be starting at quarterback for the Bengals, Mike Nugent came in to prevent the shut out, nailing a 54-yard field goal. Still, a look at the stats tells a depressing story that I don't really want to face. There was some silver lining, as the Bengals appeared to be picking up toward the end of the half (outside of Palmer's pick-6), and the Patriots may be taking their foot off the gas. Also, no penalties! 

Time Of Possession: Cincinnati 15:11, New England 14:49

Total Plays, Yards: Cincinnati 33/156, New England 34/248

Pass(ATT)/Rush(ATT) Yards: Cincinnati 130(19)/30(13), New England 178(24)/70(10)

Turnovers: Cincinnati 2, New England 0

The Patriots get the ball first in the third quarter. Let's hope not too much is made of Chad and TO going to the locker room before the half. Crazier come backs have happened! Who Dey!