|
Bengals Rolling Right Along |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Daryl on Sunday, 08 November 2009 21:00
|
 The Cincinnati Bengals are picking up steam. They opened the season with a series of games where they muscled their way to victories via last minute heroics on offense or incredible stands on defense. The rolled over the Chicago Bears and came into today’s Baltimore Ravens tilt hoping to rack up a sweep against the hated AFC North nemesis.
The Bengals took to opening kickoff and orchestrated a masterpiece of a drive which included gashing runs by Cedric Benson and pinpoint accurate throws by Carson Palmer to a bevy of receivers. The drive culminated in a déjà vu moment as Palmer threaded a laser through traffic to Andre Caldwell.
The Defense for the home team came to play as well. The initial drive by the Ravens was stalled early as running back Ray Rice was stone walled for a two yard loss. A few completions, penalties and a near interception by cornerback Leon Hall later and the Ravens punted the ball away to the Bengals who saw Chad Ochocinco put on an arial display on consecutive plays as he leaped and contorted his body to make two amazing grabs. The Bengals offensive line played superbly as Palmer enjoyed time to look deep on several occasions and Benson was able to cut back off of blocks to gouge for extra yards on a regular basis. A bit of razzle dazzle and missed tackles by Ed Reed and others gave a big play on a reverse as he blasted his way to the three yard line. Cedric Benson finished it off with his sixth touchdown of the year and a fourteen point lead as the first quarter trickled down under three minutes to play.
The Ravens couldn’t get anything going on offense and didn’t help themselves at all as Joe Flacco’s first drive deep ball to the end zone was snatched out of the air via perfect coverage by Jonathan Joseph. The struggles plagued the Baltimore signal caller all afternoon and he missed the mark on several passes and could only find true rhythm on one late fourth quarter drive that yielded the visitors’ sole touchdown in a 17-7 Bengals triumph. In fact, Flacco was literally running for his life as he took off and ran the wrong way for nearly twenty yards as he bobbed and weaved around a host of Bengals chasers. He was dropped and it was second down and twenty-nine yards to go.
The victory came at a steep price as big play wide receiver Chris Henry broke his fore arm and is likely out for quite a while, if not the rest of the year. Cincinnati moves to 6-2 for the first time since the playoff run of 2005. Things are clicking on all cylinders, but still not yet for a complete game consistently. Cincinnati is undefeated (4-0) inside the AFC North and next week’s contest versus the Steelers is poised to be a huge game for both sides. The Bengals are for real. Let’s keep it rolling!
|
|
|
Written by Daryl on Tuesday, 29 September 2009 00:54
|
Bengals Overcome Weak First Half to Overthrow Defending Champs
|
|
Two Words : Steelers' Week |
|
|
|
|
Written by Daryl on Saturday, 26 September 2009 18:25
|
Long Running Heated Rivals Meet Again Sunday.
|
|
New Mascot for 2009 – Mr. Murphy |
|
|
|
|
Written by Daryl on Tuesday, 15 September 2009 09:17
|
|
|
Written by Daryl on Friday, 11 September 2009 19:34
|
Hope springs etermal is a phrase commonly used as the frost gives way to the smell of freshly cut grass, hot dogs, peanuts and every baseball team is 0-0 and every fan has dreams of playing deep into October. This is one year that Bengals fans are tossing the word hope about here and there, but cautiously. Very cautiously. One thing can be said for fans of the Cincinnati Bengals: they are a loyal lot. Given a twenty four hour extension to produce a full Paul Brown Stadium and avoid the first blacked out home game since November of 2003, the fans rose to the occasion and in the end the game will indeed be on local television. The fans hope that loyalty will be rewarded with a successful home opener followed by a season which yields a playoff run.
Every year fans can hang their hats on a thing or two that will allow them to hope for a successful campaign through the treacherous adventure that is an NFL season. Sometimes it’s the schedule, often it’s being healthy, on rare occasions it’s a big free agent pickup and more often than not it’s just plain old hope and loyalty. This year however there are several legitimate reasons for the ever optimistic, loyal to a fault fanatics of the men in orange and black.
One: Carson Palmer is back. He has rebounded nicely from the elbow issues which put him on the shelf for all but four games of the 2008-2009 tour and is said to be one hundred percent after suffering an ankle injury early on in the preseason. There is no doubt that as Palmer goes, so goes the offense. Heaven forbid he goes down, J.T. O’Sullivan has shown that he is a tremendous upgrade from Ryan Fitzpatrick who did the best he could last year, but just doesn’t have the tools to be an every week NFL quarterback.
Two: Mike Zimmer seems to be the real deal. He is perhaps one of the best D-coordinator’s the club has ever employed. He used last year to install his scheme and took a defense off the junk pile and drug them to number twelve in the league last year. This accomplishment is tantamount to a miracle as the defense was almost literally on the field during the entirety of most contests last year. In addition to over exertion, they could have sued for lack of support in terms of points scored by the offense and were often put in the less than advantageous situation of poor starting field position. That ranking is surely to go up this year with the addition of several key defensive cogs such as the return of linebacker Keith Rivers, the drafting of Rey Maualuga and Michael Johnson along with the free agent addition safety Roy Williams while the line gets an upgrade with Tank Johnson. Throw in the re-signing of heat seeking missile safety Chris Crocker who emerged last season as a solid last line of defense who can bring the punishment to opposing ball carriers.
Three: One winning season in eighteen years…we’re due!
Along with hope comes sizing up some areas of concern. The offensive line has been shuffled with the result being nice pass protection but subpar run blocking which stymied a rejuvenated Cedric Benson and a host of quality backs to use along with him. The tight end position was completely destroyed in training camp as every other day a man went down for one reason or another. Number one draft pick Andre Smith has a weight clause in his contract and depending upon who one wants to listen to, he was at the limit or over it when he ended his hold out and promptly broke his foot during a non contact drill after two practices, thus putting his development on hold and most likely moving his chance at being fully productive into next season. Point being, if the protection goes south, it’s 2008 all over again.
Being hopeful and realistic is the life of a Bengals fan. That being said…Who Dey!
On Tap: Bengals vs Broncos Preview
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Page 1 of 2 |
