I hadn’t written about the beloved Bengals for a couple weeks. They certainly laid an egg against a very beatable Chiefs team. They darn near lost the game to the Jets. While it was a great come-back in the 2nd half, I find the enthusiasm of fans a bit overwhelming. You’d think they made the playoffs or something.
Injuries aside, they did play well that and half but as much as as they played well, the jets played poorly. So it’s not really as good as it looks.
Looking ahead, this is Pittsburgh week (currently 4-2). Do they have a chance? I’m afraid they probably don’t. The line is currently Pittsburgh by 3.5 I don’t think they have a chance to stop Pittsburgh but they might just get lucky at home. Can Pittsburgh stop them? The proved on Monday night that they were vulnerable, much more so that I’d thought. Of course the Bengals will probably start Rudi instead of Kenny so the first half will be a bust run-wise.
I’m fairly certain they don’t have what it takes to get up for this game. Hack they couldn’t get up for the Chiefs and that was a *must* win, and it took them half the game to get up for the Jets which was a double-must-win game.
The following week it’s the Bills (2-4). We should beat the Bills, but we also should have beaten the Browns, Chiefs and whooped up on the Jets. This game isn’t a mime, the Bengals are notorious for playing to the level of their competition. This game will have a lot of turn-overs in it.
Ravens (4-3) three weeks from now? They Ravens are no where near as good as the Bengals made them look on opening night. This game is also a *must* win but won’t be easy.
Cardinals (3-4) again not a gimmie for the Bengals.
If they get past Pittsburgh with a win, that might be just enough momentum to allow them to win the next 3, moving them from 2-4 to 6-4, but I don’t have faith that will happen even with Henry back for the Ravens and Cardinals.
I’m thinking we’re looking at 4-6, which would pretty much signal the end of the Season for the Bengals.