First, I have to apologize for not writing last week. I had a few personal things I had to handle but my stripes were still out in full force and the Bengals took care of business. Now with that comes criticism as well. Today, I will sort through them and as good as a biased fan will ever do. I also want to touch base on BJGE, even though I have been a big critic of his. I will talk about what we have to do in order to beat the Cowboys as well.
Over the past few weeks I have heard people uttering about the Bengals and I would love to jump in with my very biased opinion. I have heard from a few other unimportant team fans that the Bengals dont play anyone this year and that their schedule has been easy. I dont agree and I feel that some of the teams we have played play hard every week despite their record. Cleveland is a tough and up coming team that is makng people take notice, plus they are a divsion gameand you can never go all in with these games. They know each other bettter than other teams which often times make it a great game. I have no excuse for the first loss to a tough Baltimore team. We were embarrased. That is all to say of that. Also I feel that we play in the toughest division of footall. The AfC North has consistently sent at least 2 teams to the playoffs. Just based on the two they are 1/4 of our schedule. Not to mention we don’t create the schedule.
One of our biggest issue to me in those games was the lack of a running game. However, the past few weeks you would think we have a superstar back. Afterall he did start off veery rocky by giving up his staple of not letting the ball go and he hadnt seen what 100 yardslooks like. Today, BJGE has done things he didnt need to do, to get him this job. That is good for us as it keeps defenses honest and some of the pressure off Andy Dalton. I also believe the OC takes some blame for not letting BJGE get rolling. I dont know many backs who can get rolling with less than 5 touches a quarter. This will not be any different for a short yardage back. So now I am a liitle bit more fond of BJGE and I am hoping he can continue to see the holes and break big runs. He isnt Corey Dillon, but he did get 3 straight 100 yard games, something that hasnt been done since Dillon in 1998. Pretty sweet for a guy who was a short yardage guy.
Now to what really matters this week. The Cowboys. The Cowboys are a shakey, uncertain, and confusing because they are everything but consistent. However that may be a concern of ours because its hard to game plan for teams like this. So what would any coach say? Gameplan for the best Cowboys! Now with that being said the Cowboys have the #2passing attack in the league so it will be imperitive that the defensive unit is mistake free. I know Romo tends to fold when the games are crucial, but that normally happens in the playoffs. We cant be their route to the playoffs because they have to be ours and our schedule still holds tough games with the Steelers and Ravens. If there are no hats hiting Romo it is my belief that our secondary will suffer and we cant get into a scoring challenge unless it is in the first quarter where we score the most points. We have lost the hunger after that in every game and have lost leads due to this issue. And Tony Romo has 1/3 of his wins from behind which could possibly play right into how this season has gone.
Not only do we have to worry about Romo but Demarcus Ware is an absolute monster who is going to cause havoc. Even our own Dave Lapham says he can be a problem. And if he isnt contained, double teamed, stunted, and blocked well he will be an issue. But don’t let me appear to be a fan of the Cowboys because they too have a shaky secondary that AJ Green can expose and have a big day. I mean he is due one. Every since breaking the franchise record previously held by Carl Pickens, he has been relitively quiet (for AJ Green). We have to get him his mojo back. If he can get going there is no stopping him and when he is going, normally everyone else is as well.
To be truly honest, this game is going to be pretty even. They have a hot offense, and our defense is hot. Its going to be nice to catch our Bengals back on tv, as the band wagon fans pile back on. But that isn’t a bad thing for the true fans who cant afford ticket prices right now and are having a hard time. I would love for them to see thier team do well, and I will be watching as well.
My prediction for the game is 28 Bengals 13 Cowboys. Enjoy the game guys and dont forget to shout – #WhoDeyAllDayEverydayEspeciallyOnSunday
true bengals fans 