Carson Palmer Talks His Coach into Winning

Carson Palmer deserves a lot of credit for this one.  Facing fourth-and-11 from the Browns 41-yard line with 1:04 left in overtime, Marvin Lewis sent the punt team onto the field, only to call them back to the sideline after some serious lobbying from his quarterback.

Palmer could be seen shouting, "No!  No!", as he made his way toward the sideline.  He and left tackle Andrew Whitworth were trying to convince their head coach to give the offense a chance to win the game rather than playing for a tie.

It worked.

Palmer dropped back, saw an opening, and ran for the first down.  The Browns had good coverage on the play and did not expect Palmer to run with the football.

It did not appear to be a called play, just a heads-up decision by the Bengals quarterback.

It kept the drive going and set up Shayne Graham for a 31-yard field goal attempt with seven seconds on the clock.  

Normally, a field goal of that distance is no problem for Graham.  But with Shaun Rogers already blocking one field goal and an extra point, my heart was pounding as the field goal unit lined up.

Graham squeezed it through the uprights and the Bengals escaped with a victory.

At first, I was sickened at the fact that Lewis was going to play for the tie.  This blog post would have been quite different if Palmer and Whitworth were not able to change his mind.

I don't think my spell-checker covers the expletives that my fingers would have forced the keyboard to produce.

Thankfully, it wasn't an issue.

This game was another example of how the 2009 Bengals are different.  This team does not get discouraged and implode upon themselves.  They fight through adversity and stay focused on the end goal: winning the game.

Palmer's passes were erratic at times, resulting in him completing just 23 of 44 attempts for 230 yards.  He came up big when he needed to with two touchdown passes, both of which were caught by Chad Ochocinco.

Was it pretty?  No.

Will I take a 3-1 record heading to Baltimore?  Absolutely.