Cincinatti Bengals: An In-Depth Review By 2nd And Wrong

CINCINNATI BENGALS

By: Frank White

So to start I'd like to highlight some interesting stats from the 2008 Cincinnati team, with postseason stats omitted:

A sack for vs. 3 sacks against per game. Drive-killers.

Ryan Fitzpatrick accounting for all 44 team passing yards in a late season victory.

The last two decent teams they faced had back to back 30+ point victories.

Last in the league in points scored.

Almost last in the league in a bevy of offensive categories.

Middle of the pack on defense.

Top two rushers combined for 4 touchdowns with 3.5 and 2.6 per carry averages.

More field goals than touchdowns.

A 50% margin for 4th down conversions.

The most important 2 stats of the year really are:

0-8, as in their record in the first half of the season and

2 injuries, to Carson Palmer and Keith Rivers that would take the wind out of anyone's sails.

(Fuck you, from Benjamin)

An 0-8 start to go with extremely important injuries, especially for this team, really renders these stats meaningless. Some people only chart "competitive stats" for games because a garbage time TD a game is 16 TD's a year, but that's not what you'd like to call production. Then again, considering how early garbage time might have been in many of these games (not from margin of the lead, but from offensive incapability once Palmer went down) you might hope for some beefier meaningless stats but it would just be window dressing. During those 8 losses in extremely vague terms you can see the deterioration of the team into a frustrated mess.

The last game Carson and Keith played fully was a 26-23 overtime loss to the Giants in New York that the Giants had to come from behind to win. During the game that Rivers got gankedand the game right after, Cincinnati gaveup 38 and 35 points. I imagine at halftime Marvin Lewis made a habit of asking his players what the point was anymore, going so far as to take straw polls about whether getting out of bed and taking off the sweatpants on game days was worth it. They did show up 16 times though, which is commendable. Good job boys.

Because of this uselessness, and the presumption that the stars will be back this year, it's pretty easy to set the stage. Every team preaches that it's a new season and last year's no longer matters. It's easy to see that this is actually true for Cincinnati when predicting how they'll do. The dominos just fell badly to corner them on the field and they regressed. There are serious pieces in place for next year, but a way to start that conversation is to review their draft. The meat market had fed the team very well last year, and this year was even better.

Let's go over the big names: Andre Smith, Rey Maualuga, Michael Johnson, Chase Coffman and Johnathan Luigsin a row. All of them are or were college stars at their positions and it is baffling how many great players the Bengals got, not even just productiveones but known commodities. If they can keep drafting like this they can try to be like the Chargers or Cowboys and underachieve with lots of talent on the field instead of in the slammer.

Later on they took one Morgan Trent who I'm familiar with for obvious reasons. A great athlete who could havebeen hindered by his situation at Michigan, has a lot of potential as he matures as a pro player. He should complement Jonathan Joseph and Leon Hall, a rising star, to go with Rey and Rivers as very talented young linebackers and good safeties to form a very talented and youthful back 7. Michael Johnson had been in the spotlight for awhile and should help the front 4 already populated by Antwan Odom and Robert "Needlessly Surly" Geathers.

Basically this defense is on a path that one could argue will lead to something Marvin Lewis thought he'd never own after he left Baltimore. Bad but young on defense? Check, though it was the better of the two units last year. Not good but better. I have a lot of faith these players will turn out to be great in the NFL; they have all the pedigree and production you can ask for and given time they'll mature together on the anvil that is the AFC North.

So the defense has its pieces, it just needs some water and to be left out in the sun. The offense is where they used to make their money and now where is it? Again, it's difficult to tell where they are considering the garbage games. When your diva receiver is a diva despite sucking ass, your running backs can't do anything by themselves and your franchise QB goes down you get backed into a corner that other NFL teams have wet dreams over, going so far as to discuss the dreams in team meetings.

There was that early season success, but Palmer did get injured and they probably just had a good game. Even the Raiders have good games and keep it close until the half or whatever it is they consider a good game. One moral overtime loss does not a dynasty make. The team drafted Jonathan Luigsand Andre Smith, bothexcellent players who should help the team keep Carson from having a bed reserved for him in intensivecare. Andre Smithapparently has discipline issues and is fat, but he's a beast and his college team last season has a lot to support that. Oh and it's cold in the winter. He can handle it, and might improvesince he's now getting paid. The best GM's always try to improvethe offensive line when they have a chance like the draft, and it's an area of need here more than most. Levi Jones got cut, but the replacements they've bought should keep them on the straight and narrow since this isn't a win now team even if Marvin could be running out of time.

So they get their QB back hopefully in good shape and they're laying the groundwork to get back to competitiveon the offensive line. They drafted Marlon Lucky but he's likely just another competent running back to add to the mess. They lost Houshand are left with Chris Henry, Sucks "Changes His Name" McTerribleand prayers for Laveranues Coles and Jerome Simpson to make it happen. It could, really, but there's no need to hold your breath. The offense certainly has the potential to overachieveand show its fans that after 40 years and no championships, they won't giveup. Still, count on Carson and hope for a big improvement on the offensive line. They need it where they play, though 12-4 and 2-4 in the division isn't too bad.

Another thing to mention is that this team is unusually young. There are only 9 players on the roster apparently who have been in the league 8 or more years. Seven years experience can still be approaching thirty, but looking at other rosters that's some serious youth. The guys in that category aren't even irreplaceable too. Roy Williams and such, though he's new and hopefully won't ruin the safety play they already have. It figures that after drafting great linebackers they get an old undersized one from the Yankees. Despite it, the future is bright.

They tied a game last year, which is fantastic, since McNabb takes so much flak. Hines Ward is a douche. Ryan Fitzpatrick seriously threw for 55 yards, vs. 72 yards passing from the other team in that game, and Cedric "Super-Bowl Fumbler" Benson toted the rock 38 times. Ludicrous. Peter King from SI and some other writers have high hopes for the Bengals this year, so you can hang your hat on that if you want.

The Bottom Line

All in all it was a rough season but the makeover and injures givelots of reasons to look forward to the future which should involvea lot of young players proving why they were so productivein college. It'll quickly give the fanbase something to be excited about. They are young and could use more playmakerson offense and are gambling withthe O-line for now, but getting Carson back should enhance things a fair bit by itself. Coupled with what one hopes would be a pretty competent defense in a division straight out of the 1960s, they could grind out plenty of losses this fall. Keep it close and lose in the 4th quarter I always say.

In closing, something worth mentioning is that the last time this team had an offensive line to speak of was when they were beating on Pittsburgh, which was the year they won the Super Bowl. After that they sold off the pieces or the players got hurt or retired. It's hard to tell if their offensive line will be more respectable immediately once they get someone who can run through holes or throw such an odd egg-shaped ball, but there's definitely potential. When they get the line and Carson back, they should have the defense to maybe get back to where they were, and that wouldn't be bad at all.