Chad Ochocinco Says Steelers Aren't a Problem, Should Bengals Agree?

On Tuesday after a training camp practice, Chad Ochocinco was informed by a reporter that the Steelers' players were displeased with his recent trash talk about their team.  

Ochocinco simply responded with the following statement:  "Who gives a [expletive] about the Steelers?"

This saga began when Chad took a shot at the Steelers on his new VH1 reality dating show by saying, "I haven’t seen this many girls on a football field since the last time we played the Steelers."

It would appear that Chad is not worried about the Pittsburgh Steelers going into this season, but should the Bengals be?

In short, no.

If the Cincinnati Bengals want to continue building upon their success from last season, they will have much bigger concerns than the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The team already knows what it feels like to beat the Steelers; they did it twice last season.

This is not to say that the Bengals should take the Steelers for granted.  They should treat each game as if it were a playoff game.  This means they should not be concerning themselves with the Steelers unless they are playing them that week.

In 2005, the Bengals seemed to be content with beating their division rivals and standing atop the AFC North.  In turn, they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.  The team replicated this feat in 2009, sweeping the division but again being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Beating the Steelers and winning the AFC North should no longer be viewed as the pinnacle of the mountain.  That was the status quo for the Bengals of past.  The team's focus should be shifted from simply making the playoffs to exorcising the demons of the 1980s and finally bringing a Lombardi trophy to Cincinnati.

The Steelers finished third in the AFC North in 2009, traded their top receiver, lost their top offensive lineman to injury, and will be missing their quarterback for at least the first four games of the season.

Defeating the hated rival simply will not be enough to get the Bengals to where they want to be.

The beginning of the road to a championship no longer lies in Pittsburgh; it lies in Cincinnati.  The Bengals proved themselves to be the top dogs of the AFC North in 2009.  Now they have to learn to play as if they have been there before.  There is no time for trash talking or worrying about a division rival when you are shooting for a championship.

The Bengals want to play in Cowboys Stadium in February, but they will first have to learn how to fight through adversity and do something they have not done since 1990:  win in the playoffs.  And unless that involves playing Pittsburgh, they should take a cue from Chad Ochocinco and forget about the Steelers.