Bengals
Blackjack?
Last five years
Bengals record allowing 20 points or fewer: 34-9-1
Bengals record allowing 21 or more points: 3-35
The wait
It has been 8,034 days since the last playoff win for the Bengals.
That's 21 years, 11 months and 30 days.
It has been 6,301 days since the last playoff series win for the Reds.
That's 17 years, 2 months, and 30 days.

***

Reds
Tweet from Jamie Ramsey, Reds Assistant Director Media Relations (@Jamieblog)
Reds vs Angels on Opening Day is tentatively schedule for a 4:10 first pitch on Monday, April 1

6:05, Sports Talk
Topics
I've been thinking about a tweet I received earlier in the week. I made it a poll question. It will be a topic tonight:
Tweet: Gotta understand large contingent of fans can't enjoy any success w/ Mike Brown in charge
Does that tweet apply to you? Do your feelings for Mike Brown impact your ability to enjoy, believe in and/or invest in the Bengals? Why?
Other topics
*Let's kick around the impact of a win/loss tomorrow on the fan base, critics, and media.
*Is it fair to hold history against this team?
*How would a win change the psyche of fans and perception of Bengals by critics/media.
*Would a loss be: A. Failure, B. Disappointment, C. Learning experience?
*X-factor: Who is your key player Saturday?
*Where were you for last Bengals playoff win January 6, 1991?
*What's your confidence level for a win?: Scale 1 to 10---1 No shot, 10 Book it.
For your listening pleasure:

Bengals-Texans: What they are saying
John Clayton, ESPN: 6. Handling the Bengals' defensive line: The Texans will have to find ways to contain Cincinnati defensive tackle Geno Atkins He had 12.5 sacks and gets great pressure up the middle. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Bengals were the best defense in football with four-man rushes. They had a league-high 37 sacks when rushing four or fewer defenders. That gives defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer the option of dropping seven into coverage. Texans coach Gary Kubiak will try to counter that with Arian Foster runs to set up Schaub's play-action passes. Schaub's rollout ability should help counter some of the inside rush of the Bengals.
Schaub under Fire
John McClain, The Sporting News
The Houston Texans’ collapse over the last four games of regular season produced a cacophony of criticism directed toward Matt Schaub.
For the first time in his six seasons with the Texans, Schaub is getting ripped by fans and media for the Texans’ blowing home-field advantage in the playoffs and being relegated to hosting Cincinnati in the wild-card round.
Bengals follow front seven brotherhood's lead into playoffs
SI
Of the 15 men whose names currently appear on the defensive line or at linebacker on the Bengals' depth chart, just one, strongside linebacker Manny Lawson, was a first-round pick, and Lawson wasn't particularly sought after upon reaching free agency in 2011 after six years in San Francisco, signing consecutive and relatively cheap one-year deals with Cincinnati. Four of them weren't drafted at all, including Burfict, the one-time All-American at Arizona State who started 14 games as a rookie this season.
Paul Dehner Jr, CBS Sports: Stats you should know: The Bengals defense comes into the game ranked sixth in the NFL and Houston ranked seventh. Yet, these two groups couldn't be more different over the second half of the season. Over the final eight games, Cincinnati ranked first in the league in yards allowed per play (4.31) while Houston ranked 17th (5.34).
Geoff Hobson, Bengals.com: The game comes one day shy of 22 years since the last Bengals playoff win on Jan. 6, 1991 when the Bengals beat the previous team from Houston, the Oilers, 41-14, at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium. The first George Bush was president. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis was an assistant at the University of Pittsburgh. Texans head coach Gary Kubiak was John Elway's backup in Denver. Boomer Esiason was the Bengals quarterback, Bengals running back Ickey Woods did "The Ickey Shuffle" for the last time after a one-yard TD run, and Charlie Luken was mayor of Cincinnati with David Mann about to come on board.
Joe Reedy/Kevin Kelly, Enquirer: Video predictions
Todd Jones, Columbus Dispatch: Clements, who turned 33 last month, knows time is short in a career that has included 180 games played, including 168 starts, since the Buffalo Bills made him a first-round draft pick in 2001 after his junior season at OSU.
Dan Hoard: One of my favorite stats about Andy Dalton is that he has thrown 35 touchdowns in the red zone in his NFL career and no interceptions.
That’s spectacular. But ball security might not be enough to win in the playoffs.
Vontaze Burfict's bum rap
ESPN
Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis has gambled on a few notable players in his 10 years with the franchise, and some of those gambles have blown up in his face. Rookie linebacker Vontaze Burfict isn't one of them. He's gone from undraftable punch line to his team's leading tackler, and he did it while hardly anybody outside Cincinnati was paying attention. He accomplished those things for one simple reason -- his head coach saw something nobody else noticed.
Little-known names could be big
Pete Prisco, CBS Sports
6. Cincinnati Bengals, WR Marvin Jones
A.J. Green is an elite player at the one receiver spot, but Jones, a rookie, has come on in the final month. When Muhammad Sanu went down, Jones got his chance to start after missing time with injuries. He has impressed in his limited time. The Bengals have a tendency to be too Green-centric, which is understandable, but they need to get Jones involved, especially if he is in man coverage. You can't double them all. So he has to win outside to get some shots down the field. He is a future 70-catch player, so the playoffs could be his coming-out party.
Peter King on Bengals-Texans:

Curtis Conway on Bengals-Texans

***
January 6, 1991
Last playoff win for Bengals: Bengals 41 Oilers 14
Riverfront Stadium
Boxsore and starting lineups

The following week.....Bengals lost to Raiders, January 13, 1991

Houston Oilers fight song

The drought
Bengals
The Bengals have played 356 games (regular season/playoff) since their last playoff win....22 years ago tomorrow.
The Bengals have gone 134-222 in those 356 games since their last playoff win (.366).
Reds
The last time the Reds won a playoff game/series was October of 1995.
They won game Game 3 of their NLDS series vs LA Friday, October 6, 1995.
David Wells beat Hideo Nomo 10-1 at Riverfront Stadium. Boxscore
The Reds have not won a playoff series since:
swept by Atlanta in 1995 NLCS.
swept by Philadelphia in the 2010 NLDS.
lost 3 games to 2 to Giants in 2012 NLDS.
The Reds have played 2,767 games (regular season/playoff) since their last playoff series win. They are 1,350-1,417 (.488)
City streaking
The city of Cincinnati has gone nearly 18 years since the last NFL playoff win or MLB playoff series win. What city with both NFL/MLB has a longer current streak?
I wondered this last year. I think it's Kansas City with a streak of 19 years:
The Chiefs last won a playoff game in January, 1994 vs Pittsburgh.
The Royals last playoff series win was the 1985 World Series.
What was going on 22 years ago?

I was 24 years old and in my third year as sports anchor/reporter at WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana.

***
Stuff
Remember him?
Former UK football coach Hal Mumme? USA Today caught up with him. Mumme is at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas, where he's been head coach since 2009.
If you sell it.....
The Field of Dream location has been sold for $3.4M
I'd never seen this before: The one point safety
Here is the story behind what happend.

Here is the explanation:

How about the end of Arizona-Colorado?
Colorado's Sabatino Chen banked a three pointer at the buzzer, and it appeared Colorado stunned #3 Arizona  83-80 last night. But the referees went to the replay monitor and determined the ball was not out of his hands in time, and waved off the basket. What do you think? The Buffaloes then lost in OT, 92-83. Mark Lyons, the former Musketeer, scored 24 points for Arizona.

Get ready!

***

UC football

Tuberville announces staff
CINCINNATI – University of Cincinnati head coach Tommy Tuberville announced six of his assistant coaches and the team’s strength and conditioning staff Friday.
Darin Hinshaw (passing game coordinator/quarterbacks) and Blake Rolan (wide receivers) were named to the offensive staff while Art Kaufman (defensive coordinator), John Lovett (defensive backs), Robert Prunty (associate head coach/defensive ends) and Fred Tate (defensive line) will comprise the defensive staff.
Tuberville also announced Joe Walker and former UC letterwinner Orlando Smith as director and assistant director of football strength and conditioning, respectively.
The new hires join Eddie Gran, a 26-year coaching veteran, who was named the team’s offensive coordinator in late December.
"I'm pleased with the staff we have assembled so far," Tuberville said. "We have a group of excellent coaches with a wide variety of experience as well as strong recruiting ties and knowledge of Cincinnati and the Tri-State area. I'm excited to get started, finish off recruiting and prepare for spring football."
Hinshaw and Rolan spent the past three seasons at Tennessee. Hinshaw, a record-setting quarterback during his playing days at UCF, worked with the Vols’ quarterbacks in 2010-11 before moving over to the wide receivers and serving as the recruiting coordinator in 2012. Rolan served as an offensive intern during that time, working closely with the offensive staff and wide receivers. Tennessee finished the 2012 campaign with 5,711 yards, ranking second in school history behind only the 5,794 registered by the 1997 squad.
The four defensive coaches all joined UC from Texas Tech where they led a remarkable turnaround. Inheriting a defense that ranked 114th in the nation in 2011, the Red Raiders finished the 2012 regular season ranked No. 39 in the NCAA FBS in total defense and led the Big 12 Conference in pass defense, surrendering only 195.8 passing yards per game.
Kaufman is a 29-year veteran with 11 years experience as a coordinator at the NCAA FBS level. The 2012 Broyles Award nominee was a former defensive coordinator at North Carolina and Mississippi, where he first worked with Tuberville. Kaufman has also has coached at Southern Miss, Middle Tennessee State, East Carolina, Arkansas Tech and Louisiana Tech.
Lovett, who has been coaching for 35 seasons, returns to Cincinnati for his second stint with the Bearcats, having served as UC's defensive coordinator from 1989-92. Lovett’s career includes stints as defensive coordinator at Miami (Fla.), Bowling Green, Clemson, Auburn, Maine and Cincinnati. Lovett and head coach Tommy Tuberville first coached together at Ole Miss between 1995-1998 and then again at Auburn from 1999-2001 and at Texas Tech in 2012. He served as Tuberville's defensive coordinator at Auburn until 2001 before leaving for the same position at Clemson in 2002.
Prunty, a two-time Big 12 Conference Recruiter of the Year, helped Texas Tech put together its top-two rated recruiting classes in school history in 2011 and 2012. He was the head coach at Hargrave Military Academy from 2002-2010, coaching 27 players who would later play in the NFL.
Tate, a 16-year veteran, has had coaching stints at Marshall, Tennessee-Chatanooga, Southern Miss, East Carolina, Middle Tennessee State, Jacksonville State and Texas State. After graduating high school, he spent five years in the U.S. Army as a combat engineer. Following his service, Tate was a junior college All-American at East Central CC before finishing his career at Southern Miss, where he earned his degree in 1997.
Both Walker and Smith join the UC program from Texas Tech where Walker had spent the past three seasons and Smith the last four. Walker also spent time with the strength programs at Auburn, TCU, Kansas State and Pittsburgh.
Smith was a two-time All-Conference USA running back in the late 1990s, helping lead UC to the Humanitarian Bowl championship in 1997. He graduated from UC in 1999 with a degree in criminal justice. Before joining the Red Raiders, Smith worked previously at South Carolina, Kansas and Minnesota.
Additional staff appointments will be announced as they are finalized.

***