A FEW MO' THINGS, 12/14/12
Come on, I get being embarrassed to be an Eagles fan, but the Knicks are killing it right now!
 
Looks can be deceiving.
 
The Bengals did not look like a playoff team against the Eagles. 
 
But they took a step closer to being one last night.
 
Thankfully, Philly resembled an NFL team only in that they were dressed in official uniforms and equipped with league-mandated helmets and pads.  The Bengals picked a good opponent to play a bad game against.  The question shouldn't be whether the Eagles will fire Andy Reid, it should be why would anyone with Reid's coaching chops would want to stay with them.
 
We've come along way when we're sorting through crucial late-season blowout victories and finding a lot not to like, so let's start with what was great about last night....
 
They won.  Really, that's all that matters, especially this time of year.  The idea was for the Bengals to win out, not win pretty.  And the goal is to make the playoffs, not impress the pundits.  Last night served those purposes.  We'll spend time delving into the mechanics of the win, and surely improvements from last night must be made, but it's more fun nitpicking a win than bitching about a loss.
 
Five turnovers.  OK, so this might have been more on Philly than anything.  The Eagles went into the game with a -19 turnover ratio and an offense with less punch than a guy with no arms, but on a night where the Bengals could sustain almost nothing offensively, they needed Philly's early Christmas gifts.
 
And they needed something to spark them.
 
Leon Hall's first pick of the season, on one of Nick Foles' 232938 poorly-thrown passes (Mike Mayock was running out of ways to describe how bad the quarterbacking of both teams was last night.  Also, Brad Nessler and Mayock should call every NFL game ever.), was that spark.  The Bengals might have won without Leon's INT, but as bad as the Bengals' offensive line was being manhandled, and as much as Andy was struggling to connect with anyone in the air, it's worth wondering if the outcome would've been different if not for one of Leon's biggest plays as a Bengal.
 
The Bengals might not have been very good last night, but they did one thing that good teams always do.  They pounced on mistakes.  The offense put up points after every Philly mistake, and the defense cashed in on a score of it's own.  I would have liked touchdowns after both the blocked punt and the Harbor fumble, but at least those mistakes were turned into points.
 
And give the Bengals credit for creating those mistakes.  Dunlap's forced fumble set the tone for the defense.  And Herron is quickly becoming a special teams ace, getting to the punter for the second time in two weeks.  Philly gave, but the Bengals did some taking.
 
Contributions from deep down on the depth chart.  Look at some of the main contributors from last night: Herron, Wallace Gilberry, Vontaze Burfict, who was great last night (three tackles for loss), Chris Crocker, Emmanuel Lamur...all guys either pulled off the street, drafted late, or signed as college free agents.  I know Burfict has become a mainstay, but did anyone envision him becoming this valuable?  And yes, Crocker has been a Bengal for a while. but given how we couldn't wait to scapegoat him after last season's playoffs, did anyone count on him solidifying the secondary as much as he has?
 
We hammer the Bengals for scouting all the time, usually it's warranted, but the Bengals have found players on the fringe who are making important contributions this season.  Give credit where,and when, it's due.
 
Benjarvus Green-Ellis.  25 carries.  106 yards.  And money at the goal line.  It might not have been his best game as a Bengal, but last night the Bengals needed him to play well more than any other game this season.  The Law Firm was the most dependable player on the field.
 
Andy Dalton didn't lose his mind.  I would have.  Andy wasn't very good last night.  His offensive line did him no favors.  But you never sensed the game was slipping out of his control.  And where other quarterbacks spend time between bad series looking like someone just farted in an elevator, you see him talking with his teammates and coaches.  He looked exasperated, but not angry.  He looked like a leader.
 
AJ Green juggled oranges after the game.

 
 Playcalling.  There are few things I like less than dissecting playcalling.  But last night's approach seemed creative and unpredictable, even if the quarterback play was less than stellar.  Oh, and they decided to run the ball, which was nice.
 
Jermaine Gresham.  His numbers (six catches, 63 yards) won't wow you, but imagine how brutal the offense would've been without him.  Gresham was the only guy consistently open all night. Very quietly, Jermaine is having his best season.  He gets lost because he's on the same team as AJ Green and because of how often productive tight ends are used on other teams, but he's had some important, if not spectacular catches this season.  Some of his mot important came last night.
 
They won. The pressure shifts to the Steelers, at least a little.  Next week's game sets up as the most important Bengals/Steelers game in seven years.  It's the kind they have to win if they're ever going to be what we want them.
 
But they've gotta get some things in order first.
 
The pass protection was miserable last night. Six Philly sacks after five given up against the Cowboys last week.  Andy under constant duress.  And the Eagles' offensive line controlled the game for much of the night.  The Bengals protected Andy well during the four-game winning streak, but if they're as bad as they were last night these next two weeks, Andy will go down often, and the Bengals will go down hard.
 
Andy Dalton was pretty awful.  Yes, he was sacked a lot.  And inevitably, most quarterbacks will give the ball up if they're constantly being punished.  But against the good teams, the margin for error shrinks, fumbles will be magnified, and often turned into points.  Andy has to take care of the ball better and have better awareness in the pocket.
 
And he has to throw the ball better as well. 
 
He wasn't sharp at all, missing throws all over the field.  One pass should've been picked and amazingly wasn't.  Another pass was caught by AJ Green because AJ Green turns bad passes into completions.  Most of his other throws missed the mark.  Not that he had much time, but he seemed unwilling to throw it long and at times he looked hurried when he didn't need to be.
 
Good QBs find ways to not lose even when they're not doing much to help the team win.  But these next two weeks, Andy Dalton will have to do a lot more to help his team win.
 
Marvin Lewis needs to fix stupid. Brandon Tate catches a punt on the goal line and tries to return it.  The Bengals piled up 11 penalties.  The defense didn't seem to understand the rules about lining up offsides.  Adam Jones gets baited into an unnecessary roughness flag.  The offensive line had to resort to holding (often not called, BTW).  We had a delay of game penalty on a first and goal.  In the 14th game of the season. 
 
Stupid didn't cost them in Pennsylvania last night.  It will next week.
 
Looks can be deceiving.  The Bengals might not have looked like a playoff team last night, but even so, they're a step closer to being one. But if they're going to take the next step, they'll have to look a lot more like one next week.
 
-Andy Katz has a good list of observations on the death of the Big East.  I know this affects UC and Xavier, and I know this has been an inevitability for a while, but as a bit of a college hoops purist, I mourn it's demise.
 
I became a college basketball fan in the 80s, a few years before I turned into a UC diehard.  Big East hoops back then had no equal.  No other league had the star power, the coaching personalities, and had the potential for both behemoth, dynastic programs like Georgetown and Syracuse and Cinderellas like Villanova and Providence. 
 
Nothing topped the Big East Tournament, from the Friday quarterfinals to the Saturday semis, to the title game which usually predeeded to NCAA selections.  It was awesome.  And as good as the Big East has been these last seven years, it still failed to live up to what the league was when I was a kid. 
 
-XU benefits.  And somehow, even when all of this realignment started a while ago, you knew they would.  They have a great basketball brand, an awesome facility, tremendous fan support, and they're a program with a winning national profile.  Few of the non-football schools leaving the Big East have, right now, what Xavier does. 
 
-UC loses.  The irony in what's happened this week is that schools like Connecticut and Cincinnati, both transparent about wanting out of the league, have had to lobby the non-football schools to stay in a league they're trying to bolt from themselves. 
 
I agree with this from Katz's piece...
If the league still has Cincinnati, Connecticut, Memphis and Temple in 2013-14, then that's still four programs that are generally considered among the top-25 best in the country. That at least has the potential to rival the top of the current Pac-12.
 
That might be true, but it sounds pretty hollow, and there's no guarantee that those four remain intact.
 
And maybe there's this.  There's some positives to this report of UC joining a new league with a bunch of other castoff schools, but I'm guessing it won't stir the masses.
 
UC has a layer of uncertainty added to its entire athletic department.  UC will find a new home, and ultimately, a new home that's ultimately to everyone's liking.  But that might be a way's away.  Until then, the uncertainty mounts while the school publicly insists it will be fine.  That too, to many, is starting to sound pretty hollow. 
 
-Meanwhile, back to the stuff happening on the court.  UC has a game against Marshall tomorrow.  Then the Crosstown Shootout Classic.  Last year, after the fight, the media took it's share of the blame, because as you know, everything can be blamed on the media.
 
Nevermind the fact that we didn't get one call about the actual basketball game leading up to it.
 
Does that change next week?  UC is in the top 11, and can move up by winning this weekend.  XU will be playing in their first game in a week and a half.  Does UC/XU talk midweek, days before the Bengals/Steelers game, focus on the actual contest or do we have to revisit last season?  I plan on spending exactly zero minutes on the fight.  It's old news.  Am I alone? 
 
-Speaking of, join us at the Holy Grail Wednesday.  I've got a ton of stuff to giveaway.  Wear your generic shirt.
 
-Marvin Lewis v. Bill Belichick.  Who ya got?
 
-The NFL does not need expanded playoffs.  The NFL season, much like the 64-team NCAA Tournament bracket, Mila Kunis, Sugar and Spice omelets, the Colts uniforms, and Springsteen's The River, is perfect.
 
-A lotta people came away unimpressed by the Bengals.  Few were less impressed than Jamison Hensley.
 
-Maurice Clarett, ladies and gentlemen...
“I took golf, fishing, and softball as classes," Clarett says. "Away from class, anything you can think of I did in my 13 months at Ohio State." Drugs and women were two of the things. Cars were another—he owned three of them at a time, including a brand-new Cadillac and Lexus. "I was living the NFL life in college," he says. "I got paid more in college than I do now in the UFL."
 
-While you wish you were a college athlete, I'm going to enjoy the day off.  Back at it Monday on ESPN1530.  Enjoy the weekend and go find yourself some mistletoe.