A FEW MO' THINGS, 12/17/12
Yesterday was like one of those days where you find a wad of $20 bills in the parking lot, then get promoted by your boss, and round things out by getting propositioned by that hot chick in sales.
No, I've never had that kind of day before either. But you get the point, yesterday worked out pretty well.
It's not that things never work out for Bengals fans (see Jets, Final Three Games, 2011), but it just feels that way. When help is needed elsewhere, it rarely comes. The teams that we need to lose always win and those we need to win alawys lose.
Or so it seems.
You get the point.
Yesterday was perfect....an ugly yet important Bengals win was followed up by a Sunday that yielded helpful losses everywhere. It's not that any of the results were surprising - both Baltimore and Indy were underdogs and the Steelers were on the road against a hot Dallas team - but for all three games to go the Bengals way felt very un-Bengal-like.
Colts lose.
Ravens lose.
Steelers lose.
And Brandon Carr might be my new favorite non-Bengal.
A playoff bid, which seven weeks ago seemed as far-fetched as many of this week's apocalypse scenarios, is at least a strong possibility, and maybe even a slight probability. A division title, the idea of which two weeks ago seemed laughable, is still on the table. And the Bengals sit squarely in the driver's seat heading into the final two weeks.
The question heading into Steeler Week Part Two isn't whether the Bengals will make the playoffs, it's why shouldn't they? No, the Bengals were not very good in Philly on Thursday night, which every football writer in the country seemed a little to eager to point out Friday morning, but have you watched Pittsburgh recently? Yesterday's game in Dallas was the best they've played in six weeks, yet their secondary is still a mess, they can't run the ball, their special teams are shaky, and they still can't keep Ben Redemption upright.
They're not a very good football team.
Neither are the Ravens, at least right now. There's not a playoff team with more pressing problems than Baltimore, who do have the Giants at home on Sunday (New York was blatantly noncompetitive yesterday, which means they'll win by 20 this week), and have the look of a team in total freefall.
Weeks ago, we hoped the Bengals would get a Baltimore team that would rest starters after coming here with their playoff positioning solidified. Now, we're wondering if it will really matter.
I'm not getting too far ahead of myself. Both the Steelers and Ravens have winning pedigrees, and as we look ahead to the most meaningful Cincinnati/Pittsburgh game in seven years, you can't help but think about how many games exactly like the one this Sunday that the Steelers have won and that the Bengals have lost. Same thing for the season finale.
These are the kinds of games Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh win. They're the kind of games Marvin Lewis loses. It's going to be true until it isn't.
Will it be true this week? Maybe. I know it's difficult, even for the most optimistic Bengals fans to fathom winning at Heinz Field with such high stakes on the line. But if you remove whatever intangibles surround games like Sunday's and look at how the two teams have been trending the last month and a half, it's not that hard to imagine.
In fact, I'd say a win for the good guys is a very strong possibility.
I like how the Bengals are playing, despite what we saw Thursday night from the quarterback and the O-line. I love what they're doing defensively, and if the Bengals do lose, I don't think it will be because they're intimidated by the stage or the stakes. And while the Steelers won round one this season, it's worth remembering that the Andy Dalton threw for a whopping 105 yards and the Bengals lost by just a touchdown.
What was frustrating about that loss is that it didn't come against a great Steelers team.
I'm not taking this game Sunday lightly. The Steelers and Ravens are the standard-setters in this division and two of the most consistent winners in the league. Winning one of the next two will be difficult, and winning both games will prove to be one of the most uphill battles in recent franchise history. As my man Lance likes to say, the kings are still the kings until someone knocks them off their throne.
But if not now, then when?
And can you think of a better time for the Bengals to put together two more very un-Bengals-like weeks?
-We go into a fun sports week....Bengals/Steelers with a lot on the line and the Crosstown Classic.
Two UC/XU Programming Notes: I'm hosting a special two-hour Crosstown Classic Preview tomorrow night from 6:00 until 8:00 on ESPN1530. I'll be joined by both coaches and plenty of other guests. Artrell Hawkins will host my regular afternoon show tomorrow.
Wednesday, we're doing our show from the Holy Grail downtown, starting at 3:04. We have a ton of cool prizes from Miller Lite. Here's the flyer....
Like most, I think UC will win the game Wednesday. But if we see a repeat of Saturday against Marshall, where the offensive tempo crawled to a near-stop with too much standing around and too many bad threes being lifted, then XU will have more than a chance.
At the same time, I'm not sure I'm betting against any team that has Cashmere Wright on it. In a few months, when Cash's career at UC is coming to an end, I'm coming to write up a list of every big shot and important play he's made as a Bearcat.
The list will be lengthy.
-Good for you, Mick Cronin....
“It’s all ridiculous. Let’s call it what it is. I’ve thought about this long and hard and I’ve waited to say this. If it’s all about this much money and money grabbing, the players need to get paid.”
-Good for you, Mick Cronin, Part Two
During Saturday's TV broadcast, Mick was asked for reaction to Santa Ono's pledge to shave his head if the Bearcats won ten in a row. He said he'd give the UC Prez a pass if he helped him get a refurbished Fifth Third Arena. I like the fact that Mick is taking this public as the school tries to determine what it will do for football.
-Sports 2012.
Washington Redskins linebacker London Fletcher walked out of Browns Stadium with a win Sunday, but some of his family members were not so lucky.
According to a family member of Fletcher's, an altercation between several members of the family and some fans took place after Sunday's game. The family said Cleveland police used Tasers during the incident, which resulted in the arrest of three of Fletcher's family members.
-I spend my weekend watching my usual copious amounts of NFL, college basketball, and NBA games. In between, I watched a lot of the coverage of the events in Newtown, Connecticut. The television coverage was simultaneously compelling, disturbing, and incredibly heartbreaking.
And some of it was sickening. We live in a day and age of constant debate, where each and every story (especially in sports) is met with pro and con, right and wrong, big and small picture issues to discuss. Within two hours of the gunman's first shots, some cable news networks reacted by finding the loudest screamers in their Rolodexes so we could assess blame, find fault, point the finger, or get as worked up as possible at someone or something besides the lunatic who opened fire on a school filled with young children.
I make a living engaging in debate, but good God, there's a time and place for it, and Friday afternoon was not it.
I also saw a microphone and camera shoved into the face of a six-year old child who'd just experienced something that will impact them for life. It was an embarrassment to the fine professionals who did some incredible reporting over the weekend.
Flipping back and forth between the coverage from Connecticut and various sports and highlight shows, I kept hearing something that's always spit out by sports commentators in the aftermath of a tragedy...
"It's events like this that put sports in perspective...."
Or something like that.
If you're someone who needs disaster or inhumane behavior to be reminded that sports should be kept in perspective, then you should probably stop being a sports fan.
#MoHawkMonday returns today at 3:04 on ESPN1530.
