Sorry for the tardiness. My fingers are just now thawing out.
For what it's worth, a quick recap of yesterday: The Bengals won. The crowd seemed hungover. Marvin blew all of his timeouts. The Ravens showed almost no interest in winning. The PBS vendors behind 306 twice sold us free beers. Benjarvus Green-Elllis didn't play. Carlos Dunlap leaped into the stands. And the game took on a celebratory feel for both a fun season and a team with more than a puncher's chance this month.
Before the game had even ended, our focus had already turned to what's next. I'm guessing the same could be said for both teams.
Before we look ahead, a quick look back on one of the most enjoyable and unique years in Bengals history. What happens in Houston on Saturday might ultimately define season, but shouldn't strip away the positive feelings for the direction this franchise in headed in and what they've done to get here.
From 3-5 and looking hopeless to 10-6 and looking very hopeful says a lot about what this team has turned into. And it's helped saved the fall and winter.
Remember October 11th? 81 days ago, the Reds completed their collapse against the San Francisco Giants, arguably the most depressing loss in Cincinnati sports history. The Reds meltdown was sandwiched in between two maddening Bengals losses to the mediocre Dolphins and the awful Browns.
The next couple of weeks yielded more Bengals losses, (and also, for what it's worth, a couple of frustrating UC football defeats) and added to both the frustration and the sense that this was going to be a miserable Cincinnati sports winter, with nothing on the horizon until the madness of March and/or whatever Walt Jocketty was going to do to to tweak a good team that had fallen short.
Exactly one month after the Reds Game Five loss, the Bengals pulled off a stunner by not just winning a game against the Giants but by dominating them, thoroughly whipping the defending Super Bowl champs in the most complete Bengals performance in years. That win, at the time, was taken at little more than face value, with few sensing that it would be the impetus for a run to relevance.
Even as the wins piled up against often substandard competition, there seemed to be a reluctance by many to embrace the mere idea that the Bengals could reach the playoffs. And there were others who seemed to feel that reaching the playoffs was pointless, given an inevitable disappointing showing in them.
And yet they kept winning, sometimes with style, other times with grit, slowly picking up both momentum and believers along the way. This might not be a great team, but they were hard to not root for, and while the Bengals organization may always be the same, this team felt different.
That they didn't fold after sitting at 3-5 was different. That they handled success so well was different. That they won that huge, tense, battle at Pittsburgh was different. That this team has a measure of momentum heading into January is different.
Maybe this Saturday's result will be as well.
As great a season as this was, I think most of us are to the point where simply being happy with the Bengals qualifying for the playoffs is no longer enough. At some point, they're simply going to have to win games in the postseason, and at some point how often they win games in January will be more important than how often they're playing in January.
Making the postseason and losing early is so 2011.
And 2009.
And 2005.
It's time for that to change, and this Bengals team might represent the best chance for that breakthrough postseason win to happen. Opposing quarterbacks spend more time on their backs than lead cheerleaders, the Bengals have one of the best playmakers in the business, and there seem to be intangibles with this team not as evident on previous Bengals playoff teams.
Winning this game, needless to say, will not be easy. The Texans spent much of the season looking like the best team in the AFC, if not the entire NFL. Many of the same players who terrorized the Bengals in the playoffs last season are in place, and the Texans won't be using a third-stringer at QB this go 'round.
But they've also stumbled late, seemingly losing their mojo after getting whacked by the Patriots, then pissing away chances at a bye and homefield advantage with two late-season losses. Matt Schaub has been sacked 12 times these last four games and their defense has looked very, very, pedestrian during the final few weeks of the season.
The task in front of the Bengals isn't easy, but it's hardly impossible.
A ton of questions hover over this team as they begin the week: What's Green-Ellis' status? will Andy be able to avoid the kind of mistakes that plagued him and his team often in 2012? How will the Bengals defend one of the more balanced teams in the league? And will Marvin's shaky game management haunt them in a big game yet again? Those are just a few.
But even with the concerns, it's hard to not like their chances a little bit more than last season. Or 2009. Or even 2005
After saving the Cincinnati sports autumn, and after making the holidays more memorable than usual, it's time for the Bengals to finally prolong their stay during the winter.
