Bengals Still Suck; Comments on the NFL

Well if the Bengals weren't kicking themselves immediately after playing horribly against the Jets, they without a doubt are now after watching the Jets take down the "red-hot" Chargers. Personally, I think the only thing that was red-hot about the Chargers was Philip River's backside after getting joyfully slapped in the showers by his teammates. But I'll spare you all and leave it at that. Needless to say, if the Bengals would have had a decent offensive game plan (some people call it Offensive Coordinator) they could very well be facing Indy this weekend in the AFC Championship Game.

For anyone who WAS hoping the Bengals would fire Bob Bratkowski, it's not going happen. If they were going to, it would have happened Sunday or Monday after the loss to the Jets. That is unless Mike Brown has the epiphany us in Bengaldom has been hoping he would have for 19 years now. But barring that, Bob Bratkowski, the mannequin, will be back in the box upstairs pretending to call plays.

By now I'm sure everyone has seen Marvin Lewis was named by the AP as NFL Coach of the Year. Marvin joins the legendary Paul Brown as only the second Bengals coach to win NFL Coach of the Year. Lewis has a career 56-55 record as coach of the Bengals which puts him 6 behind Sam Wyche on the all-time Bengals win list.

My thoughts on Marvin Lewis winning Coach of the Year:

• Marvin should consider himself lucky they vote immediately following the regular season instead of after the playoffs as I'm sure Rex Ryan would win the vote at this point. Sidenote: Rex would also win the award for Head Coach With the Biggest Mouth and Head Coach With the Saggiest Breasts.

• Honestly I'm torn on how I feel about Marvin winning. I'm not torn on if he deserved it or not, I fully believe he deserved to win it (aside from my note above). He had zero players voted to the Pro Bowl initially and "had" to deal with the attitudes of Cedric Benson, Larry Johnson, Chris Henry, Tank Johnson, Roy Williams. Oh and not to mention Chad. I can't think of any team that has a bigger list of "I'm happy if my team wins but if we're losing then you better watch out" players than the Bengals except for any team that has T.O. What I'm torn about with Marvin winning is how easy AND hard at the same time (that's what she said, to both of those comments really) Mike Brown makes it for his coaches to win this award. The Bengals have been a joke for 19 years (since MB took over), the rest of the NFL world knows this. Most people outside of Cincinnati have probably heard them be referred to as the Bungles more often than the Bengals. The Associated Press LOVES giving this award to teams that have been BAD for the previous few (or 19) years and then have a turnaround year (thus the coach did a good job).

Look at some of the recent winners:

2008 - Mike Smith Falcons - 2007 record: 4-12
2007 - OK the Patriots almost went 19-0, gotta give it to B.B.
2006 - Sean Payton Saints- 2005 record: 3-13
2005 - Lovie Smith Bears - 2004 record: 5-11
2004 - Marty Schottenheimer Chargers - 2003 record: 4-12

So theoretically, the Bengals have had more chances since 1990 for a coach to win this award than probably all the other teams combined. The fact that Lewis is the first coach to win the award under the ownership of Mike Brown says 2 things: 1) Mike Brown really goes beyond the idea of a bad owner. He is a terrible owner. He is so bad that even occasionally (call it random luck or statistical variation) the Bengals couldn't pull of a winning season. 2) Marvin Lewis has done one hell of a job working in the situation he is working in and the talent, draft picks, scouting, trainers, personnel, facilities, negotiating team, coordinators, fourth chance cheap players, etc. that he has been given.

Congrats to you Marvin, you definitely earned this award. You probably earned this award more than any other coach who has won it has earned this award.

Quick note on the playoffs:
I had thought about predicting all the games and outcomes for the playoffs. Well I am glad I didn't because I don't think I would have the credibility to even have a blog if I had shared my playoff predictions. It went something like this:

NFC:
Eagles over Cowboys, Eagles over Vikings
Packers over Cardinals, Saints over Packers
Saints over Eagles, Saints in SuperBowl (still could happen)
AFC:
Bengals over Jets
Chargers over Bengals
Ravens over Patriots (woohoo I got one!)
Indy over Ravens
Chargers over Indy

Super Bowl:
Saints over Chargers


All in all, I enjoy rooting for the underdog and the teams that don't win very often (I live in Cincinnati right?). So I will be cheering for the Saints to win this year. They too have suffered through some awful decades in the NFL.

Anybody else cheering for Who-Dat nation???

-Greg "seriously whose a bigger b*tch: Nate Kaeding or Philip Rivers?" R.