Bengals have two different identities
Joe Kay of the Associated Press says for 59 minutes, the Cincinnati Bengals can look like an absolute mess, botching kicks and throwing away chances. In the final minute, they become a totally different team. A first-place team, no less. Kay believes they can’t keep living on the edge much longer.
Mysterious offense
The Bengals offense comes and goes mysteriously, says Geoff Hobson of the Bengals team website. They racked up 151 yards on the first two drives in the first quarter of their 23-20 overtime victory vs. the Browns on Sunday. Then, they threw an interception and had six three-and-outs before the final 70-yard drive in regulation. Palmer and wide receiver Chad Ochocinco said they can’t play like that in Baltimore next Sunday.
Cincinnati capable of winning in last-minute scenarios
All the Bengals’ games have been decided in the last 14 seconds, and because of the nature of their wins, Mike Preston of the Baltimore Sun says it’s tough to get a feel for this Bengals team.
“Cincinnati had a 14-0 lead against the Browns Sunday, and barely won in overtime. If the Bengals were legitimate contenders, they should have put the Browns away early and won by a bigger margin, right? This Bengals team is solid.”
Bengals offense has yet to hit its stride
Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer believes the Bengals offense has yet to hit its stride and a good time to start would be this weekend against the Ravens.
Baltimore does not want to be the team that gives Carson Palmer and his offense the confidence to put pressure on teams by pulling away early in football games. The Ravens secondary will have yet another challenge ahead of it guarding Chad Ochocinco and Chris Henry.
LeBron James: Braylon Edwards motivated by jealousy in alleged assault
Things just keep getting worse for the Cleveland Browns. Mark Puente of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that Browns WR Braylon Edwards slugged a close friend of LeBron James outside a downtown nightclub. James later criticized Edwards’ actions.
“I’ve never crossed paths with Braylon before, but it seems like there is a little jealously going on with Braylon and me and my friends. I have no idea why. I’ve never said anything to Braylon at all. For him to do that I think is very childish. My friend is 130 pounds. Seriously, it is like hitting one of my kids or something like that. It doesn’t make sense, but the right people will take care of it.”
Where is Ed Reed?
Baltimore Sun’s Mike Preston says we are not seeing the Ed Reed we saw last season, when he was considered one of the top two or three defensive players in the NFL.
“Reed appears to just drift out on the field, hesitant and late on tackles,” Preston said. “Maybe the neck injury is more serious than first believed.”
Favre looking solid two weeks out from the Vikings-Ravens matchup
The Ravens need to concentrate on the game at hand – the Cincinnati Bengals – but the advance scouting team surely took notes on Brett Favre’s first game against his former team.
AP sports writer Dave Campbell said the game was all fun for the Minnesota Vikings and all frustration for the Packers, as Favre connected for three touchdown passes and 271 yards in a 30-23 victory on Monday night. Hopefully Favre will have less fun and more frustration when the Ravens come to town in two weeks.
More on the officiating
I don’t want to keep harping on the officiating in the Ravens’ 27-21 loss in Foxboro last Sunday. We need to move on. But I was interested in what Peter King of Sports Illustrated had to say about the situation. Unfortunately, his “Monday Morning Quarterback” column was not published online yesterday before I needed to turn in my “Late For Work.” So, because I respect his opinion so much, I wanted to add his remarks.
Sports Illustrated posted a video of King’s appearance on Football Night in America on NBC. In this clip, I believe, King gave the best analysis on the roughing the passer penalties called on the Ravens.
“The less clear call is the one on Suggs,” King said. “I think this will be debated all week, not just by Ravens fans, not just by the news media in Baltimore, but I think a lot of people around the country for a very simple reason. That Tom Brady rule was put in place so that people wouldn’t go diving at quarterbacks’ knees. Terrell Suggs fell and happened to brush against Tom Brady’s knee. That is not the intent of that rule and that’s why I think that league deep down wishes that Ron Winter and his crew hadn’t called that one.”
Check out the video below. His comments on the Ravens start at the three-minute mark.
A few other notes from King
The Ravens dropped from the top spot in Kings’ list of the “Fine Fifteen” to No. 8. He put Mark Clayton’s name down in his “Goat of the Week” list, but also said Clayton was noble by taking complete blame after the game. Joe Flacco dropped from No. 4 to a tie with Eli Manning for the fifth spot in his MVP Watch.
Lastly, King noted, “Wow. Did you see that handshake between John Harbaugh and Bill Belichick? Harbaugh belichicked Belichick! Gave him the dead-fish handshake that Belichick has given Eric Mangini and Rex Ryan.”