Stripes

No more PATs

IRWIN!

Great job, defense.

It’s pretty windy.

Except for the PAT. Kicking’s gonna suck today.

Best opening drive all year.

Let’s do it. One seed on the line. Division on the line. Maybe Burrow MVP candidacy on the line. Can surpass last year’s regular season win total. Tons to play for.

Per Morrison, Evan McPherson is having some trouble hitting kicks in pre-game warmups. The wind might be a problem on at least one end, where he was coming up short on some 50+ yard kicks. This could be a game where you take the wind if you win the toss instead of receiving/deferring.

Hayden Hurst was downgraded to out, which is a bummer for him. I feel pretty comfortable with the way that Wilcox has been playing though, and I don't figure it will move the needle much. I think this game is pretty simple, really. If the Bengals contain New England's run game, then they will win. Mac Jones and company simply don't have enough juice to win this game if they don't have everything opened up for them by Rhamondre Stevenson. That's why the Sam Hubbard injury looms large, because outside DJ Reader and maybe the two linebackers, he is the most important cog in the Bengals run defense machine. They're going to have to step up in his absence. If the Patriots are able to run the ball and control the line of scrimmage on offense, then that'll simplify everything for Mac Jones and make this game a dangerous one. If the Bengals DO stop the run consistently, then I think it'll just be a win, period. Even if the Patriots play strong defense, the offense would likely only need to generate about 20 points to take care of business (assuming minimal giveaways).

Unfortunate that we couldn’t have a home game this week. Freezer Bowl Lite. -9 in Dayton this morning.

Yeah, that’s what I mean. Nobody with Joe Burrow on their team needs to worry about stats like that.

Playoffs are clinched. It was already essentially a lock, but let’s officially put that “10% of 0-2 teams make the playoffs” crap to sleep. Most 0-2 teams don’t have Joe Burrow.

TJ’s granny leads a valiant drive into the red zone but turns it over on downs. Playoff clinch looking good.

Wilson benched for TJ’s granny, who immediately completes a ball to CJ Uzomah.

At this point, I think Zach Wilson is entering Ryan Leaf/Akili Smith/Jamarcus Russell territory.

Zach Wilson is one of the worst first round QBs I’ve ever seen.

Bengals at Patriots produced an all-timer in 1993. 2-11 Patriots 7 - 2 Bengals 1-12 https://www.pro-football-reference.com/boxscores/199312120nwe.htm

The Bengals clinch tonight if the Jaguars win. It doesn't mean much, since just about every model has the Bengals as shoe-ins at this point even if they lose out. But it'll be nice to have some kind of symbolic rooting interest. Duuuuval or whatever

Non-zero chance, even if low, that Lamar doesn’t take another Ravens snap.

The Pro Bowl remains junk. For a long while the only reason to care was that Pro Bowls often impacted Hall of Fame chances (and hurt greats like Ken Riley). I think that’s changing though, as pretty much everyone has come to understand that the whole thing is worthless. So whatever. If I had to name some snubs though: Reader, Higgins, Pratt, Cappa, and Hubbard

I would toss Carman for a 7th round pick tomorrow if I could (I can't).

1 seed. Full throttle. Anyone that can go will go. I suspect the coaches will be less conservative than they often have been about this kind of thing. Even the 2 seed provides a huge edge (most likely hosting the Bills or Chiefs in the divisional round instead of traveling to them). Gotta keep winning.

Apparently Hurst was limited at practice, which means he was at practice. Another promising and mildly surprising development.

Trey's going clubbing

I love the distribution of Burrow's 36 TDs so far this season: 8 - Chase 6 - Higgins 5 - Boyd 5 - Burrow (rushing) 4 - Perine 2 - Hurst 2 - Mixon 2 - Irwin 1 - Evans 1 - Wilcox 9 different players with at least one TD reception. Let's see if we can get Taylor, Morgan, Asiasi, or T. Williams in on the party.