Stripes

Joe Mixon had a lot of work last season, and carries do seem to carry over into the following season. Even if the coaches still have steadfast belief in him, they should lighten his load. Perine and Evans are right there. Use all three.

It's "funny" how things can work out. The entire Chase/Sewell debate from last year kind of hinged on the second round pick. If you're going to take Chase, cool, but you absolutely must hit on your second round offensive lineman. I definitely said that. Clearly Chase was the right pick, even debating that would be stupidity. But even the above rationale turns out to have been overstated. They did miss on Carman, went to the Super Bowl anyway, and seemingly upgraded with a 4th rounder in the next draft. Cool beans. I don't know yet if Volson is "good", but he already strikes me as better than Carman at his floor. That's really all I wanted in the first place.

I have a feeling Lou will be a head coach in 2023.

Love me some Ted Karras.

I might have to take advantage of that. Good stuff, AB.

Also: we finally won a game called by Al Michaels

Great win. Uniforms looked amazing. Ring of Honor was awesome. Joe finally gets credit for a 4th quarter comeback. Higgins is god. Bring on the Ratbirds.

I don’t understand why we hate QB keepers so much.

I think the defense has been great in the most fundamental sense. They've lacked in takeaways and pass rush, but both turned nicely in New York. Hopefully that's a trend.

I just wanted one collapsed place to talk about the division moving forward. Week 7 games: Denver @ Cleveland, Thursday night Cincinnati @ Baltimore Pittsburgh is on their bye week. Tomorrow's game is a big one. Given their extreme injury report and Mayfield's shoulder, I think the Browns might just plain be screwed for 2021. We'll get a very good idea of that when they face Denver at home, a team that I would call plainly inferior on paper if everyone's healthy. If it goes as badly as I think it might, then I think they're toast and Pittsburgh will be a bigger threat in 2021. What a huge break it'd be for the Bengals if a premier division competitor fell off the map, both for their division and wild card prospects.

I know it's not the NFL, but they're partnered with them so close enough. Is anyone watching these games? I am having a ton of fun with the new league and its rule adaptations. There are no obvious rooting interests for people in the area of Cincinnati, though there are league affiliates in the AAF. Each of the 8 AAF teams has four NFL affiliates and one CFL affiliate. The Bengals are affiliated with the Memphis Express (who just got smashed 26-0 today).

Might as well talk about the game to come. What are your expectations? I foresee the most predictable outing wherein the Bengals hold the fort down for a half and then absolutely shit the bed in the 3rd/4th quarters. I'm not sure whether the embarrassment will come in the form of some spectacularly awful turnover, or an idiotic personal foul penalty in crunch time, or both. All I know for sure is that Marvin will be clapping encouragingly on the sidelines no matter what.