HoosierCat

Bengals open as 9.5-point favorites. https://www.si.com/nfl/bengals/allbengals-insiders-plus/bengals-open-as-9-5-point-favorites-against-houston Already down to 8 apparently. I can easily see this game being trouble. Stroud is on fire at the moment and the Bengals have to play in Baltimore just four days after. And that's just the start of a chaotic schedule. TNF, then 1 pm Sunday vs. Pitt, MNF vs. Jax, 1 pm Sunday vs. Indy, then time TBD flex games in weeks 15 and 18, which booked two 4 pm starts against Pitt and KC. Sometimes it sucks being good.

Random thoughts about last night: Obviously it was fantastic to see the tight ends step up. It was clearly something they worked on during the week and it paid off handsomely. Watching Bills S Taylor Rapp get juked by Drew Sample was worth the price of admission alone. Irv wasn't perfect but easily had the best game of his time here and Hudson might have had the best game of his career. And now opposing DCs suddenly have three more guys to worry about. Very much a tale of two halves. The Bengals dominated the first half but sputtered in the second. I got the impression of confusion on the part of the offense in the second half. Not sure if it was something the Bills were doing in disguising their defense, or whether Joe was doing to much fiddling around on the line trying to call the perfect play or what, but when you burn your third TO with more than 10 minutes to go, there's a problem. Props to the defensive coaches for getting the tackling cleaned up quick. It was atrocious early on but ceased to be a problem (mostly) pretty quickly. I hope Chase's back is OK. I'm sure he's feeling that today. Had his guy beat by a mile, Burrow just didn't put enough on that ball. Imo Higgins looked the sharpest he's been all year last night. Pass rush really struggled to get home but I think a lot of that is just Allen. It's like trying to catch the Road Runner. Oh, defense, now that we seem to know what a TE is on offense, can you guys maybe start covering them on defense? OK, you did get the FF and recovery but still, let's work on that.

Technically the situation right now, so even if the Jets do win tonight we can savor it until then. https://www.nfl.com/standings/playoff-picture

Whew

Twice I think

Which means this crew will rule it a catch

If they can’t hold this they don’t deserve to go to the playoffs

Mite wanna run block some oline

Ah Higgins almost had 6

And there goes the last timeout

Tanner “Megatron” Hudson!

Burning TOs like Marvin was still here

Nick Scott makes a play!

Carter wiffed on that run

Might want to cover kinkaid

Nice d

Damn

Oh look another flag

Now that looked like grounding

That’s how this offense becomes every DC’s nightmare.

Agreed

Bs call but I’ll take it

Drew sample TD now we have seen it all

Whew

Alright let’s not fuck up this time bengals