Great Read from John Clayton

[membengal]

Bengals picked a nice game to have this kind of win, the spin on them is going to be very positive for the near future...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=2601455

[HoTbOy]

I like JClayton...

[aaronburr]

My favorite part of the article:

Palmer has found that happy medium. He called his game ugly, but he still threw for four touchdowns. Even more important, he showed great leadership.

After the Bengals took the lead in the fourth quarter, Johnson and Houshmandzadeh started trash talking with the Steelers' defense. Palmer yelled, "Shut up and play football."

"Part of the Steelers mystique is to be an intimidating team and they are a talking team," Palmer said. "At the end of the game, we got caught talking and playing into their game instead of just playing football. My message was just shut up and play. You don't need to talk. You don't need to tell them how good we are playing or that we are up or we have more points on the board. Just play and we ended up finishing the game and getting the win. I think we are a classy team."

I love how Carson is setting this tone. While it's a lot of fun to beat the Steelers at their own game (TJ shining his shoes with the Terrible Towel, etc.), I don't want to root for a team like the Steelers. It's also a backhanded knock on the Steelers when you say, "[unlike the Steelers], we're a classy team."

It's going to be a lot of fun in the coming years to see Carson and Co. dismantle the Steelers in his high-powered yet understated way, and watch guys like Joey Porter go stir crazy when we don't take his bait to join him in the gutter.

And by the way, we should expect to see Roethlisberger trying to emulate this tactic. I'd say the over/under on Ben using the word "classy" is 4 weeks.

[HoosierCat]

Personally, I liked this part...

By all rights, the Bengals should have lost Sunday. The Steelers ran 80 plays to the Bengals' 57. The Steelers controlled the ball for 33:51 seconds to 26:09. Willie Parker rushed for 133 yards on 31 carries for the Steelers. Palmer was sacked six times, had three fumbles and was responsible for three turnovers.

How many times, during the Dark Years, did we watch the Bengals "win everywhere but the scoreboard"?

Winning is all about taking advantage of opportunities. Yeah, the muffed punt was a big thing, but if we dont score off of it, it doesn't matter. This team made the most of its chances today, and in the end that made the difference.

[aaronburr]

Yeah, the muffed punt was a big thing, but if we dont score off of it, it doesn't matter.

The fact that the TD happened on the very next play really sends that point home. Especially when you consider that Carson's counterpart threw 2 endzone interceptions today.

[BlainThePain]

I like JClayton...

I still don't like him.