4 game stretch ...

[duus]

Not to overlook the Pats and Bucs, and I am very sure the Bengals will not ... but ... from a purely "fan perspective", looking at the schedule, the 4 game stretch from mid October through mid November seems as important as the 4 games leading up to the bye week. Beginning with the Panthers on Oct 22 and ending with the Chargers on Nov 12, the Bengals will have 3 home games and 1 away game, all against teams that most folks see as very good teams.

10/22 - home against Carolina

10/29 - home against Atlanta

11/5 - away against Baltimore

11/12 - home against San Diego

As important as this 3-0 start has been (which will hopefully be 4-0!), that 4 game stretch will set the stage for the last month and a half of the season.

Add to this important stretch that the other division teams (who cares about the Browns?) seem to have an easier time:

10/22 - Steelers at Falcons; Ravens on bye

10/29 - Steelers at Raiders; Ravens at Saints

11/5 - Broncos at Steelers; Bengals at Ravens

11/12 - Saints at Steelers; Ravens at Titans

I guess you could say that the Steelers have a couple tough games in there at the Falcons and at home against the Broncos, but any way you look at it, their four games are much easier than our's. The good news is that 3 of the 4 are in The Jungle.

Big stretch for the Bengals. Looking forward to it! Have to get beyond Pats and Bucs first ... and need to get some health back!

Who Dey!

[derekshank]

We'll see what SD is really made of this week. I picked them to beat Baltimore... but they've only played 2 games against poor opponents. I don't know if they are quite as scary as they look right now... especially since they have to travel to Cincy for the game.

I'm not sure how much more difficult those 4 games look than the other guys. The Saints are playing as good as anyone right now (Maybe with smoke and mirrors though), and the Ravens have to play us.

We have a tough schedule. That hasn't changed from when we talked about it before... but we've proven that we aren't intimidated by it.

[ttilt]

The Saints are undefeated. People still overlook that. The Steelers and the Ravens both play them in that stretch so it isnt as easy for them as you might think. They have a great QB. TWO amazing RBs. and the best run stopping defense ive seen so far...the steelers and ravens live by the run. dont think that they are an easy opponent because they arent im pretty scared of them for when we play them in the future...they are a scary team and probably the surprise team of the year

They scare me

[ArmyBengal]

The Saints are undefeated. People still overlook that.

And for good reason... I don't care about the Falcons game and then if you look at Green Bay and Cleveland as powerhouses, something is wrong. I think the Saints are improved with their players and coaches, but I'm just not sold yet...

The only stretch of games I think is important from here on out, is games 4-16 so lets go out there and win those !!!

WHODEY !!!

[duus]

... and for what it is worth, much needs to be said that this 3-0 start has a bit of a better taste in as much as it puts us 3-0 in the Conference and 2-0 in the division. After the Pats game (hopefully a win ... very much needed!!!!), the following 3 are against the NFC. Need the wins, and want the wins ... but they are just slightly of less importance than AFC, and division. Knowing we already have one win against the Steelers, and assuming at least one win against the Ravens, then the next tie-breaker would be AFC record. If I would accept a loss or two, I would rather it be against the NFC guys.

Looking at it that way, the focus clearly goes back on this upcoming Pats game. Need it.

[ttilt]

I don't care about the Falcons game

You dont care about the falcons game? They humiliated the best running team in football's running game.

You can say that was emotion for being in New Orleans for the first time since Katrina. But emotion only gets you so far. I agree that the only stretch we need to worry about is 4-16 but also the Saints are in that stretch so I'm coming out early and saying that is a game we need to be careful about. There will be nothing easy about that game

[HoosierCat]

I dunno. Our next 4 opponents are a combined 6-5. The Ravens three opponents over the same span (including Cincy) are 6-3, and Pitt's four adversaries are 7-4.

We face two teams with (so far) winning records, out of four. Balti, again including us, faces 2 out of 3, and Pitt faces 3 out of 4.

You could make the argument that we have the easiest sked over that stretch...

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

Not to overlook the Pats and Bucs, and I am very sure the Bengals will not ... but ... from a purely "fan perspective", looking at the schedule, the 4 game stretch from mid October through mid November seems as important as the 4 games leading up to the bye week. Beginning with the Panthers on Oct 22 and ending with the Chargers on Nov 12, the Bengals will have 3 home games and 1 away game, all against teams that most folks see as very good teams.

10/22 - home against Carolina

10/29 - home against Atlanta

11/5 - away against Baltimore

11/12 - home against San Diego

As important as this 3-0 start has been (which will hopefully be 4-0!), that 4 game stretch will set the stage for the last month and a half of the season.

Add to this important stretch that the other division teams (who cares about the Browns?) seem to have an easier time:

10/22 - Steelers at Falcons; Ravens on bye

10/29 - Steelers at Raiders; Ravens at Saints

11/5 - Broncos at Steelers; Bengals at Ravens

11/12 - Saints at Steelers; Ravens at Titans

I guess you could say that the Steelers have a couple tough games in there at the Falcons and at home against the Broncos, but any way you look at it, their four games are much easier than our's. The good news is that 3 of the 4 are in The Jungle.

Big stretch for the Bengals. Looking forward to it! Have to get beyond Pats and Bucs first ... and need to get some health back!

Who Dey!

Carolina I used to be more afraid of. Not sure what's up there, but Steve Smith isn't quite himself and that D is looking suspect too.

Atlanta could cause problems with their zone blocking. However, I'd commit LBs to making sure Vick throws in the pocket - lots of zone and wait for the picks.

Baltimore? Better than last year, have to give them that.

SD? Yeah, they have LDT, but that's still a rookie QB last I checked. And they don't get to play Art Shells All-Stars every week.

Which reminds me, if they lose to the damned Raiders someone needs to get fired.

The Saints are legimately intriguing. Not buying the D, but it looks like the addition of a coach who knows offense (Payton) is working woders with Brees, and Deuce. If Bush starts to justify the hype they could be legitimately good. That's looking like a tougher game every week.

I think they'll continue to feast on NFC teams. Too many of those sad sacks look good when they hit each other then wilt against AFC teams. We'll see, but if they beat the Patsies it looks really good from here out.

[derekshank]

You dont care about the falcons game? They humiliated the best running team in football's running game.

I'm as surprised as you are that they looked that good against the Falcons. I actually expected them to win, because of all the energy and publicity around the homecoming... but I didn't expect them to look that good.

That said... they might have beaten the '85 Bears with all the energy they had in that game. That won't keep it up. They are very improved... but I'm not worried yet. They very well might make the playoffs in the NFC... but they can't maintain that energy all year.

Remember when they pounded the Panthers in the first game of the year last year? That was a game with a lot of energy... and they maintained it to a tune of 2-13 from that point on. They are decent... but we're better.