14 points in 5 minutes

[Stripes]

The Bengals gave up 14 points in the first five minutes of the game against Baltimore. I'd say it's a safe bet to admit that sort of thing does happen very much. If Chris Perry doesn't fumble the opening kickoff, and Carson doesn't overthrow Chad for the pick-six right off the bat... the Bengals probably win the game. I'm not making excuses of course... the Bengals screwed themselves, the Ravens capitalized, and hence it is they with the 6-2 record sitting atop the division.

Still, I'm pretty confident the Bengals won't be giving up 14 points in the first five minutes of any other games this year. It just doesn't happen very much, even to bad teams. If the Bengals play like they did for the other 55 minutes against Baltimore, a 6-2 finish is a realistic hope. With a little more compsure, they'll be back on the winning track. If the Bengals beat San Diego, there'll suddenly be a lot of room for them to make a run.

If not, time to start talking draft picks.

[BigBenBlows]

And if the dog didn't stop to sh*t he would have caught the rabbit.

[MacD BengalFan]

All I will say is from that point of the game, the Bengals outscored the Ravens 20-12.

[TJJackson]

All I will say is that the score at the end of the game indicated that the Ravens had scored more points, and I believe this was the key difference whereby they were awarded the victory

But that's just me, you know?

[Stripes]

All I will say is that the score at the end of the game indicated that the Ravens had scored more points, and I believe this was the key difference whereby they were awarded the victory

But that's just me, you know?

Did you even read my post? You know, the one where I said the exact same thing you just said?

I'm not making excuses of course... the Bengals screwed themselves, the Ravens capitalized, and hence it is they with the 6-2 record sitting atop the division.

[walshfan]

You can break it down anyway you want but the bottom line was the Ravens controled the clock after getting a lead and thats their gameplan..We lost plain and simple...

Hopefully this week we can get a lead and try and do the same thing to the Chargers that the Ravens did to us.

[derekshank]

We played better than the Ravens for the majority of the game... but if you take that and add a dollar, you'll get a so-so cup of coffee.

The point is, elite teams don't have 2 turn-overs in the first 5 minutes of the game that result in being down 14-0. And in the rare cases that they do... they find a way to overcome.

We're average. There isn't really much reason to debate that anymore. 4-4, no matter how many bad bounces and poor ref calls you count, is still 4-4.

We need to finish the season no worse than 6-2 to be in the playoff hunt... which means we'll have to eliminate mistakes, and yes... get a little lucky. It's been all bad for us up to this point. I haven't given up on the season... but we've dug a hole for ourselves, and we'll have to play like the elite team a lot of us thought we were to climb out of it. It's still not out of the question, but we're going to need some good bounces for a change.