Media jumping back on the Bengal-wagon?

[gregstephens]

Bengals top Packers--Get Back on the Bandwagon

By Greg Stephens | Tuesday, September 22, 2009 | ( 0 )

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After the Cincinnati Bengals lost a heartbreaker to Denver in Week One, the national media was already burying the Bengals' 2009 season.

Colin Cowherd of ESPNRadio took great joy in reminding Bengaldom how bad their franchise has been for two decades.

Power rankings pushed the Bengals near the bottom of the pile, barely squeaking the Cincinnati's finest above the Lions, who haven't won a game since 2007.

The Packers hosted the Bengals as a heavy favorite, given their Week One victory over Jay Cutler and the Bears and the fact the game against the Bengals was at vaunted Lambeau Field.

Then the unexpected happened. The Bengals marched into Lambeau and punched the Packers square in the mouth. In fact, Antwan Odom punched Packer quarterback Aaron Rodgers five times to be exact.

Now, the media is slowly opening its collective arms to the Cincinnati Bengals.

Covering the Bengals-Packers game in its Monday one-liners, Profootballtalk.com stated the following:

"The Bengals won in Green Bay 31-24, and the total team victory by Cincinnati was even more convincing than the final score indicates.

After recording only three sacks last year, DE Antwan Odom's five-sack day felt like a dream. He believes that adding weight has helped him this season.

LB Rey Maualuga forced two fumbles and a sack, including an awesome play where he practically decapitated Packers RB Ryan Grant.

RB Cedric Benson, who rushed for 146 yards and is playing the best football of his career, is a good example of the maturing Bengals."

Even more convincing than the final score indicates? The media of old would have said the Bengals squeaked by a lucky victory.

Awesome play where he practically decapitated Ryan Grant? The media of old would have questioned if Maualuga didn't just get lucky.

And here is my favorite--Benson is a good example of the maturing Bengals.

Wow. The MATURING Bengals. Who would have dreamed such praise would be forthcoming to the Bengals after that offensive dreck that was the Bronco loss?

Want some more proof the media sees some empty seats on the bandwagon and are climbing on early? On ESPNRadio's four o'clock show this afternoon, John Seibel indicated the Bengals actually have a growing and tough defense.

It's been four seasons since the national media has given some love to Cincinnati. Welcome aboard, guys. We'll see if you are still around after Week Three.

Here you go guys. I wrote this over on realfootball365.com. No copyright issues, so here's the article. I'll be posting more stuff over there and less on examiner due to some internal issues. Check out the site. Some decent fan-stuff there.

[membengal]

John Siebel is a Bengals fan. He is listenable even when they are bad, because he feels the pain.

Colin Cowherd is a diseased colon.

[skyline]

Colin Cowherd is a diseased colon.

You're being too kind. The colon is a useful part of the body.

A diseased appendix, perhaps?

[kingwilly]

Colin Cowherd is a diseased colon.

You're being too kind. The colon is a useful part of the body.

A diseased appendix, perhaps?

Amen. He is the worst.

[COB]

Cowherd sees the world in absolutes. If an organization has won the past few years he's on their jock. And it's not just how they are winning, he blabs on about how smart their front office people are, how principled their organization is, etc. It's a uniquely American attitude: If they win, then all must be great with them.

On the other side of the coin, if the organization has lost recently, they didn't just lose some football games. He goes on about how stupid they all are, how the organization is dysfunctional, etc. Again, it's a reflection of that uniquely American attitude. Losing doesn't just mean they lost, losing means they are bad, stupid, evil.

Cowherd is a douche, but all his doucheness is offset by the fact that he's willing to have Beano Cook on once a week to talk about football. I love Beano, and I respect Cowherd and ESPN for putting him on the air. I wish they'd have him on for 5 minutes every day.

[HairOnFire]

Did anyone catch Dan Patrick's show the day after the loss to the Broncos?

He wondered aloud whether the Bengals might be found criminally responsible for the death of a Bengal fan who had either just died of heartbreak OR had just lept to his or her death from whatever proverbial ledge they had been standing on.

Thin the herd, I say.

[Thurmanation]

I (heart) the bengal bandwagon and have happily been riding since 05 lol

[derekshank]

Well, ESPN's power rankings still aren't giving the Bengals much love. They are still ranked 24th while the Packers are still ranked 12th.

Perhaps those making the rankings didn't watch that game... but it wasn't a fluke. That was a sound beating. I'm not saying the Bengals are world beaters, but they played a complete game against a team that was ranked in the top 10 a week ago. How about some actual love?

CBS was a little more favorable ranking the Bengals 14th. If they find a way to beat the Steelers this week, people will be forced to take notice.

[buck3y3d]

ESPN's power rankings also aptly noted that the Bengals would be 2-0 except for a last minute meltdown. Then proceeded to rank them below every team with a win except for the Raiders. Makes you wonder sometimes.

[Kazkal]

ESPN IS AWESOME Glad the football gods gave us nfl network so don't have to turn espn anymore.

[COB]

ESPN's power rankings also aptly noted that the Bengals would be 2-0 except for a last minute meltdown. Then proceeded to rank them below every team with a win except for the Raiders. Makes you wonder sometimes.

That's actually pretty funny.

As I said elsewhere, the Bengals are currently the most hated and disrespected organization in sports. That scene on CBS' studio show right after the Bengals lost to Denver was really surprising to me. Esiason, Sharpe, and Cowher braying with laughter. Oh, how funny the stupid Bengals just got kicked in the nuts, again. Sharpe said that when the Bengals kicked off Esiason had said to him, "you know the Bengals aren't going to win this game, don't you?"

Just try to imagine another NFL team losing a game like that. Then try to imagine the studio guys laughing the thinking it was so funny. I can't picture it. They'd take it seriously if it was anyone but us. We're a joke to them.

Win that game Sunday Bengals, I want to see Cowher laugh then.

[buck3y3d]

ESPN's power rankings also aptly noted that the Bengals would be 2-0 except for a last minute meltdown. Then proceeded to rank them below every team with a win except for the Raiders. Makes you wonder sometimes.

That's actually pretty funny.

As I said elsewhere, the Bengals are currently the most hated and disrespected organization in sports. That scene on CBS' studio show right after the Bengals lost to Denver was really surprising to me. Esiason, Sharpe, and Cowher braying with laughter. Oh, how funny the stupid Bengals just got kicked in the nuts, again. Sharpe said that when the Bengals kicked off Esiason had said to him, "you know the Bengals aren't going to win this game, don't you?"

Just try to imagine another NFL team losing a game like that. Then try to imagine the studio guys laughing the thinking it was so funny. I can't picture it. They'd take it seriously if it was anyone but us. We're a joke to them.

Win that game Sunday Bengals, I want to see Cowher laugh then.

And the Bengals have earned that reputation. What have they done to earn respect? This team may be different, but for 20 years this team has been the laughing stock of the league. That was an embarrassing loss and they deserved to be laughed at.

Boomer loves the Bengals. It is sad that they have become that bad that even he is disillusioned.

[membengal]

Bulls**t that was an embarrassing loss. It was a fluke. Could happen to any team. It should have been no more embarrassing to the bengals than if it had happened to the steelers.

And, happily, to the TEAM itself, it wasn't. They shrugged their shoulders, and got back to work. The infantile braying laughter from the national media types and some of the self-loathing bengal "fans" didn't matter because the guys in that locker-room don't buy into it. And that is what gives me the most hope that a corner has been turned.

[ArmyBengal]

Denver won on a fluke play and beat a bad Cleveland team. We will see how funny they think all of this is when the 2-0 Broncos get their ass handed to them by the Raiders this weekend.

[SupaBran]

While I understand while people like the attention, I don't listen to it anymore! And even when we do get respect(eventually), I am never gonna take the bait anymore! Talk about us, send espn reporters to PBS to cover the team, but I ain't gonna watch it!

Those rankings are exactly what I'm talking about, the Broncos beat us on a fluke but that's rarely talked about, the Packers beat the Bears in Wk 1 and they are this team to be reckoned with, then if our offense didn't give them 14 points we would've beat the cheese s**t outta them in Lambeau but now its just that the Packers aren't as good as origally suspected! BS, suck my wanker!

[HoosierCat]

So this morning I was driving into work listening to Mike & Mike, a.k.a. Weenie and Blow-lic, and I tuned in in the middle of a chat with Chris Mortensen. So maybe the Bengals got mentioned earlier, I dunno, but I just caught the tail end of the conversation when Weenie was saying none of the games this weekend looked particularly compelling (!) and asked Mort if he saw one he thought was. IIRC, Mort immediately responded with the Falcons-Pats game, which is absolutely legit, that's a big test for both teams. Mort then signed off and Weenie & Blow-lic then proceeded to go down the remainder of the slate in search of "compelling" games.

As far as I can tell, they mentioned every single game except Cincy-Pitt. Didn't even say the two teams' name. They went to commercial and I switched over to music for the rest of the drive in.

[COB]

As far as I can tell, they mentioned every single game except Cincy-Pitt. Didn't even say the two teams' name.

And there it is. That's almost the pinnacle of it. Let's look at all the compelling NFL games, then they look at every game but the Bengals. And we're playing the defending Super Bowl champions.

Also, I have to ask, did they play up that fascinating matchup between Detroit and Washington? Two crappy teams but since Dan Snyder owns one the media can't get enough.

[HairOnFire]

So this morning I was driving into work listening to Mike & Mike, a.k.a. Weenie and Blow-lic....

Shouldn't that be....Weenie and the Butt?

[Walrus]

Here's Florio showing the Bengals some love this week...

/>http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/32779492/ns/sports-nfl/?pg=12#spt_PFT_picks_09

Steelers (1-1) at Bengals (1-1)

4:15 p.m. ET, CBS

The Bengals are an Immaculate Deflection away from a 2-0 record. The Steelers are a couple botched Rob Bironas field goals away from 0-2. (Or a couple botched Jeff Reed field goals away from 2-0.)

Point being, there isn’t much separating depression from elation in the NFL. And there isn’t nearly as much separating these two teams as you’d think.

Cincy’s defense is a playmaking unit for the first time in years. Carson Palmer is prone to some bone-headed interceptions, but he’s also capable of big plays again (like Ben Roethlisberger). As strange as it sounds, the Bengals are a better running team than Pittsburgh with Cedric Benson playing the best football of his career.

We took a lot of grief for picking against Pittsburgh last week, and that turned out pretty well. Fire away.

Pick: Bengals, 24-21

[HoTbOy]

Just saw on Playbook on the NFLN that SSharpe, BBaldinger and JTheismann all picked the Bengals to beat the Steelers...

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

He wondered aloud whether the Bengals might be found criminally responsible for the death of a Bengal fan who had either just died of heartbreak OR had just lept to his or her death from whatever proverbial ledge they had been standing on.

Thin the herd, I say.

That's the thing about natural selection. Any such fans of weak character would have keeled over years ago.

[HairOnFire]

He wondered aloud whether the Bengals might be found criminally responsible for the death of a Bengal fan who had either just died of heartbreak OR had just lept to his or her death from whatever proverbial ledge they had been standing on.

Thin the herd, I say.

That's the thing about natural selection. Any such fans of weak character would have keeled over years ago.

Dan was at it again this morning. After briefly swapping with a caller who identified himself as "a real Bengal fan" Patrick admitted he used to sit in the end zone seats with a large bunch of Bengals fans who called themselves "The Zeros"

Why you ask?

Because, according to Patrick, they all felt like complete losers simply because they were Bengal fans.