Is anyone on Earth giving the Bengals a chance?

[redsfan2]

pre-season means nothing.d I'm not a PAts fan, these guys are the best team in the NFL you guys don't have a chance

Just because you got your asses handed to you doesn't mean we will.

You know Ski .... maybe football just isn't your game. I know .... How about a spelling contest ????

[BengalszoneBilly]

Who'd ever thought they see overconfident Bengals fans?

I'm hardly OVERconfident Evil Knievil. If you had been patient enough to read my entire post to the last line...

I admit the odds are not heavily in the Bengals favor on this, but I'm like ol' Dave Chapelle, by "keepin' it REAL" around here!

...you would have realized this!

Stay healthy and may the best team win.

Absolutely! I wouldn't have it any other way!

You have such a way with words.

This is my burden in life redsfan2.

[MrTibbs]

Every team has a chance to win every sunday but I I were a betting man I'd take the Patriots in this one. They haven't forgotten about the preseason game in which the Bengals players celebrated like they were going to the Super Bowl.

[bengalady]

I got this off another board, and hope is there folks!!

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patr...p_these_tigers/

Here is the article:

Home > Sports > Football > Patriots

It's tough to trap these tigers

Bengals' offense earning stripes

By Frank Dell'Apa, Globe Staff | December 10, 2004

FOXBOROUGH -- The Patriots' defense is expecting a challenge Sunday from the Cincinnati Bengals, who have scored 85 points in their last two games.

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The Bengals have been most productive in the final quarter, scoring the last 14 points in a 58-48 win over Cleveland Nov. 28, and 24 fourth-quarter points in a 27-26 win at Baltimore last Sunday. Cincinnati clinched those wins on an interception return with 1:43 remaining to beat Cleveland, and a last-second field goal by Shayne Graham against the Ravens. The Bengals' offense dominated the Patriots in a 31-3 win in a preseason game.

"We have watched film of it," Patriots linebacker Mike Vrabel said yesterday, of the exhibition loss. "And it was terrible. It looks as bad as the score does. But we will prepare to play against them better than we did in the preseason. It counts, but it has no bearing on this game. Whether they won that game or we won it, it doesn't matter. It's who plays better on Sunday."

The Bengals' Carson Palmer has passed for 2,685 yards and 16 touchdowns this season. In the last two games, Palmer has totaled 633 yards and seven touchdowns, 20 of those passes completed to Chad Johnson for 288 yards and three scores. Rudi Johnson (seven rushing touchdowns) and Chad Johnson (six receiving TDs) have produced more than half of the Bengals' 24 offensive touchdowns this season.

"[Rudi Johnson] is one of the tougher running backs we will play against this year," Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson said. "I don't know if he is underappreciated or not getting the recognition he should, but guys just bounce off him."

Vrabel had his first sack in seven games in a 42-15 win at Cleveland last Sunday. Vrabel has not been directly involved in a turnover this season, but has 45 unassisted tackles.

"If they succeed on third downs, it is going to be very difficult for us," Ted Johnson said of the Bengals. "We have to find a way to get off the field. They have been very good at ball control, mixing up the running and passing games. [Palmer] seems very confident back there. He is poised, he is making great throws, and he has great receivers. He is hot right now and we have to be able to slow him down. A lot of football is just the confidence you have going into games, and they certainly have an edge in that."

Ted Johnson earned his first sack since the 2002 season in a 24-3 victory over Baltimore two weeks ago and has 57 total tackles this season.

"He's done it well since he's come into the NFL, taking on blocks, separating off blocks," Patriots coach Bill Belichick said of Johnson. "A lot of being a linebacker is being a running back. Linebackers see holes open up and then they instinctively go to those openings. Linebackers will fill that gap, but then he'll instinctively look to move out of that area into the area the runner is going to see as an opening and make plays that way."

Twelve Patriots have accounted for the team's 37 sacks, led by Willie McGinest with 7 1/2.

"A lot of times, the guy who sacks the quarterback is the second guy or the third guy in after somebody else flushes him or breaks the pocket and forces the quarterback to move," Belichick said. "Sometimes the guy coming first gets in there and can cleanly make the play. It is usually a combination of things.

"We just try to keep balance in our defense, and our offense for that matter, but enough balance in our defense so that it is not a situation where the opponents can just zero in and say, `Well, we can just stop this one thing. If we take care of that, that will handle it.' We want to try to make them defend on all fronts and that creates, I think, more opportunity across the board."

© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.

[HoosierCat]

Here's one the fans at patriotsplanet are all in a huff about...

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=cita...tadel&type=lgns

Bengals Are Primed to Upset Patriots

By John MacKenna

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is sounding the alarms on this Sunday's game against the Bengals, and he should.

"They're one of the hottest teams in the league right now and the last time we played them it didn't turn out so well," Belichick said, referring to the Bengals' 31-3 win over the Patriots in an Aug. 21 preseason game. "Offensively, they're very explosive."

Consider the following.

* Carson Palmer has completed 51 of 65 passes in the last two weeks for 633 yards and seven touchdowns. His performance in last week's 27-26 win over the Baltimore Ravens earned him AFC Player of the Week honors.

* Palmer made fast work of the Pats in the preseason, throwing three touchdown passes in the first half.

* The Bengals have the one of the NFL's top receivers in Chad Johnson , and the Patriots have no shutdown cornerback on hand to keep him in check.

* Patriots QB Tom Brady is in a slump, and if the Bengals put a few touchdowns on the board early, one has to wonder whether Brady can lead the team to a come-from-behind victory.

* Despite the denials by RB Corey Dillon and Belichick, the Patriots might have their most serious locker room problem since Belichick waived Lawyer Milloy . In the wake of the Milloy debacle, the Patriots lost, 31-0.

The Bengals are only 6-6, and they have a terrible history against winning teams on the road, but they should be a handful for New England's pass defense. Palmer is on a roll, and he's for real. The top pick out of USC in the 2003 draft, he is agile in the pocket and tough to bring down at 6'5", 230 pounds. He has a strong arm and can throw the ball anywhere.

Against Baltimore, Palmer led his team back from a 20-3 deficit in the third quarter by going 13-for-16 for 215 yards and three touchdowns. Two of his incompletions were on spikes.

Coming off two strong performances, he might feel invincible when he comes to Foxboro, particularly given the success he had against New England in the preseason, when he began by completing 12 of 19 for 179 yards in the first half.

Also, the Bengals scored their first road victory against a team with a winning record since 1990 when they beat the Ravens. Palmer and his teammates might be hell-bent on repeating the feat this week.

The Patriots have compensated nicely in the five games they have played without starting cornerbacks Ty Law and Tyrone Poole , but if Palmer is on a roll, he might start punching holes.

Palmer will surely look for Johnson, who leads all AFC receivers with 1,071 yards and is second with 75 catches. Johnson has 20 catches for 278 yards and three touchdowns in the last two weeks.

Patriots safety Rodney Harrison spelled it out. "You're facing a Pro Bowler in Chad Johnson," he told Patriots.com. "He's got the hands, he's got the speed, he's a great route runner, he's tough, he's very athletic and he's just consistent."

At 6'1", 192, Johnson is also bigger than most of the Patriots defensive backs.

Palmer has other targets as well, including 6'3" Kelly Washington and 6'1" T.J. Houshmandzadeh , who caught 10 passes for 171 yards in last week's win over Baltimore.

The Bengals can run the ball too. RB Rudi Johnson , who replaced Dillon, has 1,105 yards on the season, averaging 4.0 per carry. If the Bengals can keep the Patriots honest against the run and Palmer has a hot hand, it could be a long day for New England's defensive secondary.

Patriots CB Asante Samuel remains questionable with a shoulder injury, so look for the Patriots to go with Eugene Wilson and Randall Gay again at the corners. That leaves the free safety tasks to converted linebacker Don Davis and rookie Dexter Reid , who looked awful last week in coverage. If Palmer reads the defense effectively and gets some protection, he is capable of exposing this huge weakness in the New England defense.

Should the Bengals start lighting up the Gillette Stadium scoreboard, the Patriots will need to respond in kind. They surely can grind out plenty of running yards with Dillon going against the second-worst run defense in the NFL (141.9 yards allowed per game).

But if the Patriots have to take to the air, they're going to need a lot more out of Brady than they've had in the last two weeks, when he has looked more like Trent Dilfer circa 2000 than the two-time Super Bowl MVP that he is. Like Dilfer, Brady is not losing games (one pick in the last two games), but he has completed only 52 percent of his passes in the last two weeks (26 for 50). He has only two touchdown passes in the last three games and has completed over 60 percent of his passes only once in the last six games.

One also has to wonder how much damage was done to team chemistry last Sunday when Belichick uncharacteristically permitted a statistical indulgence by an injured player. Dillon had accumulated 98 rushing yards and suffered an undisclosed leg injury-Dillon called it not an injury but a "situation"-in the first half last Sunday. Then midway through the third quarter, Dillon re-entered the game for one play, gained two rushing yards to make it an even 100 on the day, before returning to the sideline for the rest of the afternoon.

No one has fessed up, but the facts are self-explanatory. One can only hope that Belichick has apologized to the team for this inexplicable violation of team code.

The error must be acknowledged for the sake of LB Tedy Bruschi , who signed a below-market contract in the offseason to stay with his winning team.

For Brady, who always talks the team line and who is playing under a five-year, $30 million contract while Colts QB Peyton Manning is earning $14 million a year.

For WR David Givens , who has kept his mouth shut while seeing his receiving yards dwindle to a total of 70 in the last three games while Deion Branch has returned from injury.

For DT Richard Seymour , who patiently fills his lanes while accumulating much lower numbers of sacks and tackles than he would in a standard defensive scheme.

The Patriots have won two of the last three Super Bowls by sacrificing individual honors. When Belichick risked an injury to an indispensable offensive player for the sake of a statistical bauble, he ripped the fabric he has woven so meticulously over the last five years.

If the mistake comes back to haunt the Patriots immediately-against the team that Dillon left in pursuit of victory-the irony will not be lost on Belichick.