It's the Embarrassment Factor

[membengal]

As the proliferation of threads bemoaning the game (and a LOT to bemoan there is) continue, thought I would start one and see if some catharsis can be had over what is really bothering many of us I suspect, that the Bengals played the stooge and became the straight man in a national joke once again.

Really, with the entire football world watching that f**king game, one would have hoped they might have minded their vanilla assignments and actually covered someone. Instead, we get to watch slow mo replays of Eagles running all over their dumb asses (particularly in the secondary) for days on end.

Swell. It's the kind of thing many were hoping was receding in ML's third year. Good teams generally don't allow themselves to be the nation's stooge...(memories of that Atlanta Sunday nighter back in 2002 come flooding back to me. Bad times. Really bad times).

At any rate, just a pre-season game, and, like others have said, plenty here for ML to hopefully light their asses with. But...especially for those of us living out of southern Ohio, a game like tonight really sucks.

But, better tonight than in two weeks...here's hoping they remember what it means to execute and have something approaching a killer instinct two weeks from now.

[Stripes]

I don't think all THAT many people saw this terrible arse-whooping, but still, it was embarassing. If they play anywhere near that badly in Jacksonville on ESPN during week 5, I'll cry. Man tears of course.

[dave]

Probably not that many saw the actual game, but trust me, they saw the highlights. I don't usually watch TV for this long, but I was hanging out with some friends and watched the post-game SportsCenter, followed by NFL Live. SC opened up their show with EVERY ONE of TO's passes. They showed the opening TD catch so often that you would've thought it was the Zapruder film. They followed it with McNabb's quotes from the presser, live.

And then it all got repeated on the NFL show, complete with interview with Sal Pal live in Philly. If you didn't know any better, you would've thought it was the Super Bowl. Just unbelievably over-the-top coverage. ESPN and other networks deny that they create stories, but tonight was Exhibit A.

[Kazkal]

it's a freaking preseason game calm down

[joshh967]

it's a freaking preseason game calm down

I know really. I think i have heard enough bitching from people on this board. I mean look at past preseasons. Does anybody remember beating the patriots last year? Preseasons mean absolutly nothing. It is a time for players to have these mistakes now and not during the season. Please lets not show the outside world they were right when they put bengals fans in the class of being "fair weather".

[Stripes]

I agree that preseason means nothing and that the Bengals will be fine. I am only saying that it is embarrasing to lose so badly in front of a large national audience. That is the truth.

[Bengal Steve]

so its really that embarrassing to lose that badly to the runners up in last years SB and who are touted to be there again. I would say yes if this was the regular season but it isn't its preseason where assignments and packages are tested and we use maybe a third to half of the playbook.

people seem to forget we were 8-8 last year abet due to injuries we may have faired better and we just played a team that has been constantly great for many seasons.

and one final point do you honestly think the patriot fans thought omg we are gonna have a loosing season because we just got our arses kicked by the bengals 31-3 and things went wrong so bad were doomed. This i doubt very much it was more like oh well its only preseason.

s**t happens regular season is totaly different something which a few of us are not managing to realise yet.

Im sure the chaplin would say have some faith.

UKBengal

[Stripes]

I agree that preseason means nothing and that the Bengals will be fine.

Allow me to quote myself.

[membengal]

Yup, a bunch of you missed my point. I acknowledge and lead the charge that it's only the pre-season.

You also apparently don't live out in the football wilderness outside of Cincy like many of us do.

The Bengals getting pantsed was on the lead on every ESPN news update on the 1/2 hour, the Eagles press conference after ran live, the SCs led off with it, NFL Live highlighted it, and the Bengals resume their place for a night anyway as a national joke.

I have gotten tired of that s**t. Preseason or no preseason, that crap has to stop. I thought ML had put a stop to it. Guess not.

[HoosierCat]

The Bengals getting pantsed was on the lead on every ESPN news update on the 1/2 hour, the Eagles press conference after ran live, the SCs led off with it, NFL Live highlighted it, and the Bengals resume their place for a night anyway as a national joke.

Two things. First, given the T.O. circus, the Eagles game would have been a big hyped-up story whatever happened. The Bengals just happened to b ethe guys playing them last night. My local paper, the Star-Ledger, ran a 12-paragraph story on the game, of which 1, count 'em, 1 paragraph mentioned the Bengals in any way...the rest was all T.O., all the time.

Second, as for the embarassment factor...well, let's face it, preseason or not, they played like amateurs last night. If I'm Lewis I have all the Philly highlights put on a tape loop and played continously on a giant screen during practice this week. Nothing else seems to have worked this preseason, maybe a little embarassment will help.

[schweinhart]

so its really that embarrassing to lose that badly to the runners up in last years SB and who are touted to be there again. I would say yes if this was the regular season but it isn't its preseason where assignments and packages are tested and we use maybe a third to half of the playbook.

Very true. But I sure in the hell hope the Bengals take a dose of motivation away with them from this game.

The status of the team and expectations for its success this year are obviously not jeopardized by such a thorough pre-season beating, especially when compared to complete lack of expectations for success that marked the farce of an organization that existed before ML arrived.

But playbook, packages, and assignments aside, there's some chinks in the armor on this team that IMO need to be closed if they realistically expect to contend for a playoff spot. Namely, the safety positions and even more so if Madieu continues to be out.

[MARVIN=W'S]

It wasn't very comforting to watch that last night but it is ONLY PRE SEASON. All I know is if they don't win on Sept. 11, people will be losing their minds on this site. Hang with em guys this is the best look at having a winning team we've had in a long time. Marvin is good he knows what he's doing, relax. Oh, one more thing... T.J. catch the damn ball!!! IN MARVIN WE TRUST!!

[derekshank]

I agree that this is nothing to get worried about, but I also agree that outside of the Cincinnati area, the Bengals are still laughed at in large part... and I have to deal with it at work, explaining that the game didn't matter, but getting laughed at nonetheless.

When the Bengals beat the Patriots, everyone was willing to admit that pre-season didn't matter, because it was a mediocre team trouncing a team that had won 2 out of 3 superbowls, and was favored to win again. In fact, I remember rumors that the Pats lost on purpose to give Palmer a false sense of security for when they played in the regular season.

But in this case, the only thing the Bengals have done in recent memory is lose. It is not something that most people point to as an anomaly. In fact, had the score been reversed, my friends would have still laughed, pointing out how absurd the pre-season must be to have a superbowl team get killed by a team on the bubble.

So the fact remains that until the Bengals make the playoffs, we will still in large part be the butt of many jokes, and this latest loss only fuels the fire. Did it mean anything? Maybe not... but it still contributes to the general publics perception of us as losers.

[bengalboomer7]

I think ESPN and rosenho have a deal and they get a % of T.O.'s new deal. I wasn't embarrassed while watching the game, but when I watched SC this morning I got a little T.O.ed myself. The media kills me sometimes. They hyped that game up like he just recovered from ankle surgery and he was in the Super Bowl. It's no wonder he was a head the size fo Pennsylvania

[membengal]

I agree that this is nothing to get worried about, but I also agree that outside of the Cincinnati area, the Bengals are still laughed at in large part... and I have to deal with it at work, explaining that the game didn't matter, but getting laughed at nonetheless.

When the Bengals beat the Patriots, everyone was willing to admit that pre-season didn't matter, because it was a mediocre team trouncing a team that had won 2 out of 3 superbowls, and was favored to win again. In fact, I remember rumors that the Pats lost on purpose to give Palmer a false sense of security for when they played in the regular season.

But in this case, the only thing the Bengals have done in recent memory is lose. It is not something that most people point to as an anomaly. In fact, had the score been reversed, my friends would have still laughed, pointing out how absurd the pre-season must be to have a superbowl team get killed by a team on the bubble.

So the fact remains that until the Bengals make the playoffs, we will still in large part be the butt of many jokes, and this latest loss only fuels the fire. Did it mean anything? Maybe not... but it still contributes to the general publics perception of us as losers.

Thanks Derek, yeah, it's gonna suck at work for me on Monday too.

And, joisey, completely agree. If ML doesn't have that performance on an endless loop this week, I will be disappointed.

[HoTbOy]

I don't know how many of u saw the game last night, but that 1st play was like a dagger in my heart, I thought that it was a replay of Bengals team in the past..some of u say that u r not worried because it's only preseason, but u can count me in the worried column, because they did not look good at all except for maybe Chris Henry other wise we may not be playoff bound like a lot of us thought. Granted we won't play a Philly every week but I thought we would put up a much tougher fight, Philly made it look so e-z...

[HoosierCat]

The one silver lining I can find is that, while the Bengals played like ca-ca last night, none of our division opponents looked all that great, either.

Pitt lost to DC, Cheeslisburger had something like 51 yards total and has yet to lead the Steelers into the red zone.

The Ravens won vs. the Saints because Chester Taylor ran for about a million yards. Boller did get a TD on something like a 38 yard pass and other than that had about 12 more passing yards.

Dilfer threw for like 168 yards but no TDs and 1 pick in Cleveland's loss.

The whole AFCN looks pretty embarassing right now. Wasn't this supposed to be one of the toughest divisions this year? Sheesh...

[cincy9275]

yes it is only the pre-season but that is no excuse for playing that poorly . mcnabb carved up our secondary up like he was playing against high school kids and other than williams we don't get any better back there . that was pretty much are starters . and after watching our db's getting pushed around by owens makes me think maybe landon should get some looks at ss . i belive this team is better than the one that showed up last night. maybe this is a wake up call for them to get there heads out of there asses and start playing good football

[LABengalsFan09]

I'm starting to think that it's going to really suck to be Indy next week.... Jim Sorgi might get disembodied after Peyton plays his one series.... :player:

[HairOnFire]

I didn't watch the game till this morning. I knew the outcome and had a pretty good grasp of how bad things had gone. But it's still a shock to the system to see one team playing hard while the other seems slow and shellshocked.

K2's remarks in this mornings paper are hard to ignore because they hint at how fragile this team remains emotionally. Something about how they tried to shake of the first play of the game, but it was too late.

Damn.

[BengalszoneBilly]

K2's remarks in this mornings paper are hard to ignore because they hint at how fragile this team remains emotionally. Something about how they tried to shake of the first play of the game, but it was too late.

Damn.

Fragile!?! Oh crap, "Perry-odontis" has spread to the head!

[Bobcat Bengal]

I agree that this is nothing to get worried about, but I also agree that outside of the Cincinnati area, the Bengals are still laughed at in large part... and I have to deal with it at work, explaining that the game didn't matter, but getting laughed at nonetheless.

When the Bengals beat the Patriots, everyone was willing to admit that pre-season didn't matter, because it was a mediocre team trouncing a team that had won 2 out of 3 superbowls, and was favored to win again. In fact, I remember rumors that the Pats lost on purpose to give Palmer a false sense of security for when they played in the regular season.

But in this case, the only thing the Bengals have done in recent memory is lose. It is not something that most people point to as an anomaly. In fact, had the score been reversed, my friends would have still laughed, pointing out how absurd the pre-season must be to have a superbowl team get killed by a team on the bubble.

So the fact remains that until the Bengals make the playoffs, we will still in large part be the butt of many jokes, and this latest loss only fuels the fire. Did it mean anything? Maybe not... but it still contributes to the general publics perception of us as losers.

So you're basically saying, it's lose-lose for the Bengals.

Furthermore, whoever started this thread is right.

It's about the embarassment factor. I was embarssed, even if it was a pre-season game. On the outside, I'm cool and respond as such, but in the inside I'm like, this isn't for real. I hate when the Bengals lose by a large margin.

The Bengals don't have a long leash with people, the media and fans included. Its a lot shorter than other teams.

If we screw up, or blow assignments, or generally perform the way we did Saturday, the safe response is always to say, 'well, they ARE the Bengals'.

I thought those days were over, but I don't think that stigma will ever completely rid itself for this team.

(If it makes you feel any better, Steeler fans are acting like the sky is falling too.)

[membengal]

Geez, somewhere Joisey mentioned the quotes from the fellas not named ML were giving him pause, and I have to wholeheartedly agree. The one from TJ in Hobson's latest has my blood pressure boiling again:

“I can’t really pinpoint it,” said Houshmandzadeh, who also lined up illegally for a penalty. “You just hope we can clean it up and when Sept. 11 comes, things click.”

WTF?????

ML best be taking these quotes to heart and getting ready to run them ragged starting tomorrow. tj HOPES they can clean it up? tj HOPES when september 11 comes, things click??????

oh my god.

From such quotes and attitudes, 1-4 starts are born.

And, by the way, I would have been FAR happier had TJ or some other player on that team said something like... "This s**t is unacceptable and we need to be accountable for our performance starting yesterday. We will not allow this to sink into the abyss by acting like performances like last night don't matter. They do. It's not possible to simply turn it on, you have to be ready to accept the work it takes to be at that point."

Yeah, I would have liked to read that a LOT more than "I hope we can clean it up". Cripes.

[HoosierCat]

Geez, somewhere Joisey mentioned the quotes from the fellas not named ML were giving him pause, and I have to wholeheartedly agree. The one from TJ in Hobson's latest has my blood pressure boiling again:

“I can’t really pinpoint it,” said Houshmandzadeh, who also lined up illegally for a penalty. “You just hope we can clean it up and when Sept. 11 comes, things click.”

WTF?????

Funny, I saw that quote and the first thing I thought of was...

...Bruce Coslet.

Wasn't that what he, and later LeBeau, were reduced to saying, words to the effect that "we don't know what's wrong. If we did, we'd fix it"?

Aye-yi-freakin'-yi...

What I would like to say to TJ is this: based on previous experience (see above) with this kind of issue, we know what the problem is. The problem is that you are sucking right now. That does not (necessarily) mean you suck, we know from last year you are capable of playing at a high level, but this is not last year. This is now, and right now you suck.

In short, you are the problem (or, at least, one of the problems). You need to take control of the situation and dedicate yourself to improving your game, the same way that Chad did last year after the Pepto fiasco in Cleveland. (And it looks like Chad needs a bit o' rededication himself.)

Don't wait for things to "click." Things don't click when you do that, they just lie there in the same sad state. You have to make them click.

Damn...I thought Marvin had got this team past all this kind of s**t. Time to bring that shovel back out of the broom closet, coach. :player:

[Bwestbrook36]

to me the bengals are looking ahead to the reg. season, they prolly shouldnt but they look like they are. As i am sure you all do i watch every bengals game, and they play with alot more heart then they are showing now. the play is harder and the offense actually gives a s**t. chad and the other recievers better get their heads out of the medias ass and start playing football. these games are really starting to worry me. i can not handle another sub par season, this year is the year they should blow up, but they need to get serious..you guys agree??????? :player: :player: