A changing of the guard? Not so fast...

Aaaarrrrgh! Fuck the Bengals!

Wait, let me rephrase that: pardon me if I don’t jump on the Bengal bandwagon just yet. Yes, this is me as a bitter Steelers fan and poor loser but still…

What exactly have the Bengals accomplished? They’ve got a good record but who have they played? Let’s look at their schedule and results

• Beat Cleveland (shitty team)
• Beat Minnesota (shitty team – particularly at that time)
• Beat Chicago (good team – not so good at the beginning of the season though)
• Beat Houston (shitty team)
• Lost to Jacksonville (decent team)
• Beat Tennessee (shitty team)
• Lost to Pittsburgh (good team)
• Beat Green Bay (shitty team)
• Beat Baltimore (shitty team)
• Lost to Indianapolis (good team)
• Beat Baltimore (shitty team)

There isn’t a particularly impressive win in that whole bunch. Which brings us to today’s game. They beat the Steelers and they deserved to win. But they played flawlessly (no turnovers and few penalties) and beat a Steelers team led by a gimpy Roethlisberger with the help of four turnovers and a huge special teams play. Even considering that, they only won by one touchdown and the Steelers were in the game with minutes left.

Four turnovers to zero. One score victory. I am not ready to start fellating the Bengals just yet. Put another way: if these teams meet again in the playoffs and the Steelers are healthy, I still feel pretty good about their chances.

Don’t get me wrong though, the Bengal offense is legit and you can’t hold the turnovers against them – that wins games and a “W” is a “W.” But as for some sort of changing of the guard in the division? I don’t see it yet.

Other thought from today: at what point does Green Bay realize their season is lost, Favre is the past and they eventually need to get Rodgers some reps? Favre made stupid mistakes AGAIN, got hurt and STILL Rodgers didn’t see the field. Time to start thinking about the future guys…