The Bengals win again! Beating the Indianapolis Colts moving the team to 7-6. This years end of season finish in the AFC is going to be a circus with a ton of teams all at 7-6 in the wild card race and many set to play each other. The team is playing well without Burrow, as the game announcers mentioned The Bengals would be dangerous if they get in the playoffs.

Edited December 11, 20231 yr by 646empire

25 minutes ago, 646empire said:

The Bengals win again! Beating the Indianapolis Colts moving the team to 7-6. This years end of season finish in the AFC is going to be a circus with a ton of teams all at 7-6 in the wild card race and many set to play each other. The team is playing well without Burrow, as the game announcers mentioned The Bengals would be dangerous if they get in the playoffs.

 

Their success with Browning just illustrates how different things would be right now if Burrow hadn't gotten injured in training camp.  They'd have at least two more wins, maybe three. 

 

 

Tee Higgins was amazing in Saturday's OT win over The Vikings:

 

The Bengals finish 9-8 this season. I’m not too upset tho, after going to the Super Bowl a couple years ago and AFC championship last year we can’t be greedy. Let’s get Burrow healthy and look forward to another run next season.

All things considered, a successful season, IMHO. Burrow missed 7 games and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would have predicted 9-8 with that. I heard that they played one of the most difficult schedules in NFL history statistically. Also, notable that the AFCN was the first division with all teams posting wining records since before the merger in like 1935.

41 minutes ago, Rabbit Hash said:

All things considered, a successful season, IMHO. Burrow missed 7 games and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who would have predicted 9-8 with that. I heard that they played one of the most difficult schedules in NFL history statistically. Also, notable that the AFCN was the first division with all teams posting wining records since before the merger in like 1935.

It helped that the Browns handed win number 9 on a silver platter due to the game having no bearing.   But yes I would say a successful season in retrospect.  And all hail the AFC North! 

The Bengals looked absolutely horrible yesterday against a New England team that was vastly outmatched talent wise. 

Edited September 9, 2024Sep 9 by 646empire

Its all the big head individuals that forgot to operate as a team. All the contract drama creates this mess. Guys worried more about what others get paid instead of winning games.

34 minutes ago, TheCOV said:

Its all the big head individuals that forgot to operate as a team. All the contract drama creates this mess. Guys worried more about what others get paid instead of winning games.

 

Yeah there's no way that Chase in abstentia wasn't a major distraction for the entire team.  He looked feeble out there - I heard commentators speculate that he was playing as softly as possible to avoid getting injured.  Plus yet another year with barely any activity by starters in the preseason set the stage for this nonsense. 

Zach needs to answer for it. It's chronic at this point - the slow starts. Small chance they avoid starting 0-2 again.

 

Misery loves company, so I'm taking a break from appreciating the misery up north to marvel at the misery down south:

 

 

 

A disastrous season. The defense is in total collapse. Sad to see. Dark days for football in Cincy with the Bengals and UC in the dump.

 

 

Edited December 3, 2024Dec 3 by 646empire

UC will at least make changes if things don't improve. Mike Brown has proven to be loyal to a fault, and the Bengals' coaching staff will stay. However, they'll still be without a GM, and the scouting department will still consist of three people. Personally, I can't take another big downturn. If they don't improve next year, I'd be okay with Brown selling the team and the Bengals moving to another city.

26 minutes ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

 

UC will at least make changes if things don't improve.

 

True but if your not the Alabamas of the world it take years for programs like UC to reboot under a new coach (if they turn out to be successful at all) so starting over again is horrible too. 

 

 

 

After that big dose of fame and attention over multiple years including a Super Bowl I’m surprised the Bengals organization is letting it slip away. Strange and shocking to waste the Burrow Era.

Edited December 3, 2024Dec 3 by 646empire

1 minute ago, 646empire said:

True but if your not the Alabamas of the world it take years for programs like UC to reboot under a new coach (if they turn out to be successful at all) so starting over again is horrible too. 

 

 

 

Tend to disagree. In the age of the portal, teams can turnaround quickly. Alabama is not really a peer to UC either. Maybe not the best comparison. 

On 11/20/2024 at 12:17 PM, Gramarye said:

Misery loves company, so I'm taking a break from appreciating the misery up north to marvel at the misery down south:

 

 

 

 

Ironic that they beat the Browns this year when he has always performed poorly against them.

12 minutes ago, 646empire said:

After that big dose of fame and attention over multiple years including a Super Bowl I’m surprised the Bengals organization is letting it slip away. Strange and shocking to waste the Burrow Era.

 

Joe Thomas may have an opinion.

1 hour ago, Rabbit Hash said:

Tend to disagree. In the age of the portal, teams can turnaround quickly. Alabama is not really a peer to UC either. Maybe not the best comparison. 

Kind of kind of not. The Portal is basically a bidding transfer system. UC NIL is not swimming in cash so it can’t get the best talent there to “turn around quickly” anyway as seen the past couple years bad coach aside. Also I wasn’t really Comparing UC and Bama (a blind man could see there’s little to) I simply said if your NOT* the likes of Bama rebuilds under new coaches can take even longer.

Edited December 3, 2024Dec 3 by 646empire

1 hour ago, 646empire said:

True but if your not the Alabamas of the world it take years for programs like UC to reboot under a new coach (if they turn out to be successful at all) so starting over again is horrible too. 

 

 

 

 

With the portal and the 12-team playoff, it'll be easier to turn around than before. 

7 minutes ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

 

With the portal and the 12-team playoff, it'll be easier to turn around than before. 

Not at all UC isn’t in The American anymore and Utah, OK State, Baylor etc are down this year but will be back and Dion/Colorado isn’t going anywhere soon and the The Big 12 is barely gonna get 1 in this year looks like. Wrong thread tho this one is Bengals.

51 minutes ago, 646empire said:

Kind of kind of not. The Portal is basically a bidding transfer system. UC NIL is not swimming in cash so it can’t get the best talent there to “turn around quickly” anyway as seen the past couple years bad coach aside. Also I wasn’t really Comparing UC and Bama (a blind man could see there’s little to) I simply said if your NOT* the likes of Bama rebuilds under new coaches can take even longer.

Good counterpoints...better said by me is that I think it is easier now than before, where you had to recruit, wait and hope for the best. 

I wasn't at the Bengals-Broncos game but by all accounts it was totally crazy.  Luckily, there is no big rivalry between the fans, since a similar set of crazy circumstances with Pittsburgh would have meant dozens if not over 100 fights in the stands. 

 

Bengals Fire Defensive Coordinator. What a shame of a season, 1 game short of the playoffs. Now let’s see what happens with Tee Higgins and Ja Mar Contracts. 
 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/43309393/source-bengals-fire-dc-lou-anarumo-missing-playoffs

 

Tee Higgins traded in this relatively small saltwater tank for a bigger one and the shop has it on display:

 

 

 

This thing has two of Tee's eels in it.  One of them is actually Bengals' colors.  The staff told me that the thing keeps biting them whenever they have to get in the tank so I wonder if the team told Tee he had to get rid of it.

 

Edited February 20Feb 20 by Lazarus

Here is a pretty detailed article by the I-Team re: the history of Bengals' ownership:

https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/i-team/the-billionaire-bengals-how-the-brown-family-got-rich

 

The key information is toward the end - that The Brown Family could have taken more money back in the 1990s but chose to stay in Cincinnati.  So all of these people casting Mike Brown as a villain are just plain wrong. 

On 2/28/2025 at 1:09 AM, Lazarus said:

The key information is toward the end - that The Brown Family could have taken more money back in the 1990s but chose to stay in Cincinnati.  So all of these people casting Mike Brown as a villain are just plain wrong. 

 

He chose to stay in Cincinnati with the most one-sided stadium deal in NFL history, his company has effectively stalled any real advancement of the Banks on his side of the development, and he rewarded Hamilton County's largesse with one of the worst teams in NFL history throughout the 90's and his teams didn't win a playoff game until five years ago. Not to mention that he still refuses to invest in the team leaving the Bengals with the smallest talent evaluation staff in the league and he's wanting tax payers to foot the bill to upgrade his stadium again. 

 

Not to mention that the Bengals' terrible stadium deal soured Hamilton County taxpayers on expanding the sales tax to pay for MetroMoves, thus setting transit in this county back 50 years. 

 

Mike Brown and Family have been making a good chunk of their money on the backs of Hamilton County taxpayers and it's only by sheer luck that the Bengals have had anything resembling winning seasons since he took over. Miss me with the "He's not a villain" schtick. If/when the Modell Law goes down and the Bengals are targeted to relocate, let's see if the sentiment is still there when they bilk taxpayers for their stadium again.

I remember in college when people were deciding where to move after college Columbus wasn't considered a "good value" as compared to Cincinnati because they cost about the same but Columbus didn't have the NFL.

7 hours ago, JaceTheAce41 said:

 

he rewarded Hamilton County's largesse with one of the worst teams in NFL history throughout the 90's and his teams didn't win a playoff game until five years ago.

 

I wrote an article on this about 12 years ago.  Brown's hand was forced.  He had to commit every last dollar to buying out his minority shareholders.  That was either going to happen in Cincinnati or somewhere else. 

The Bengals do what few thought possible and keep its 3 Headed Dragon together with Burrow, Chase and Higgins.

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/44284476/bengals-agree-extensions-jamarr-chase-tee-higgins

Edited March 19Mar 19 by 646empire