Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! As Bengals fans, I think we’ve got a lot to be thankful for. We’ve got a defense that seems to have a fire under their butt, a running game that is finally where we want it to be, a star receiver that has ball skills to match his humble personality and a Quarterback that isn’t a jerk. This is the week I’ve been looking forward to all season. The week that Palmer returns to PBS after his horrible parting from our fair city and we get to make him eat one of his own quotes: “I will never set foot in Paul Brown Stadium again.” Let’s look at last week first.
We did everything we needed to affirm that the team that took the Giants to the house is capable of repeating the performance. The defense took care of Cassel AND Quinn and did a pretty good job of stopping Charles. The offense exploded with a running game that has been absent all year. Benny finally hit 100 yards and Peerman didn’t have a shabby day either. This is exactly the running game that Gruden has imagined for the last 2 years. A lead running back that can get it done and a back up that can provide a change and also produce yards as well. Dalton is the leader of this team. His leadership is matched by his ability at his position. He’s making decisions at the line and in the pocket that shows he can handle the pressure. I think that Dalton and Maualuga are taking what Marvin said a couple weeks ago as seriously as they can. This team CAN go to the playoffs AND get wins there…but will they?
Palmer is going to be seeing green in his sleep for weeks after this game ’cause that’s what he’s going to be looking at all day…the turf. I hope that he goes back to Cali wishing that he never did what he did…but…we’ve got to get to him first. Palmer is third in the league for passing…as he should be because we know how good he is. We can be bitter about what happened all we want but you can’t argue that he has a great arm and has the potential to put up big numbers. We also know that the more he throws it the more INTs he’ll throw. Just like every week, we need to shut down the run game, force Palmer to throw it and he’s bound to give up the ball a couple times.
The offense needs to repeat it’s performance from Arrowhead and they NEED to do it at home. The two biggest concerns I have for the Bengals are it’s consistency and it’s fans at home. I believe that when you walk into a game at home knowing that it’s NOT sold out can have a mental affect on a team. A team needs to know that it’s fans are behind them…no matter what.
