Maybe we were a bit too excited with our excuse of using Officer Barbrady's depiction, not getting all giddy that Carson Palmer was finally throwing a football. Excellent news for Palmer is that he'll avoid surgery. "Every indication of every football orthopedist that has seen Carson is there will probably be no need for surgery." Now, he's throwing a "real football" longer than 10-12 yards, continuing his rehab while Lewis left the door open for a Palmer return the final two games of the season. "I don't know if you look for him to go for Cleveland or Kansas City, but we'll see as we go through the week." And apparently, the Nerf part of it hasn't been used in weeks. Take that Ian Eagle, you dope.

Update: Until now, we didn't realize that Ian Eagle was making a joking reference of himself, rather than the Bengals and Carson Palmer. Initially, we didn't mean the "Dope" reference as a personal dig on Ian Eagle; rather the joking reference about what he said and apologize about the contextual error and understand that the broadcast crew, during a 35-3 BEATING needs to offer something more than what's on the field. We understand the necessity during such a beating that the audience needs to be entertained.

So maybe there is something to see. Maybe we shouldn't move along now. Maybe we should bite hard on the optimistic feeling that our God of Golden Arms shall be resurrected, just in time to cross the doomed Bridge of Khazad Dum.............. wrong story.

The Bengals were 0-4 when he was playing, as Palmer reminds us. And he's absolutely right. However, there is a difference. When Palmer was playing, we didn't lose back-to-back games by 30 points or more, nor did we go 11 quarters without scoring a touchdown. Of the games he did start, only one was lost by 10 points or more. And that was to the Tennessee Titans who will likely be the conference's number one seed, no less.

Even the nine-point loss to Dallas was actually a 17-16 Cowboys lead, when Cincinnati recovered a surprising on-side kick in the fourth quarter. We learned about Chris Perry that day, fumbling his opportunity that led to Terrell Owens' 57-yard touchdown reception. After a Glenn Holt 60-yard kickoff return, Palmer completed three straight passes for 30 yards; the last being a 10-yard touchdown pass to T.J. Houshmandzadeh. The two-point conversion failed, and the Bengals were down by two points. If the defense holds, the Bengals get another possession within a field goal to win. Instead, the defense bent and broke to the Dallas offense going 11 plays, 80 yards, in 5:47 for the game sealing touchdown and the 31-22 win.

We're not trying to dig on Fitzpatrick. Think of it this way. Palmer has more 200-yard passing performances than Fitzpatrick this season, and just as many multiple passing touchdown games. I think that Palmer, and like-minded people, don't give the Palmer-led Bengals enough credit for sporting competitive games. We might have been bad, but this bad? I seriously doubt it.