We examined the game, so let's examine reactions.

I've had more people call me, than the digits on both hands, in the past hour or two; too anxious to wait for my reactions on this very site. Even a Steelers fan (jerk). They're family and friends though, and I can be more curt with them, over-playing the role of pissed off Bengals fan; while it's true, you can get some laughing points too, because, in the end, this isn't like the biggest issue in our lives, you know?

Personally, I'm not that pissed off that the Bengals lost. I've done this gig for a long time; and I've studied the concept of football three times that. I understand why a game turns the way it does; sometimes it's one moment, sometimes it's one aspect or unit, sometimes it's bad officiating. But sometimes it's just man beating on boy (aka, Ravens and Bengals), and that's frustration; times fifty as the departing sun fails to cool temperatures from overheating tempers in Cincinnati -- or "Cincinatti" as the "higher-education" University of Oklahoma spells us.

Nearly everyone agreed; the Bengals defense wasn't that bad. Not that it's any consolidation, it's not. I firmly believe that no one within the Bengals organization should accept their paycheck, and Mike Brown should take all that money, and give it to Hamilton County to help the city after an unpopular tax increase was implemented to install two new stadiums for two teams so bad, that by the time the second half of their respective season comes around, we're off doing something else.

And yes, we need to give him money, otherwise we'll just cut players to "earn" some money. Hence, the suggestion to give the money to the county; a PR move, so to speak. He may suck as an owner, but he would give back to the community. That way he could be listed among the Carl Lindner types; really bad at owning a sports team, but you'd hesitate on insulting them because of their contributions to the community; and in truth, he does, though we hate him too much to see that clearly. Sad, isn't it? Would that save Mike Brown? No, not likely. And truly, none of us would believe it. Though the effort would reward those that swim in its receptions, without noting true intentions.

Now I'm just rambling.

Some call us bad fans. Bull shit. We're great fans, insulted as hell to be expected to cheer for this.

Anyway, let's go through reactions.

Chad Johnson, while not considering the recent history of winning six of the past eight games against the Ravens, excuses the offense by tell us that the Ravens defense is the best in the NFL. "But, you have to understand that we were playing the best defense in the NFL. They gave us some very exotic looks and I know they had some new stuff for us. By the time we made adjustments, it was too late."

Adjustments were made? But he also said that the offense "sucked".

Lewis says that the offensive line is "half a guy away." Apparently we're positioning ourselves to draft a midget at center.

Chris Perry, at least, didn't fluff the poo-dung we saw this afternoon.

Q: On the Bengals offense:
"We didn't perform up to par."

Q: On fourth and 1:
"That's on me. I'm supposed to make that. There's nothing else to say except that I'm supposed to make that play. It doesn't matter what happens I'm supposed to make that. It's 4th and 1 and that's on me."

Q: On the Bengals defense:
"They did a great job. We let them down."

Q: On the Ravens defense:
"They came at us and they did their job better than we did our job."

Stripe Hype calls Marvin Lewis and Carson Palmer Goats of the Game.

Chick Ludwig calls the Bengals offense "over-hyped and overrated".

Mo called it "Coslet-esque"

WDR is pointing at Bob Bratkowski, claiming that "we averaged 23.8 pts/game last year (11th overall), much of it coming in the shootout at Cleveland (worst defense in the league) and Miami, who went 1-15.  If you take away those two games, our scoring average drops us to about 16th overall in the league--not exactly juggernauts." However, it should be pointed out that if you take away every team's top-two scoring games of the season, everyone's averages WILL drop. The question is, where do the Bengals averages rank when taking away every team's top-two scoring games? Now that, I'd very much be interested in.

The Bengals were dominated on both sides of the ball.

Paul Daugherty sums it up well within two paragraphs.

The Bengals were playing one rookie head coach, one rookie quarterback and one rookie featured running back that together had played in zero real games. They were playing a Baltimore Ravens’ defense minus one big run-stopping defensive tackle and with two Pro Bowl starting defensive backs so banged-up, their effectiveness was questioned all last week.

The Bengals offense – since 2005, more hype than substance – reacted to that largesse by racking up eight first downs (two by penalty), 65 rushing yards, 89 passing yards, no touchdowns, one catch by Chad Javon Whoever and a 35.3 passer rating by Carson Palmer. They also got smashed twice on 4th-and-short.

Then again, stealing line from T.J. Houshmandzadeh, "The defense played great. The offense sucks." There you go.

All quotes obtained from Bengals.com