For those of you banking on the Bengals dumping Bob Bratkowski this off-season, turn away. Watch Jimmy Johnson chat during the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl pre-game show; it'll be easier on you, even with his pink shirt and tie. The Bengals coaching staff was invited to fill the ranks for the North at the annual Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama on January 24, 2008 2009 at 8 P.M.

Several things to note here.

If the Bengals were going to make a coaching change, it would have happened by now. It's one thing to replace a position coach, but an offensive coordinator is typically a highly complicated system that requires months, upon months of development and integration. Coordinators need to understand their players, so that roles can be established, and the system worked around the talent of the players. Based on that alone, it should be clear that the Bengals are sticking with Bratkowski.

Secondly, you're not going to take your anyone from the coaching staff if you don't plan a change. What's the point of taking the coaches to the Senior Bowl, to scout the seniors in the game, if they're just going to be fired anyway? That, in itself, makes it additionally clear. Even Geoff Hobson points out the obvious that this "announcement confirms the Bengals plan little change to their coaching staff."

C Trent, who also has the press release, points out several players in the 2004 Senior Bowl, the last time the Bengals coaching staff was in the game, ended up being drafted by the team: Keiwan Ratliff, Madieu Williams, Greg Brooks, and Kyle Larson. Larson remains. Yea. Me too, fellas.

The game will be on NFL Network; which means barely anyone will get to watch it.

We want to make this abundantly clear, for any site, coach or player we rip into: we're not addressing the person, just services (barely) rendered, the actual opinion given, etc... We're not blindly going around marching to the drum of firing someone simply because we're the displeased mob with torches during Access Hollywood (two points if you know the reference). We believe that the system is flawed, that being unable to plug players into the system, using the "talent" excuse, is a severe disadvantage. It means that if God of the Golden Arms isn't playing, that the Bengals can shelve whatever hope remains. No offensive system should be based on a single player.

We know that our argument is very weak. There's nothing to back it up. We complain generally about the plays, but specifics aren't readily published. So it should be up to the Consortium of Bengals bloggers to document it all; to throw a pile of papers on the demons desk to say, "this is why."