Bengals Can Rain on San Diego's Parade

As the playoffs near, the Bengals, of course, are nowhere close to being in the picture. The San Diego Chargers, however, are very much in the picture... kind of. For the Chargers to have any hope at being on the field in January instead of watching the games from home they need to win both of their remaining two games and they still need some help. If they win out and the Kansas City Chiefs lose one of their remaining two games, the Chargers win the AFC West. If the Chargers win out and the Ravens or the Jets lose both of their remaining two games, the Chargers go to the playoffs as a wild card team. Either way, the Chargers' fate is not completely in their own hands.

Why am I writing about the playoff scenarios for a team that I don't care about? Who cares?

The Bengals care. Why? Because even though the Bengals know that they will be watching the playoffs from home, they also know that they can be the main reason that another team has to watch them from home too. Wrecking a team's chance to go to the playoffs is probably a distant second (very, very distant second... or maybe close third) to going to the playoffs themselves.

Just ask Carson Palmer. He likes the idea of being a spoiler.

"Absolutely, and you think more about the hurting (a team) than the helping (another team), especially when you’ve gone on a multiple-game skid like we did in the middle of the season. It’s a big game for us. It’s Christmas (weekend) and our fans are excited. They’re off work. A lot of guys on the team have friends and family in town, so to get to play in front of your friends and family is a big bonus. We have a chance to spoil somebody’s season because our season has already been spoiled, and I think that is also weighing heavy on our guys. It’s a good situation for us to be in. We’ve got nothing to lose. We know what we are playing for; we’re playing for a win and to slow somebody’s season down."

While helping the Ravens and the Jets make the playoffs may sound like an unwanted side effect to spoiling the Chargers' playoff hopes, it would be a big confidence boost heading into the off-season of a disappointing, to say the least, 2010 campaign.

Some other spoiler teams right now are:

The Detroit Lions. Their last opponent was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who had a shot, albeit an outside shot, at an NFL wild card spot. The Lions defeated the Buccaneers 23-20 and effectively ended their hopes at heading to the post season.

The Washington Redskins. The McNabb-less Redskins can spoil the hopes of two different teams - the Giants and the Jaguars. Beating the Jaguars this week would end any outside hope that the Jaguars have of squeezing into a wild card spot. If they beat the Giants in the final week of the regular season, it could push the Giants out of the playoffs and open the door for the Packers.

The Oakland Raiders. In the final week of the regular season, the Raiders play the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs need to win out to lock their playoff spot as the AFC West champions. If they lose to the Raiders in week 17, they will open the door for the San Diego Chargers, that is if the Chargers win out, and fall out of the playoffs all together.

The Tennessee Titans. The Titans also have a shot at knocking the Chiefs out of a playoff picture. They travel to Kansas City this weekend to play the only team that separates the Chargers from going to the playoffs as the AFC West champions (other than the Bengals of course).

Even though the Bengals aren't playing for anything close to a playoff spot, they can play for two things: pride and knowing that they have the ability to wreck another team's playoff hopes. That's better than playing for nothing.

Hey, something is better than nothing, right?