Bengals Player Pick 'Em Wk 4 vs Cleveland

Well it may not be the offense we want yet, but at least we scored some TDs last week and that's a good step in the right direction, right?  And it helped on the scoring front in this game too, because we had some offensive and defensive scoring.  Once again we also had heavy participation, with 56 distinct entries, and a total of 12 people scored points according to the game rules.  (Review the original full write-up of the rules here if you like.)

This Sunday we face the Cleveland Browns.  The Battle of Ohio.  I know a lot of Browns fans hate the Bengals and probably vice versa, but I'm not one of those.  I guess I just have a bit too much sympathy for a team that stinks and isn't one I already despise for other reasons.  I mean, I'm not even entirely sure my parents were even born when Paul Brown was fired by Art Modell, so it's not quite the same thing to me.  Now if we lose on Sunday I'll be ticked, because we have no business losing that game.  Not unless the Browns have just been tanking on purpose to save up for the only game of the year they actually care about, and I really doubt that.  Still, they're 0-3 and have to be getting a bit desperate, so it could be a bit of a fight.  And they do have a pretty decent defense.  So I guess we'll see what happens.  But I'm hoping we can find a way to finally get our offense clicking at a point in the week other than garbage time.  And if so, and if our defense can keep playing like they have, this could be a really fun game to watch.

Anyway, place your picks for this coming week in the comments.  Scoring recap post from last week is repeated below the jump as well as the summary version of the rules.  Pick your player in the comments and have fun!

My apologies for the long delay on getting these results tabulated and posted. I’m out of town with a very unreliable internet connection at the moment. We had 56 unique entries last week which gives a maximum uniqueness of 55.

Well it wasn’t exactly a blowout, but it was a win and I’ll take it. I just hope we can find a way to solve the OL and OC problems eventually. Preferably this season instead of five years down the road. Oh well. At least we actually did have an offense this week. Guess that’s better than nothing, right? Pity that only Cedric Benson was able to score offensive points for anybody in this game, but again, better than no touchdowns at all. And at least the defense was active again, scoring lots of points for folks. We had Leon Hall, Robert Geathers, Morgan Trent, and Roy Williams all recovering turnovers and thereby scoring 1 point per uniqueness for people, and we had Dhani Jones forcing a fumble so 0.5 points in his case. The other two fumbles were completely unforced so no points for those. Unfortunately, nobody picked Dhani, Geathers, or Trent, so those points went unclaimed. There were also two people who put "Roy Willis" down, but since one included Roy Williams correct jersey number and there is no Roy Willis in the entire league (the closest would be Ray Willis, a Tackle for the Seahawks) I decided to give them the points for Williams’ fumble recovery. As you can see, I do try to give all points I can, but I also won’t and can’t guarantee points unless the name is correctly spelled.

So this gives us weekly scoring of:

54 points – darth zalmer (Roy Williams)
54 points – Bengal mayhem (Roy Williams)
53 points – Cry (Leon Hall)
53 points – emeybee (Leon Hall)
53 points – FriarBob (Leon Hall)
49 points – Jaegner (Cedric Benson)
49 points – The Dealio (Cedric Benson)
49 points – quickslant (Cedric Benson)
49 points – ephr (Cedric Benson)
49 points – duffmane (Cedric Benson)
49 points – Jake Liscow (Cedric Benson)
49 points – BoomerEsiason’sLoveChild (Cedric Benson)

And this leaves us with a three-week leaderboard of:

1. FriarBob – 128 points
2. Mr. X – 125 points
3t. Jake Liscow – 122 points
3t. quickslant – 122 points
4t. CincinnatiCyanide88 – 75 points
4t. Purple City Middie – 75 points
4t. BradDwayne – 75 points
4t. tafjag1 – 75 points
5t. Jcon77 – 73 points
5t. Boomer Lion – 73 points
5t. the Flying Pig – 73 points
5t. TrickyD26 – 73 points
5t. Throw the ball – 73 points
5t. James Schmid the great – 73 points
5t. Rocket_Man_G – 73 points
5t. CincyMike56 – 73 points
5t. jimmer9 – 73 points
5t. jimbasa – 73 points
5t. TruWhoDey – 73 points
6t. darth zalmer – 54 points
6t. Bengal mayhem – 54 points
7t. Cry – 53 points
7t. emeybee – 53 points
8. whodey?? – 52 points
9t. Jaegner – 49 points
9t. The Dealio – 49 points
9t. ephr – 49 points
9t. duffmane – 49 points
9t. BoomerEsiason’sLoveChild – 49 points

I’ll try to be back to post the new thread for next week sometime this afternoon.

Here is a quick recap of the rules.

1. Pick one player (Make it easy on me, make him the title of your post.  Both first and last name please, and please try to avoid nicknames or blatant misspellings.) who is NOT officially listed as a QB, P, or PK on the roster.
2. An offensive score is worth one point per participant who did not pick your player.
3. A defensive player is worth 2/1/0.5 point(s) per participant who did not pick your player based on if he 2) actually scored, 1) gained possession of the ball for the team but didn't actually score, or 0.5) allowed the Bengals to gain possession by causing a fumble (or blocking a kick) that another Bengals player recovered.  Sacks or tackles behind the line of and by themselves are not worth anything unless they are a strip-sack (0.5 points if we recover) or they are also a safety (2 points).  All half-points will be rounded down.  A blocked FG is always 0.5 for the blocker, a blocked punt is the same unless the blocker is the only person (on either team) to touch the ball before it becomes a safety (in which case it becomes 2 points).
   
4. You score the maximum possible points for your player but only one time.  So a defensive player who forces an opponent's fumble that Cincinnati recovers and recovers another opponent's fumble at a different point in the game is worth 1x points (not 1.5x cumulative).
5. Keep commentary to the bare minimum please.
6. Predictions on how they will score are not required, and if you provide one they don't net you any bonus if you are right nor do they detract if you are wrong (so long as they do actually score by game rules).
7. Try to be original yet still pick somebody you think has a realistic chance to score or cause a turnover.
8. Only ONE (1) player entry per contestant, per week is allowed.  Unless your first player was on the roster at the start of the week and is put on IR/cut/traded before the next week, your first comment is your player, so pick carefully.
9. Deadline for player entries each week is THIRTY (30) minutes prior to kickoff.