More photos » by Al Behrman - AP

Here's a real picture. Revenge-man Cedric Benson had another great day on the ground. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

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The Bengals got off to a flying start in the first quarter after some Cincy Jungle residents questioned the decision to take the ball first. The Bears' defense was reeling in the first quarter, and the offense was settling for minimal yards per play. Carson Palmer looked great throwing on the run as the Bears' D faced injury and match up issues all over the field. Cedric Benson, of course, ran like a bull. He gashed the Bears D left and right for a ridiculous first quarter average of 8.8 yards per carry on 8 touches. What a first quarter. Bengals possess the ball for 2 4:00 TD drives and the Bears run around for 3.5 yards a play. 157 yards, meanwhile, in the first quarter for the Bengals compared to 22 for the Bears.

Enter second quarter: Bears go 3 and out on their first possession. Could Cincinnati put this one away early? Big pass to Coles down the sideline. Carson throws another beautiful ball to Chad, rolling right, and Chad beats Lance Briggs to the 16. Gift football to cheerleader. 12 more to Ocho on a bullet up the middle as Chad beats Tillman. 2nd and goal - play action to Benson with 2 FB back there, Foschi breaks free in the endzone and... catches the football? He can't fumble in the endzone on a reception (thank god), TD Bengals! 21-0. A 7 play, 63 yard 3-minute or so drive. I'm confusing the Bengals with the Bearcats and the Bears with Louisville. Heart rate normalized.

The Bears even began to threaten in the 2nd quarter until Devin Hester fumbled and destroyed some momentum. It was a great strip. Carson and Cedric and Chad keep moving the ball on the ensuing drive - big third down conversion to Chad Johnson.  Cedric Benson takes another big carry inside the 15. On the following 3rd and 7, a succesful WR screen to Coles results in a 28-0 lead. Man, talk about execution and great blocking from Foschi and Caldwell on the perimeter.

By the way, no botched PAT this week. No awful TE play.

Leon Hall makes the interception at some point in there, but it only leads to 3. I don't really know what else to say, but the Bengals thouroughly dominated the first half until "Prevent" was called until the Bears kicked a field goal as time expired. Let's hope they don't take their foot off the gas in the second half.

Passing Stats:

Some other stuff:

Benson - 20 rushes (1 away from magic 21), 98 yards, long of 23.

Ocho - 8 receptions, 103 yards and a touchdown.

Tight Ends - 1 touchdown, 1 catch, 0 drops, 0 turnovers.

More photos » by Ernest Coleman - AP

21 days ago: Brianna Tharps, 6, and her mother Christina Tharps, of Walton, Ky show off there two Cincinnati Bengals tickets on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009 in Cincinnati, for Sunday's NFL football game against the Houston Texans. Bengal's player Chad Ochocinco, Motorola and Ch 12 purchased and gave away the tickets to avoid a television black out of Sunday's football game. (AP Photo/The Enquirer, Ernest Coleman)

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"Touchdown, Laveranues Coles!" exclaimed jsl413. "Oh, and a PAT too!" It was 2:21 Eastern Standard Time, and the Bengals, despite shooting themselves in the foot and losing arguably two of their best defensive players in the first half have clawed their way back into this one. Houston made some plays before the half, but did not get close enough to score. Then, Schaub was like, "I'm gonna throw an interception to Chris Crocker." Crocker continued to return it to the Houston 41. Pass over the middle to Coats for 8 yards (fumbles after he hits the ground) and a time out. 3 seconds, 49 yard field goal. It's up! It's so, so good (probably from 55+)! I think it had to be something in Shayne's head, with BSL.

Let's take a look at the first half as we try to understand what's happened so far.

1. Neither team is doing much in the way of stopping the other team, but the Bengals defense seemed to step up at the end of the second quarter with a few nice stops. Statistically, I think Palmer is playing his best game of the year. He's connected with Chad deep, and he's found Caldwell a few times for big conversions. He's 13/19 for 182 yards, completing about 68% of his passes for almost 9  yards per attempt. Schaub, meanwhile, has gaudy numbers but has not been all that great (from what I can tell). Over 100 of his passing yards have come off of catch-and-runs to the excellent Houston skill players.
   
2. I think Hall has played a decent game against Johnson. He should have caught that ball earlier. For Houston, DeMeco Ryans has been everywhere. We should stop running at him.
3. I just saw the Bengals touchdowns. Cedric Benson is good, and that was some kind of catch from Coles in the back of the end zone.
4. Things I want to see improve in the second half: the running game, primarily. We will have to keep Houston honest in the second half, and that can be helped by establishing a legitimate running game. I think we've been OK on defense, it's been turning around, but we'll see if the Bengals coaching staff decides to make any adjustments this week. Also, we have to stop the drive-killing penalties. They're making me sad.
   

Team stats that I think are important:

Time of Posession: CIN - 15:51, HOU - 14:09

Yards: CIN - 218, HOU - 238

PENALTIES, penalties, penalties! CIN - 3 (30), HOU - 1 (5)

Enjoy the second half!

Game: Houston Texans (2-3) at Cincinnati Bengals (4-1)
Series Leader: Cincinnati Bengals: 3-1
Streak: Texans won last game
Coaches vs. Opponent: Lewis: 2-1. Kubiak: 1-0
Broadcast: CBS (1:00 PM ET): Don Criqui, Randy Cross.  SIRIUS: 154 (Hou.), 121 (Cin.).  XM: 107 (Cin.).
SB Nation: Battle Red Blog
NFL.com: Game Center
Weather: Sunny with a high of 54 degrees [Weather.com]
Uniform: Orange
Television Coverage: If the Bengals sellout, then southwest Ohio and parts of Northern Kentucky and most of the state of Texas and parts of the surrounding states. [506]

CINCINNATI BENGALS

INACTIVE	OUT	PROBABLE
Andre Smith	T Andre Smith (foot)	S Kyries Hebert (hip)
Jordan Palmer		LB Rashad Jeanty (finger)
Roy Williams	DOUBTFUL	S Chinedum Ndukwe (hamstring)
Brian Leonard	RB Brian Leonard (groin)	QB Carson Palmer (left thumb)
Scott Kooistra	DE Frostee Rucker (ankle)	WR Jerome Simpson (illness)
Jerome Simpson
Frostee Rucker	QUESTIONABLE
Chase Coffman	DT Tank Johnson (foot)
	S Roy Williams (forearm)

HOUSTON TEXANS

INACTIVE	OUT	PROBABLE
Nick Ferguson	S Nick Ferguson (knee)	LB Zach Diles (knee)
Shaun Cody		LB DeMeco Ryans (shoulder)
Dan Orlovsky	QUESTIONABLE	DE Mario Williams (shoulder)
Glenn Martinez	DT Shaun Cody (illness)
Antwaun Molden	LB Brian Cushing (foot)
DelJuan Robinson
Tutan Reyes
Anthony Hill

More photos » by Gail Burton - AP

Marvin Lewis is yelling at people. But, man, how about some second-half adjustments. Stay ahead of Harbaugh, coach, and get your team to finish drives. (AP Photo/Gail Burton)

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So far, the Bengals have essentially moved the ball at will. Carson is 9/16 for 174, and Cedric has 15 carries for 58 yards and a 4 yard per carry average. They've already rushed for more yards against Baltimore's D than they have given up per game all year.

Mistakes and turnovers are what have kept Baltimore in the game. The Ravens have moved the ball well only once on offense, and have a defensive touchdown. Chad Johnson lost a fumble deep in Ravens' territory after a big catch, and Carson threw a bad pick into the teeth of an overload blitz that Ed Reed read the whole way.

That said, we've dominated most phases of this game. We're -1 in the turnover column thanks to a bad call that said Mark Clayton did not  fumble, when the ball clearly looked to be shuffling before the receiver's knee was down. Let's hope we  get the turnovers in check in the second half and finish some drives. We've already showed that we belong in Baltimore, and we're leading time of possession 18:23 to 11:27, outgained the Ravens 230 to 113 in the first half, and have kept the Baltimor running game in check.

Should be a great second half.

Game: Cincinnati Bengals (3-1) at Baltimore Ravens (3-1)
Series Leader: Baltimore Ravens, 15-11
Streak: Baltimore has won the last two
Coaches vs. Opponent: Lewis: 7-5. Harbaugh: 2-0
Broadcast: CBS (1:00 PM ET): Gus Johnson, Steve Tasker.  SIRIUS: 108 (Cin.), 123 (Bal.).  XM: 105 (Bal.). 
SB Nation: Baltimore Beatdown
NFL.com: Game Center
Weather: Cloudy and showers (40%) with winds over 10 MPH [Weather.com]
Uniform: White
Television Coverage: Southern half of Ohio, some Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, DC with Houston, Oklahoma, Northern Texas, Utah and Wyoming. Some of Florida and Georgia. [The 506]

INACTIVE	Questionable	PROBABLE
Andre Smith	S Kyries Hebert (hip)	RB Cedric Benson (hip)
Rashad Jeanty	DT Tank Johnson (foot)	CB David Jones (foot)
Jordan Palmer	S Chinedum Ndukwe (hamstring)	LB Rey Maualuga (knee)
Tank Johnson		DT Domata Peko (chest)
Tom Nelson	OUT	S Roy Williams (forearm)
Scott Kooistra	LB Rashad Jeanty (finger)
Chase Coffman	T Andre Smith (foot)
Jerome Simpson

BALTIMORE RAVENS

INACTIVE	QUESTIONABLE	PROBABLE
Jared Gaither	T Jared Gaither (neck)	DT Haloti Ngata (back)
John Beck		S Ed Reed (knee)
Jalen Parmele	PROBABLE	WR Demetrius Williams (illness)
Prescott Burgess	CB Chris Carr (groin)
Oniel Cousins	LB Tavares Gooden (shoulder)
Tony Curtis	LB Jarret Johnson (shoulder)
Trevor Pryce	WR Derrick Mason (neck)
Paul Kruger

Game: Cincinnati Bengals (2-1) at Cleveland Browns (0-3)
Series Leader: Cincinnati Bengals, 36-35
Streak: Cincinnati has won seven of the past nine
Coaches vs. Opponent: Lewis: 8-4. Mangini: 1-1
Broadcast: CBS (1:00 PM ET): Ian Eagle, Rich Gannon. SIRIUS: 108 (Cin.), 126 (Cle.). XM: 103 (Cle.).
SB Nation: Dawgs By Nature
NFL.com: Game Center
Weather: Partly cloud, high of 61 degrees with winds around 15 MPH [Weather.com]
Uniform: White
Television Coverage: Mostly Ohio with parts in surrounding states [The 506]

INACTIVES	OUT	PROBABLE
Jordan Palmer	T Andre Smith (foot)	RB Cedric Benson (knee)
Roy Williams		LB Abdul Hodge (knee)
David Jones	Questionable	LB Rey Maualuga (knee)
Andre Smith	DT Tank Johnson (foot)	S Chinedum Ndukwe (hamstring)
Scott Kooistra	CB David Jones (foot)	T Andrew Whitworth (achilles)
Chase Coffman	CB Johnathan Joseph (foot)
Jerome Simpson	DT Domata Peko (neck)
Tank Johnson	S Roy Williams (forearm)

INACTIVES	DOUBTFUL	PROBABLE
Jamal Lewis	K Phil Dawson (right calf)	LB David Bowens (knee)
Phil Dawson	RB Jamal Lewis (hamstring)	DT Shaun Rogers (foot)
Floyd Womack	G Floyd Womack (ankle)	LB Kamerion Wimbley (shoulder)
Gerard Lawson		CB Eric Wright (hand)
Anthony Madison	QUESTIONABLE	P Dave Zastudil (right knee)
Rex Hadnot	DE Kenyon Coleman (groin)
Greg Estandia	RB James Davis (shoulder)
Brett Ratliff (3rd QB)	G Rex Hadnot (knee)
	G Eric Steinbach (knee)
	DE Corey Williams (knee)

More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

about 1 month ago: Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis sneaks up behind Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Hines Ward during warm ups, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

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The Bengals offense started the game going three-and-out three times (losing 20 yards with penalties and sacks) before Carson Palmer completed his first pass of the game with 12:30 left in the second quarter. After that, they sustained a drive using a combination of quick passes and runs before a penalty by Bobbie Williams forced the Bengals to punt on the first drive in which they sustained a drive. After the Steelers failed to convert on the fourth down, with over a minute left in the half, the Bengals reduced the 13-point deficit to ten points with a 34-yard field goal.

Defensively, the Bengals simply can't stop the Steelers. If the Steelers want to run the football, they run it. If the Steelers want to throw the football deep, they throw it deep. If the Steelers want to call quick passes, they complete quick passes.

In truth, the Bengals could have gone into the lockerroom with a much worse deficit than 10 points. They started to show signs of life on offense, recording two drives with 40 yards or more. Ten points is a manageable deficit. However, the offense has to record touchdowns, or else this game is always running the risk of being a blow out because the defense has shown no ability to slow the Steelers offense. Defensively, the team's more prominent defenders need to step up, causing turnovers and preventing long first and second downs so the offense is forced into long third down situations.

Game: Pittsburgh Steelers (1-1) at Cincinnati Bengals (1-1)
Series Leader: Pittsburgh Steelers, 47-30
Streak: Pittsburgh is on a five-game winning streak
Coaches vs. Opponent: Lewis: 3-10. Tomlin: 4-0
Broadcast: CBS (4:15 PM ET): Jim Nantz, Phil Simms. Westwood One Radio: Kevin Kugler, Mark Malone.  SIRIUS: 121 (Pit.), 158 (Cin.).  XM: 105 (Pit.).
SB Nation: Behind the Steel Curtain
NFL.com: Game Center
Weather: Thunderstorms and 40% chance of rain. High of 74 degrees and light winds. [Weather.com]
Uniform: Black
Television Coverage: Mostly everyone east of the Mississippi river, excluding Florida and the New England region. Viewing area also includes all of Texas and Louisiana, parts of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas. [The 506]

INACTIVES	OUT	PROBABLE
Jordan Palmer	CB David Jones (foot)	RB Cedric Benson (ankle)
David Jones	T Andre Smith (foot)	WR Chris Henry (quadricep)
Andre Smith		CB Johnathan Joseph (ankle)
Tom Nelson	Questionable	DE Antwan Odom (not injury related)
Nate Livings	DT Jonathan Fanene (illness)
Chase Coffman	DE Michael Johnson (illness)
Jerome Simpson	G Nate Livings (knee)
Frostee Rucker

INACTIVES	OUT
Troy Polamalu	S Troy Polamalu (knee)
Dennis Dixon
Keenan Lewis	PROBABLE
Frank Summers	S Tyrone Carter (thigh)
Kraig Urbrik	LB James Harrison (illness)
Tony Hills	WR Limas Sweed (foot)
Shaun McDoanld	LB Lawrence Timmons (ankle)
Nick Eason