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| Bengals were disastrous against the Ravens all season. |
Disastrous, is the word that comes to mind. The Ravens for a time were a team that the Bengals offense could successfully expose, easily hitting intermediate routes, finding single-coverages or holes in the cover-two zones when applied. Coming into this season, before the season sweep, the Bengals won six of their past seven against the Ravens, including three with a margin over 12 points.
| Chart of how the Bengals offense did throughout the series against the Ravens, during Marvin Lewis era. | |||
| Yards | Points | Record | |
| 2003 | 571 | 47 | 1-1 |
| 2004 | 851 | 36 | 1-1 |
| 2005 | 766 | 63 | 2-0 |
| 2006 | 569 | 33 | 1-1 |
| 2007 | 562 | 48 | 2-0 |
The last time the Bengals were swept by the Ravens in one season, was 2002. Segue to 2008, where the offense suddenly plays sour, the defense plays well enough not to lose games single-handedly, and the Ravens ditched the Bengals like that annoying house fly easily captured because it's too damned slow. In the season sweep, the Bengals amounted 309 yards total offense, in both games combined! First downs? Forget it about it; only 14 were generated. The lone touchdown scored was a fumble recovery and return by Johnathan Joseph in the first meeting. Both games displayed the worst time of possessions for the offense this season(23:45, 21:02), going a combined 4-26 on third down conversions (13%). Offensively, we scored nine field goals in both games.
Both Palmer brothers and Ryan Fitzpatrick were terrible in the series, converting 37% of their passes for a 34.1 passer rating.
| Comp. | Att. | Yards | TD | INT | |
| Carson Palmer | 9 | 24 | 94 | 0 | 1 |
| Ryan Fitzpatrick | 12 | 31 | 124 | 0 | 0 |
| Jordan Palmer | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 21 | 57 | 218 | 0 | 2 |
Offensively, we were worst than terrible, going three-and-out 15 times out of 26 total drives, scoring three times with Shayne Graham field goals. Aside from the eight-play, 89-yard drive to close out the first half against the Ravens last Sunday, the longest drive in the series went 35 yards.
| Drives | 3-out | Picked | Fumble | Downs | Punts |
| 26 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 18 |
Since, when. Since Kimo Von Oelhoffen "accidentally" destroyed the Cincinnati Bengals chances during that cold wild card weekend almost three years ago, the Bengals have lost 27 of 44 games.
Please, confuse us. Read this piece and see if it makes a lick of sense.
But seeing the game was still worth $20 to one fan. That $20 got ticket-taker David Ziegler into trouble. Ziegler is accused of taking $20 to let the fan into the game at Paul Brown Stadium. He was arrested and charged with misdemeanor theft.
How did he let a fan in? Hold the "door" open, allowing the person in for $20? If that's accurate, then big deal. The bigger questions is where's the security, just weeks after some guy was arrested for threatening to blow up both stadiums? Classic Cincinnati. Arrest this guy, while we axe 87 correction officer jobs, or "deal" with a $640 million state deficit. Twenty bucks. Get out of here. Seriously, leave.
They said it, not me.
"It was a bad feeling out there," Thornton said. "We were fighting, scratching, but it didn't seem to matter. We were out there too long. The numbers weren't good. They had explosive passing plays. They kind of had us in a good spot. They knew we were undermanned. They threw the playbook at us. We wore out big time at the end of the game. Everybody's hurt. We've got half the team in the training room."
Soloman Wilcox on the Bengals (h/t Chickster... read the post above).
“The one thing is I thought they were going to be able to run the ball this year. Clearly, they can’t. Clearly can’t run the ball. You can’t run. You can’t protect. You can’t throw it. Even their top receivers, when you throw the ball over the middle, they can’t catch it. Too many drops. They’re under-performing in every area. Former first round pick at cornerback (Leon Hall) gets beat repeatedly. Defensively, I thought there was great effort out there, but nothing consistent. Obviously, this is a Ravens offense with a rookie quarterback that looked better against this defense than they had in Week 1. Other than that, they were all right.”
More, more, so much more.
- Paul Alexander is being mentioned for the Syracuse University head coaching spot.
- The 46-yard pass from Ryan Fitzpatrick to T.J. Houshmandzadeh is the longest pass play of the season; actually it's the longest play from scrimmage this season.
- Is Mark "My Name Ain't Michael" Clayton that good, or was Leon Hall that bad.
- Bengals tied a career low, six first downs in a game Sunday.
- Jordan Palmer received a standing ovation, entering late in the game.
- Ravens bulldoze, knockout, the Bengals | Pulling out all the stops, Clayton burns Bengals,
- Should Bob Bratkowski call plays from the field?