Convince me, as a Bengals fan that watched Cincinnati lose in the first week of the playoffs, that the Jets making the AFC Championship game is a positive from our perspective. Is it that the Bengals lost to a team that played in the final AFC Championship game? I won't belittle anyone for the argument. It still feels hollow to me. The Bengals lost to a team that played great at the right time? True, and the Bengals were in the middle of a snide, having lost four of their final five games of the season, including back-to-back losses to the Jets by a combined 47 points. We weren't ready. We didn't have the tools to score points in a league where scoring points is good, mmmkay?
That's not to say we shouldn't give New York credit; they've played their best football with a proven chemistry of power running and power defense. Eventually the Jets lost to the Indianapolis Colts, who hasn't lost a game in which Peyton Manning played throughout the game this season. Even if the Bengals made the AFC Championship game, Manning would have picked apart the defense like he's done to every team.
Still, that hollow feeling remains. Who cares what happens with the Jets, we wanted the opportunity. Then, when we failed to take advantage of the chance, we sit in the purgatory of a long offseason.
Chad's bus tour stopped at Disney World on Saturday.
Will the Bengals really go after a tight end in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft?
Mardy Gilyard would love to be drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals.
The top ten tacklers on special teams will not be unrestricted free agents next season.
John Thornton thinks that the Bengals should look again at trading for Cowboys tight end Martellus Bennett.
James Walker wonders why the Bengals increased their ticket prices when they struggled to sellout most of their home games in 2009.