40 yards stood between the Bengals and victory this week when a new goat emerged. Jermaine Gresham's fumble was the Bengals' 5th turnover of the day. He was just fighting for more yards, refusing to go down, but then he actually started to go down and the ball squirted loose. Colts recover, game over barring a miracle.
The Bengals beat themselves for the 6th time this season, racking up turnovers and penalties while outplaying the opposition in some statistical aspects of the game - things like yardage, anyway. They lost in points and they lost in turnovers and they lost the game. This team has been simply amazing in finding ways to lose. They dig holes, they turn the ball over in unimaginable ways, they drop big passes and ALMOST convert huge plays, but they lose.
The Colts did absolutely nothing on offense in this entire game. They didn't drive- they scored when the Bengals gave them the ball 20 yards from the endzone. Woopsies! Story of the season. There's talent and we all know it. But you know, when you turn the ball over 5 times and lose by 6, you really should have won that football game. When you get sacked twice in the row with the game on the line, well, I guess I take that last sentence back.