Morning Bites (12/18): Bengals links and notes

Princeton grad Jason Garrett leads the Dallas Cowboys' dreadful football IQ
Multiple choice question on the entrance examination for Princeton University: When holding a big lead in the second half, a football team should:

Marvin Lewis Press Conference Transcript - 12/17
"The (Vikings) have played a bunch of different quarterbacks this year, but Matt Cassel seems to have settled in over the last couple of weeks."

Lewis: 'My fault' it didn't work with Frazier
Sunday marks the first time since Lindy Infante a former Bengals coordinator comes back as a head coach to face his old team.

Beyond the Stripes with Giovani Bernard
Giovani Bernard on Cincinnati.com Sports Beyond the Stripes with Paul Daugherty presented by: JosephAuto.com from the Moerlein Lager House.

Huber's career still alive, Powell in for season
The season of Kevin Huber officially came to an end Tuesday, being placed on Injured Reserve. The good news, however, is his career doesn't appear in jeopardy of doing the same.

Another shot
After winning a Punt-a-thon to replace Kevin Huber for the two biggest games of the year against the NFL's two best punt return teams, Shawn Powell has gone from a Knoxville, Tenn., couch to the AFC North-leading Bengals.

Vikings playing spoiler at this point
The Vikings were out of the playoff race awhile ago, but they have a huge chance to play spoiler during the stretch run.

Clayton's mailbag -- Sizing up the coaching situations
Clayton's mailbag: Although coaches such as Leslie Frazier and Mike Munchak look finished, the fates of Jason Garrett and Rex Ryan are tougher to predict.

NFL - Playoff odds - Green Bay still in playoff hunt
One of the biggest stories coming out of Week 15 is that the Bengals suddenly find themselves in a dogfight for the AFC North. Just last week, Cincinnati was a 97 percent favorite; now it's an 83 percent favorite. The good news is that both of the Bengals' remaining games are at home, including against the Ravens in Week 17. Even better news is that, with Cincinnati hosting Minnesota (1 p.m. ET) this week and Baltimore hosting New England (4:25 p.m. ET), our projection model says there's a 55 percent chance the Bengals will have clinched the division by 8 p.m. ET Sunday.

Morning Stripes: Marvin Lewis takes blame
As we transition fully on the Bengals blog into coverage of Sunday's game between the Minnesota Vikings and Cincinnati Bengals, we start with a look at the relationship between the teams' head coaches, Marvin Lewis and Leslie Frazier.

Dean Blandino, head of NFL officials, says hit on Kevin Huber was illegal - ESPN
The hit by a Pittsburgh return team blocker that ended Cincinnati Bengals punter Kevin Huber's season was an illegal one, Dean Blandino, the NFL's head of officials, said Tuesday night.

Bengals were right to turn the other cheek after hit on Kevin Huber
Marvin Lewis thinks there has been more than enough talk this week about the violent play at Pittsburgh last weekend that sidelined his punter for the remainder of the season.

Huber punts on hit while NFL admits mistake
No surprise here. Less than 48 hours after taking what many believe is an illegal hit that ended his season with a fractured jaw and a small broken bone in his neck, Bengals punter Kevin Huber, stand-up guy, was up and around Tuesday taking much of the blame for Antonio Brown's 67-yard punt return that blew open Sunday night's 30-20 loss to the Steelers. And in another non-shocking development, the NFL confirmed Tuesday what everyone knew Sunday. There should have been a flag and no TD.