Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis insists that change is coming

Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis doesn't expect us to believe it.

I mean, he can't, right?

We're fans. Jaded, maybe. Unrealistic with expectations? Oh god, yes. Let's face the facts... our expectations suck. I know you don't think so... I know you're doing the Robert De Niro routine from Taxi. Others think we're owed something. All of us want a Super Bowl when we should actually be begging for a playoff win. We know our expectations suck. We cheer "go team" but at the first hint at adversity, we jeer Mike Brown. First quarter... Bengals rule. Second quarter... Damn it Dalton, here we go again. Third quarter... let's see if we can... nope, no adjustments. Fourth quarter... Damn you Mike Brown... And then, it's Sunday evening -- and the Bengals win their fifth straight game 49-3. That's our gameday open thread in a nutshell.

This organization is charging hard with change, with Mike Brown playing the role of General Custer. Marvin Lewis is the voice and face of an organization that wants us to believe that things are going to be different.

"Oh yeah, (Mike Brown) is the one leading the charge," Lewis said last month. "He doesn't want to hear, 'We will be better when we get these guys back.' No, we need to get better. He knows we need to get better. He's pushing people to identify players that will make us a better football team in free agency."

"It's a different feel than where we have been," Lewis said. "It's not a status quo. There has not been a status quo conversation or 'Oh, we'll be OK, we'll just get these guys back.' No, no, no, that's bull. We got to be better."

Stop d*cking around with us, Marvin. These comments unhinge expectations... again. We're not just signing Ndamukong Suh... we're signing everyone. Except Marshall Newhouse. He can go.

Yet Lewis insists on this change and that it's coming.

"I’m blessed that I have the coaching staff back but we all know there’s a new direction," Lewis said Thursday as he met with the Cincinnati media in a hallway of the NFL scouting combine. "We’ve got to have new direction to us. We can’t brush it off saying if we did this, if we did this. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get better in every area and it starts at the top. It’s my responsibility.

"We’re changing a lot. You know I’m not going to tell you what we’re changing," he said with characteristic mystery. "We always change scheme. You always change scheme. You change scheme. You change how you do it. You change how you do things. You change things and you get better at things. We have to get better. It’s not one thing of we've got to do this. Oh no, we’ve got to do everything better."

Does it sound like someone is becoming unhinged? That's raw transcription. Hey... we're listening, but this is the 13th year we've heard these offseason messages. It's time to produce.