The Nati Notes: Peter King disrespects Bengals, injuries mounting around NFL

The Bengals sit at 1-1 and Cincinnati fans are licking their wounds after another gut punch, courtesy of the Pittsburgh Steelers. What else is going on with the Bengals and around the NFL? Find out in this week’s Nati Notes.

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Thoughts on the loss

Familiar territory for Bengals fans this week. Once again, after losing to the Steelers, the Bengals are left with a feeling of not being respected because of events in the game. Observers should all agree that the last two times these teams have played, the officials have created a big storyline. The playoff debacle and then the bullshit from Sunday. Were the officials the reason the Bengals lost? Not entirely, but when the other team benefits so greatly from terrible calls, it leaves a cloud over the product on the field.

It was clear the officials were not going to call holding on the line. They allowed it to happen against both teams. Universally, people realize the final turnover was a botched call and compounded with an incredibly poor replay ruling. That was not a fumble. The other call that was fairly blatant was extending a Steeler drive when the center, Maurkice Pouncey’s entire body moved causing the Bengals defensive line to jump. This call changes a third-and-8 into a first down and was just terrible.

Again, the Bengals could have and should have played better. A loss is tougher to take when the other circumstances compound it.

Photo by Joe Sargent/Getty Images

Blame the field general

It started. After the loss, people looked for blame and I heard rumblings of Andy Dalton sucks, that he’s regressed, and that he demonstrated poor play. This tired narrative needs to be put to bed. Once again, Dalton had 366 yards passing and a touchdown. For some, this means failure. Forget for a minute that the Bengals had less than 50 yards rushing for the game, let’s toss blame on the one aspect of the offense that actually worked on Sunday.

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Bloody week

Injuries seemed to rack up on Sunday around the NFL. A couple of teams need to turn to their third options at the quarterback position. Familiar faces like Danny Woodhead, Adrian Peterson, Rashad Jennings and Jay Cutler all have questions surrounding them based on issues that occured on Sunday.

Peter King

Not a fan, never have been. Peter King cut his teeth in the Queen City and something must have really rubbed him the wrong way. His unhealthy infatuation with Tom Brady and the Patriots is evident every single week he publishes his Monday Morning Quarterback article. Take this weeks edition, in which Brady is mentioned no less than 14 times. Not bad for a guy who is not even playing. The only thing that rivals his love for everything Beantown, is his disdain for the Bengals. Take these gems from his ramblings:

“after the Steelers continued their dominance over the Bengals, 24-16”

ok, point taken. Can’t really argue that the Steelers have the upper hand in this division rivalry.

He follows with this:

“This wasn’t as chippy a game as I thought it would be. Maybe that’s because the chippiest of them all, Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict, was suspended for this one.”

No mention of Mike Mitchell or Joey Porter or anyone else involved in the game, just a pot shot at a player who was not on the field. Mitchell week in and week out takes cheap shots at players as he did on Sunday. His “fake tough” however flies under the radar and it baffles me why this is not mentioned more.

Imagine for a moment if King’s love crush (Brady) completed a pass and the receiver was tackled. Then the refs decide that a non fumble was actually a fumble and the Patriots comeback attempt was thwarted by a terrible officiating call. King would craft a 40,000 word diatribe about how this can’t happen and tarnishes the shield or whatever else he could think of to back the Patriots. The mention that Cincinnati gets over a terrible officiating call is summed up by:

“That’s why the ruling on the field stood.”

—NFL senior vice president of officiating Dean Blandino in this explanatory video, posted to his Twitter account, regarding the Tyler Boyd lost fumble in the Bengals-Steelers game.

I like the transparency here and the frame-by-frame breakdown, from multiple angles.

You like the transparency? Are you kidding me? Someone in Cincinnati must have pissed in his Wheaties for the lack of respect King shows a team in a city that he used to cover.

Time to turn the page. On to Denver.