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[ I Am Bengal – Hear Me Roar (Page 6)
] A quick glance at the scores on the doors in the AFC seems in order at this time. At the end of Week 12, the conference standings look like this - teams marked with an asterisk (*) are leading their division and are therefore on course to pick up an automatic playoff spot: Steelers 9-2* As things stand, then, with 5 games to play we're in position to pick up the second Wildcard playoff place, but we're only one game up on pretty much the world and its wife, so just one slip might be enough to drop us out of the postseason. Technically, we can still win our division, but since Pittsburgh hold the tie-break over us, they'd need to lose at least three of their last 5 games and we'd pretty much have to win out. Yeah, like that's going to happen. Looking at our schedule, you have to believe that New Orleans are likely to murder us in the penultimate week, and Drew Bledsoe is going to think he's died and gone to Quarterback Heaven when we take our Godawful secondary to Buffalo in the last game of the regular season. So the bottom line is, we pretty much have to win the three games before those, starting with the visit of our divisional rivals, the Baltimore Ravens... ... Baltimore, then, come to Fortress Bengalville. Only two games back on us in the division, if they can find a way to continue our two-game losing streak, then it's going to be very much game on in the AFC North... They come out looking like they mean business, too, mixing up the pass and the run and only stalling out at our 34-yard line. Matt Stover hilariously drops his field-goal attempt short, but the chuckles from the Cincinnati sidelines die a little as Bernardo Harris, our reliable-as-heck MLB who's been playing at LOLB when we go to 4-3, has to be helped off the field with what looks suspiciously like a broken wrist. ANOTHER injury on D, that's almost exactly the last thing we need... Still... if our linebacker corps is banged-up, Baltimore's has been absolutely gutted. No Ray Lewis, no Peter Boulware - and that means fresh meat for the beast that is our inside running game. We go between the tackles right up to the Raven 12, then set up in the pro-form and lob a quick toss outside to Corey Dillon. RG Joe Andruzzi pulls to seal the OLB, Dillon turns on the burners and has time to slap a safety silly before cruising over the line to put us up seven-zip. We exchange a couple of punts, and at the start of the second quarter we've got Baltimore in a 3rd and 3 close to midfield. They attempt to run the exact same play we scored on - quick toss outside, guard pulling - but the difference between the teams is that they've got Nobby Nobody at right outside linebacker, while we've got Takeo fricking SPIKES, baby! Jamal Lewis finds himself returning whence he came at some speed, and the Ravens have to punt again. My handwritten notes, made as I played the game, read at this point (and here I quote word for word): "Punt. Fumble. Fuck." Baltimore get down inside our 10, but we stop them running and Travis Taylor steps out of bounds before he can pull in a Redman pass... we hold them to a field goal, which is a definite moral victory for the tiger-striped lads. 2 minutes to go in the half, then. Akili Smith rolls out right, sees nothing open and just keeps rolling, sliding out of bounds for an 11 yard gain. Dillon catches the Ravens looking pass and steams up the gut for 13 more. 2nd-year speed-demon wideout Chad Johnson makes amends for his fumble on the punt return with a tough grab over the middle for 16, and we're suddenly deep in Baltimore territory with a ton of time remaining. We slow it right down, run off the clock and Lorenzo Neal does his party-piece to the delight of the Bengals faithful - we're 14-3 up with 15 seconds left to play in what's been a pretty damned satisfying half of football. Then Chris Redman hits Todd Heap twice, the second with 1 second left, to put the Ravens in position for a 39-yard FG to make it a slightly less satisfying half of football. Rats. Halftime score - BAL 6-14 CIN. The second half starts not with a bang but a whimper, and an exchange of punts. On the second drive, Akili spots Chris McAllister coming on the cornerback blitz, leaving new favourite target Peter Warrick wide open to pick up 20 yards on a scurry down the sidelines. Then it's back to a regular diet of Dillon, which gets us into range for the boy Smith to find veteran wideout Willie Jackson dragging across the goal-line, taking us to 21-6 and into the comfort zone. You know what's coming next, don't you? Yep, that's right, our restful residence in the comfort zone lasts exactly one drive, Travis Taylor proving that he's still capable of embarrassing my secondary the way he did all day the last time we played... Jesus. If this is what Travis blinking Taylor is doing to us, I can't -wait- to see what Rod Smith or Jerry Rice or Laverneus Coles do if we get them in the playoffs... Sigh. Still, Jamal Lewis still can't run on us, and their 2-point conversion gets absolutely nowhere, so it's not all bad news. BAL 12-21 CIN. Time's running out for Baltimore now, though, and we're running -on- them. On a 2nd and 9 at our own 40, Corey Dillon takes the handoff, dodges the blitzing LOLB who's blasted hard inside the tackle, and takes the long way around the blocking TE to get outside, CB Chris McAllister now the only thing standing between Corey and the wide-open spaces. Dillon doesn't even bother making a move - he just straightens his angle and blows right by McAllister's despairing dive, leaving the Raven D running in treacle trying to catch up. Bwa-ha! Gary Baxter, the opposite corner, performs heroics to get all the way back across-field to get a chance to bring Corey down at the 15, but gets a smack in the face for his trouble and, as Baxter goes down with tweety-birds circling his head, Dillon dances into the endzone with the massed ranks of Bengalville going absolutely nuts... Anderson muffs the extra point, but it shouldn't matter now - 12-27 CIN. The Ravens are in deep trouble, and they know it. As Chris Redman drops back to pass on the second play of their following drive, Sam Adams brushes a block aside and comes marauding up the middle. The Baltimore QB, sensibly, sees death in tight pants closing in fast and runs for it. With the ground shaking underneath him and the sound of Adams bellowing "FEE FI FOE FUM!" in his ears, Redman launches the ball on the run back across his body toward a receiver running a deep post-pattern. Now, weeks and weeks of watching Akili Smith has taught us what normally happens when a quarterback throws deep across his body without setting his feet, hasn't it? And isn't it comforting to know that it's not just us it happens to? Lamont Thompson, our rookie free safety, gets a mile inside the pattern and makes a great leaping pick. He turns downfield, picks up some blocks, sees the open space and takes it to the house, just outrunning Brandon Stokely into the front corner of the endzone. The crowd are quietly stunned, this whole concept of the secondary making plays being pretty alien down here in Bengalville... We let the Ravens tack on a meaningless TD and 2-point as time expires, but this has basically been a rout. Final score BAL 20-34 CIN, improving us to 8-4. Job done, for this week at least... ... Week 14 then, and a visit to historic Charlotte to face the Carolina Panthers for the second of our three must-win-before-Brooks-and-Bledsoe-use-our-secondary-for-target-practice games. The Dolphins and Patriots both lost last week, meaning that the only team within a game of us left in the wildcard hunt is the Tennessee Titans, over whom we hold the tie-breaker thanks to our great come-from-behind win over them a few weeks back... the postseason is so damned close we can taste it... Exciting stuff, this, innit? ;) The game started as it meant to go on, with an exchange of punts, but on our second possession we’re back to looking like the team we know we are, mixing up the run and the odd short pass to trundle down the field 81 yards, capped off with Akili Smith finding Dan Graham drifting along the goal-line for a 2-yard TD pass. 7-0. The Panthers get the ball back and come out shooting. Briefly. On their second play of the drive, Chris Weinke finds himself under pressure – something that’ll become a bit of a recurring theme as the game goes on – tries to dump a short pass off to TE Wesley Walls, but leads his man a good yard too far, giving Takeo Spikes the opportunity to scoop the ball up from bootlace-height and make a wonderful running interception around halfway. We can’t capitalise, though, and once again the teams exchange punts. We’re moving the ball better than Carolina, although that’s a bit like saying that we’re more quiet and shy than Warren Sapp. Our big-play man at the moment seems to be none other than our quarterback, who’s driving the Panther defensive co-ordinator nuts with his scrambling antics. On a 3rd and 2 on the Carolina 35 during the last drive of the half, Smith drops back in the pocket, sees tight coverage downfield and then sees the rushing Julius Peppers being guided easily outside and past him by RT Willie Anderson. Akili takes off through the lane Peppers should have been filling, jukes inside the MLB who’s set in the middle zone, and slides down for a gain of 15. Like so much else in this game, though, it doesn’t pay off, Peppers getting his revenge 2 plays later with a sack that left us a 47-yard field goal attempt in a strong wind. The Old Man Of The Hills has the distance, but drifts it wide left, and we go in at the half up just 7-0. The half-time team-talk goes something along the lines of “Offence, for God’s sake, this lot are rubbish, you should be killing them, what the hell is going on? Defence, Lord knows you don’t hear this very often, but good job, lads. I don’t want to hear that fricking annoying panther sound-effect even fricking ONCE these next two quarters – get out there, and make me a happy man.” On Carolina’s third play of the half, they go to set up the wideout screen, but CB Donovan Greer sees it coming from the proverbial mile away and sneaks into the throwing lane for our second pick of the day. Guess what? We still can’t make the most of it, but Anderson makes up in part for his muffed kick by slotting it from 5 yards closer in. 10-0. But, in the same way that you felt we weren’t going to score a couple of weeks ago against the Steelers no matter HOW long we had to do it, this afternoon it’s the Panthers that look hexed, and even when we help them out to the tune of a 5-yard punt (no, that’s not missing a digit anywhere) to set them up on their own 48, they just can’t get anything going. Our front seven is in particularly rampant form, almost completely shutting down the run and getting penetration on pretty much every pass-play – they’d end the game with a not-too-shabby 2 picks, 3 sacks and 5 batted balls. Carolina do get one chance, though – midway through the 4th quarter, they finally, finally start getting things right, and drive down to face a 4th and 1 at our 7-yard line. Clearly not fancying their chances of getting this far into our territory again, they elect to go for it. I’m utterly paranoid about the inside run, and tuck everybody in tight to smother the sneak or the dive… and the swine pitch it outside to DeShawn Foster. Spikes has taken his first step inside, and, though he’s scrambling back to recover there’s no way he can cut the run off before the 1st down, probably not before the endzone. The only Bengal even in the right zipcode is Donovan Greer, who’s been locked up by the Carolina wideout on that side. Foster goes around his blocker, turns the corner... and WHAM! Somehow, Greer slips the block and makes an open-field tackle out of the Last Chance Saloon to save the TD, turn the ball over on downs and, most importantly of all, give us the chance to point at the Carolina sidelines and shout "Ha Haa!" They’re beaten now, a fact that’s underlined as we drive the length of the field, chewing up the clock with run after run by Smith, Lorenzo Neal and Corey Dillon. We make it all the way to the 10, but to be honest it would have been a bit out of character for the game if we’d managed to punch it in, so instead Gary Anderson makes it 2-from-3, and the game peters out. Final score CIN 13-0 CAR, and I think it’s safe to say that this was a game that’s unlikely to have delighted fantasy owners – unless for some reason they had the Cincinnati defence, the mad fools. We put together 166 yards rushing on the day, Dillon carrying 18 times for 78 yards, Neal adding another 25 off 8, and Akili Smith chipping in with 7 carries for 63 yards, but the passing game was just way, way, way off – although Dillon had his best receiving game of the year with 3 for 61. It’s the result that matters at this stage of the year, not the performance – although you have to suspect that we’ll need a better day from pretty much the whole offence if we’re going to get by Jacksonville next week... ... Week 15 – and it’s getting to crunch-time. Into the city that’s officially changing its name to Bengalville come the Jacksonville Jaguars – our second cat-fight in as many weeks. Still, everyone knows that stripes are cooler than spots, and so we’re ready for Mark Brunell and his merry band of travellers to do their worst. We come out of the blocks fast, giving the Cincinnati public some more of those runs they’ve come to love so much. Up the middle, to the left, to the right, Dillon, Neal, Smith - you name it, we’re running it, all the way to the Jacksonville 38. Just when it looks like the Jaguars have had enough, we go to the spread form and see what they’re like against the pass. The protection is absolutely great, giving Smith all the time in the world to sit in the pocket - he passes up the chance to go short to Willie Jackson and waits, waits, waits... then fires over the middle, putting the ball perfectly in stride for Mister Speedy, Chad Johnson, to outrun the nickelback on the post-in pattern, duck between 2 tacklers and dive into the endzone for a 39-yard touchdown bomb. Fred Taylor is out for the season (yeah, big surprise), leaving big ol' Stacey Mack to carry the load. And with depressing predictability, Mack is running past, over and through my linemen, making me commit more and more in an attempt to stop him. Which, with equally depressing predictability, exposes my dodgy secondary and allows Brunell to put it up to Patrick Johnson, who walks away from Donovan Greer to score the second 35-yard-plus TD catch by a receiver called Johnson of the night. Nuts. 7-7. The Jacksonville line is actually playing pretty well against the run, and we respond by just cutting the d-line out of the game – running outside and mixing in a pass or three to keep things interesting. Chad Johnson picks up 21 on a crisp in-route, taking us down to the 6, then Daniel Graham drifts into the flat, grabs the pass and slides over the line to get us back in front once again. Two scores in two drives, and I think it’s safe to say we’ve shaken off the lethargy of last week... 7-14 CIN. We’ve slowed Mack down with some aggressive play-calling, but veteran WR Jimmy Smith is absolutely persecuting Andre Dyson on the outside. Crossing my fingers that the long pass to the other side was a fluke, I stick an extra defensive back to more or less permanently help out on Smith, and we finally make a play when they’ve the ball at our 32 to get the swine into 4th down and force them to kick a field-goal. 10-14 CIN. Jimmy’s namesake, Akili, is pretty much having his game of the season so far, helped by an offensive line that’s playing out of its socks. On 3rd and 14 on the Jaguar 42, the pass blocking is once again immaculate, and he once again shows tremendous patience, waiting for the play to develop then hitting the open man, Peter Warrick this time, for a big 33-yard gain. Two Dillon runs later, and it’s 10-21 CIN, and we’re starting to get into the driving seat. To my utter astonishment, Jacksonville fail to go 80 yards in the 30 seconds they’ve got left at the end of the half. Chad Johnson makes ANOTHER fumble on a punt return, which causes momentary panic, but the ball dribbles safely out of bounds and allows us to troop off to warm applause from the Bengalville crowd, up by 11... The second half starts in muted fashion – Jacksonville go three-and-out on their first possession, and we can’t make a first down either, Akili Smith getting smacked hard from his blindside on a third-and-long... Smacked hard, and staying down. I’m not a medical man, but I don’t think the fact that he’s writhing in agony is a particularly good sign. Oh, God. Smith is carted off to the locker-room, and the Jaguars drive, our defence stiffening inside the 10 to force them to kick another field-goal and only reduce our lead to 11. Up comes the physio with the news on Akili. Torn pectoral muscle. Gone for 11 weeks. Criminy. Okay, okay, quick count in my head... two weeks of regular season games to go, then wild card weekend, divisional playoffs, divisional championship, week off, Superbowl. That’ll be... seven weeks. So, another way of putting “out for 11 weeks” would be “done for the season”, then? It’s a crying shame. Akili has just been a star this season, particularly in the last few weeks when he’s used his mobility as well as his arm to hurt teams. Whether it was playing in a system that suited him, whether it's the fact that he's matured as a player, or whether it was just a desire to shove the jokes down some people’s throats, the kid has taken the chance I gave him with both hands and looked an absolute shoe-in for the Pro-Bowl. God DAMN. In troops Jon Kitna. His appointed task – don’t mess this up. I don’t even know who’s third on the depth chart, so damn, but we need him to get this right... Oh, we’ve gone three and out, okay. And Kitna missed a wide-open Chad Johnson on 3rd down. Fair enough. I can see my whole season flashing before my eyes... As if sensing that the offence is going to need help, our D steps up to the plate and puts the Jaguars three-and-out. Chad Johnson does his bit with a dancing 25-yard punt return to give us the ball at our own 39. KISS is the plan – Keep It Simple, Stupid. Kitna’s first completion is a 5-yard out to Warrick, who turns upfield and tacks on 16 more after the catch. In times of trouble, you can always depend on Dillon, who takes a pitch-and-toss for 20, then grabs 6 more on a run up the gut. With red-zone targets Warrick, Dillon, Jackson and Graham on the field, no-one on the Jacksonville side thinks to keep an eye on backup tight-end Matt Schobel, who sneaks unnoticed into the flat, takes the pass and bulldozes over the line from 14 yards out to give us what’s hopefully an unassailable lead... 10-28 CIN. The defence is on a roll with the crowd howling their appreciation, Jimmy Smith is under blanket-coverage and Brunell can’t get anything going. We get them to 3rd and 11 on their own 15... so, that long pass to Patrick Johnson earlier that we knew was a fluke... that means that the 85-yard score he’s just picked up was a fluke too, right? Right. Jacksonville blow the 2-point conversion, though, and it’s 16-28 CIN early in the 4th quarter. And that’s pretty much the last Jacksonville see of the ball as Corey Dillon takes over. From decent field position, he carries the ball seven times for 23 yards, and tacks on a 33-yard reception on a screen, eating up the clock in the process. As time runs out, Daniel Graham gets his second TD catch of the game, and the third by a rookie Bengal TE. Final score JAC 10-35 CIN – a great result that takes us to 10-4 on the season, but it remains to be seen how much big a hole Akili Smith’s injury is going to put in the Good Ship Bengal. Even when you’re winning games, nothing’s ever fricking easy when you’re playing as Cincinnati, is it? [
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