Bengals Hit Their Stride
By Tim Sullivan
WagerWeb.com contributing writer
They started in September with plans on defending their AFC North Division title, gaining home-field advantage and making it to the Super Bowl.
They now sit in December as the wild-card leaders, and they probably won’t get much better than that.
But that’s just fine by the Cincinnati Bengals (8-5). Especially considering that just four short weeks ago, they were one game below the .500 mark.
“If we want to be the team that we believe we are,” Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis said, “we’ve got to go play and win football games.”
They’ve done a good job of that, obviously, on the four-game winning streak they’re riding. The Bengals have defeated the Saints, Browns, Ravens and Raiders in that span and scored 27 or more points in three of those.
But if you listen to this bunch, you get the idea that they’re just warming up. Forget the three-game losing streak that bridged October and November. Forget the fact that they’re still two games behind Baltimore (10-3) in the North.
As far as they’re concerned, everything’s just fine, thank you.
“Hopefully,” quarterback Carson Palmer said, “we’re playing our best football these next three weeks.”
That won’t be easy, no matter how lethal the offense has been of late. The Bengals travel to Indianapolis (10-3) on Monday to face the suddenly desperate Colts. Cincinnati is +3 on WagerWeb.com.
Then, the Bengals close with the Broncos (7-6) and Steelers (6-7).
“I know I’m a little ahead of myself, but once we get past Indy,” wide receiver Chad Johnson said, “I think we’re kind of home free.”
Of course, Johnson probably had the same feeling when the Bengals opened 3-0, only to lose five of their next six.
But, either way, it’s abundantly clear that in today’s NFL, all you need to do is make the postseason. After that, anything is truly possible. The Super Bowl champion Steelers, after all, were a wild-card team out of this same division last year.
So stay tuned.
JETS JUMPED: The Jets (7-6) spent a good part of last week pronouncing themselves as legitimate contenders in the AFC wild-card race, only to be humbled by Buffalo, 31-13, at home on Sunday.
All is not lost in New York, though. The schedule — as it has been most of the season for first-year Coach Eric Mangini — is favorable down the stretch. The Jets face Minnesota (6-7), Miami (6-7) and Oakland (2-11) to close it out.
So, despite the fact that they’ll need to win out and get some help along the way, the attitude remains positive on Long Island.
“You’re always fighting human nature,” Mangini said at the team’s headquarters in Hempstead, N.Y. “You come off a big win, you fight the human nature of, ‘Everything’s OK, things are good.’ If you come off a big loss, you fight the human nature of, ‘The sky is falling, things are so bad.’ It’s never the case in either of those scenarios.”
He makes a good point, especially considering how much this club has achieved opposed by what it was supposed to achieve.
But the moral-victory stuff needs to wait until the offseason. Whether or not they belong there or were expected to be there, the Jets are still alive and need to be focused solely on that fact.
“We’re,” safety Kerry Rhodes said, “going to keep playing.”
The Jets are 3-point underdogs for their Sunday date at Minnesota on WagerWeb.com.
EXTRA POINTS: Former 49ers and Seahawks coach Dennis Erickson moved one step closer to a return to the NFL, when he left Idaho for Arizona State yesterday. Hey, if he can get a Pac-10 job after leading the Vandals to a 4-8 record, anything can happen right? … Seattle wide receiver Darrell Jackson (turf toe) is unlikely to play Thursday night in the NFL Network game against the 49ers (5-8). The Seahawks (8-5) are -9.5 on WagerWeb.com … The news is worse for Lions running back Kevin Jones, who has a foot fracture that will require surgery and at least six months of recovery time.