Cincinnati Bengals

While the offseason has arrived for all but four teams, we continue on, recognizing the excellence of individuals for seasons well played. We began our look at the 2011 All-Division teams yesterday with the AFC East, but today it’s the AFC North’s turn to take its place in the limelight.

As with all of these teams we’re using some discretion when it comes to personnel and system in order to get the best possible lineup on the field from each division, so don’t necessarily expect to see the teams match in that regard.

Here is PFF’s All-AFC North Team for the 2011 season.

Read the rest of this entry »

Making the playoffs is good, winning in them is better.

You won’t need to tell the Houston Texans that after a victory in their playoff debut sent a rocking Reliant Stadium home happy. After a season that has seen them lose their star pass rusher and starting and backup quarterbacks, they overcame a Bengals team that had its chances. That they did owes a lot to a rushing attack that gave Arian Foster just enough space to make some big runs, and a defense that got to grips with Andy Dalton, eventually making him look every bit the rookie he is.

The Cincinnati Bengals will no doubt be disappointed this was the case after an efficient start that saw them have success moving the ball downfield. But after missing an opportunity to put up points, and then being held to just a field goal, they failed to deliver the kind of blow that could have rattled a Texans team that had lost three on the bounce. Still, there’s plenty of young talent on that roster (check out what Neil Hornsby had to say about the excellent Geno Atkins) and they took a huge step forward in what was meant to be a transitional year. Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve been pulling our hair out about this all season … how do we give you some great information you can’t get anywhere else just after the game finishes? For technical reasons we can’t start analysis until just after the game ends and then it’s around eight hours of hard data crunching before the information surfaces and another hour or so before we publish our Re-Focused articles.

We thought about giving you some quick hit stuff but frankly that’s not our style; we have lots of flaws at PFF but lack of substance isn’t one of them. We’re not going to give you, the hard core fan, less information than you deserve so we had an idea–how about giving you more? Why don’t we cut down on the width dramatically but go into more depth on a particular area of the game or matchup than we’ve done previously. We’ll use our top guys (or me in this case) to log just one part of play but in great detail and get it to you as soon after the game finishes as we can. Read the rest of this entry »

Things were looking so good for the Houston Texans this season. They got a huge break before any football had been played when Peyton Manning’s injury ended up costing him the entire season (and who knows what else beyond), and that seemed to give them the impetus to finally shake off the title of also-rans and push into the playoffs. Houston had things wrapped up and was chasing the No. 1 seed when Matt Schaub went down, a blow that was rapidly followed by backup Matt Leinart‘s fall. This left the ship under the control of late-round rookie quarterback T.J Yates, or the potential backup of Jake Delhomme should the wheels really fall off. Luckily for Houston, they’ve been able to play well enough to date that there has been no need to panic … but now it’s the playoffs.

Cincinnati made the playoffs after saying goodbye to Chad Ochocinco and Carson Palmer, probably the team’s two most iconic figures of the past decade. They have played some great football at times despite being led by a rookie quarterback in the shape of Andy Dalton and their defense has been much improved. Despite failing to knock off rivals Baltimore and Pittsburgh in the AFC North, they’ve found their way in as the third qualifying team from the division. Read the rest of this entry »

The AFC North can definitely claim to be the best division in football this year, sending three teams to the playoffs for the first time–the Pittsburgh Steelers and the two teams who met on Sunday: the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals.

In the end, the Bengals didn’t need to win the game as the roars of celebration ringing round Paul Brown stadium during the Bengals’ failed final drive signaled that the Broncos has lost. That being said, it’s disappointing to see them slip up against better opposition once again, not ideal heading into the playoffs.

The Ravens managed to banish their road woes to finish the season 4-4 away from M&T Bank Stadium, but the win meant they clinched the division and No. 2 seed in the AFC, meaning they’ll need to win one game on the road at most, to reach the Super Bowl. The game didn’t feature much in the way of dominant performances but there were still plenty of talking points. Here’s a look at the key performances from this matchup. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s fitting that this Week 17 matchup mixes together the two main stories of the Baltimore Ravens’ season, their struggles on the road and their perfect record in the AFC North. You won’t have to tell people in Baltimore what’s on the line in this one, win and they’ll host a playoff game for the first time under John Harbaugh, lose and they’ll likely be headed to Denver or Oakland.

The Cincinnati Bengals don’t have the luxury of already being in the playoffs and competing for a division title this weekend, they need to win to avoid being dragged into a murky field of 9-7 teams for the last Wild Card spot. It’s also the final chance for them to show they can beat someone other than the Cleveland Browns in the division.

For me, this is the most intriguing game of the week bar the winner-takes-all NFC East showdown on Sunday night, with both fighting for different reasons. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the three matchups to focus on this week.

Read the rest of this entry »

At half time the Cincinnati Bengals were coasting. A 20 point lead and a further field goal in the third quarter stretched it to 23. Mission accomplished; a comfortable victory to keep their playoff hopes alive and end the Arizona Cardinals playoff hopes. In the end the Bengals did win out, but a mini fourth quarter collapse put their ability to control their own destiny, in the playoff race, in doubt. But for the most untimely trip of the season, they would likely have been headed to an overtime period with a Cardinals team that has shown itself capable of pulling off the biggest plays in overtime periods to put away their opponent. The Bengals flirted with disaster in the fourth but their win, combined with a New York Jets loss, sees a sixth seed in an AFC North dominated playoffs within their grasp.

For the Cardinals this was the end of an improbable playoff run as they recovered from a 1-6 start to sit at 7-7 entering this week’s game. Behind some of the most inconsistent and at times awful quarterback play during that stretch that is a truly remarkable run that shows that Ken Whisenhunt might just be building a team that can grow and challenge the San Francisco 49ers in the coming seasons if they can find the right man under center.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I was growing up, watching a matchup between these two teams would’ve been terrible. In the 1990’s, these teams were consistently near the bottom of their divisions and just not great football teams. Both franchises have slowly turned their fortunes around, and now are having good years mixed with the bad. This year both teams have been very average and with two weeks remaining, both are still alive in the playoff hunt.

Instead of it being a boring matchup like my inner child would think this would be, it is now basically an elimination match. The winner will likely keep their playoff hopes alive and the loser likely having their shot at the playoffs dissipate. There might not be as many stars on these teams to give the game more national attention, but there are plenty of good players that you may not have heard of. You can’t ask for much more than that, so here are the three matchups that will determine who might be playing into January.

Read the rest of this entry »

A matchup between a playoff contender and an injury-plagued afterthought played out an intriguing matchup in Week 15 as the Cincinnati Bengals in the end proved to have too much for the St Louis Rams. For most of the game, the two teams played back-and-forth, only exchanging field goals before two Bengals touchdown drives (either side of the intermission between the third and fourth quarters) put this game away. The Rams got a consolation touchdown late, but as soon as the Bengals established that two-score lead, you felt this game was over.

Neither team really broke from their stereotype in this game. The Rams played solid defense but couldn’t muster any offense to truly test the Bengals. As ever, everything went through Steven Jackson and though he did his best to carry Bengal defenders for yards, they had sights set on him all day and he could never break free to rip-off a big play and break the game open. Read the rest of this entry »

When you look at the Bengals and Rams as of late, you won’t see a whole lot of winning. Cincinnati has lost four of their last five with their only win coming against the Browns, while St. Louis has lost five of their last six with their only win also coming against Cleveland.

The only difference is Cincinnati’s losses came against teams that are tied for the best record in the AFC, while the Rams have lost to their division opponents which aren’t exactly the class of the league. Also the Bengals are fighting for their playoff lives while the Rams need to find some other motivation to play.

It might not be the sexiest matchup you’ll find this week, but there are a number of mismatches that should make this game interesting. Oddly enough, we find that the mismatches mirror each other for both teams. Read the rest of this entry »