10 Things from Bengals-Steelers

The NFL at its ridiculous best

The official TML resurrection will occur in This Space on Wednesday. Three a week, more as situations demand, never less, always delivered by lunchtime to your e-mail Inbox. Same as it ever was, Mobsters, only now on a new platform. And free.

I was on my annual trek to mountain Mecca over the weekend. (The annual mountain Trip Report will appear Wednesday in This Space.) When The Men were busy losing all over themselves Sunday afternoon, my son and I were in the Blue Ridge back country trying to keep the mud out of our boots. Man, I’d have loved to have heard Lap call the end of that game.

I’ve read/watched/heard all about it since. I’ve lived here long enough to predict the reaction. Please, stay off the ledges. Sunday’s absurdity will be forgotten by December. It’s like when a big-ranked college basketball team loses in the Virgin Islands at Christmas. Nobody cares in March. That said, losing to the Stillers was wholly preventable.

Without further ado. . .

TEN THINGS

1. Rust cost the Bengals the game. Just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean it’s not legit. The first-team offense was not ready to play. It was dreamland to believe they could revamp the O-line on the fly — including a rookie guard — without having those guys spend any live-game time together. First play of the game set the tone. Unless the 2nd play did. Sack, sucker pick-6. Which gets me to. . .

2. Joe Burrow being less than saintly. He’s one of the five best QBs in the game, but because of what we love about him, he’s going to have games like this. Not many, but a few. Only very good and very bad quarterbacks throw 3-plus picks in a game. No one is saying Burrow is a very bad quarterback.

His unbreakable confidence convinces him there’s no throw he can’t make. Even throws he shouldn’t try. Minkah Fitzpatrick played into that on Play 2. We saw the result. You want Burrow to keep High Noon-ing it. That’s who he is and he’s very good at it. But every once in awhile he’s going to pay for that.

3. The O-line was bad. Rinse and repeat. How much of that is fix-able? On paper, a lot. The players now are better than the players then. Markedly. Cohesion matters in line play, more than at any other position group. You have to know what the guy next to you is going to do. You have to trust he’s going to do it. Logic suggests this line will be better this week than last week. Fact says they won’t be blocking TJ Watt and Cam Heyward in Dallas on Sunday. But 7 sacks and 11 hits is not long-term survivable.

4. Zac Taylor’s shaky decision-making doesn’t inspire confidence, at least not at the moment. ‘Nati fans are notorious for 2nd-guessing Reds managers. Ain’t that right, Dusty? They’ll do the same with Taylor if he fumbles heat-of-the-moment calls again. You challenge the Chase TD catch-that-wasn’t. You run off 13 seconds before punting late in OT. You wonder who’s in Taylor’s headset when it comes to deciding on challenges.

It’s not the biggest flaw a coach can have. Taylor’s team-building is far more important than his game management. But if the Bowl is the goal, he needs to be smarter and steadier with his hands on the wheel. Still, I’m not blaming Taylor for five turnovers (and none forced), seven sacks and Clark Harris being hurt.

5. Minkah Fitzpatrick showed Jessie Bates what a highly paid safety looks like.

6. Until Sunday, I’d never heard of Mitch Wilcox.

7. Which hurt worse, BengalFan, this one of the Pac-Tez playoff debacle? I’d say Pac-Tez, no contest. You might not.

8. It’s scary how good kickers are now. The same day Even McPherson goes for 59, the Cleveland kid clears 58 on a kick that would have been good from 70. This is Justin Tucker stuff, becoming routine.

9. At least The Men will have Cooper Rush to kick around Sunday in Dallas. If I were a betting man, I’d bet your house on the Bengals covering in JerryWorld. The Cowboys only had three points when Dak Prescott broke his thumb in the 4th quarter.

10. Your take.

AND FINALLY. . . At the outset of this re-start, I want to thank everyone who came back to our little virtual sports bar. Raise your glass to the sequel and check your email every day by noon. School’s back in, Mobsters.