UC, Bengals and The Burden of Big Expectations

It's easier to climb the hill than to stay there

What did you expect Saturday afternoon in Fayetteville and how realistic were those expectations?

UC offered a mixed bag in losing 24-31 at Arkansas. If you’re being honest, you’re saying this morning that the Bearcats were who you thought they were. They lost 9 guys to the NFL draft, both coaching coordinators and their star QB. They played a team that last year beat Texas A&M and LSU, won a game on New Year’s Day and had Alabama on the ropes. They faced a 12th Man that messed with their minds. Playing with a puncher’s chance in the 4th quarter was a reasonable goal.

That’s not pandering or a patronizing. It’s fact.

Ben Bryant didn’t play well enough for UC to win. He looked like a big-time QB most of the 2nd half. That was half of what the Bearcats needed. Killer overthrows, deadly malfunctions near the goal line. UC lost the game in the 3rd quarter, specifically on the blown chance after the fumble recovery inside the Arkansas 10. You can’t take a delay and 4th-and-goal from the 3.

Meantime, Razorbacks QB KJ Jefferson was showing us what a veteran big-game QB looks like.

Still, if that game is played at Nippert in late October, you could argue the outcome would be different.

Playing an indifferent schedule, the Bearcats won’t be in the playoff talk this year. And one of these years, they have to beat the sort of program they aspire to be. (Winning in South Bend was mighty. It can’t be an outlier.) ‘Bama might be an overreach; Arkansas is not.

Now, then. . .

THE BENGALS are in the same position UC’s in. Both have harder roads this year, for different reasons. Expectations for The Men are such that anything less than February won’t be seen as progress. We tend to narrow our sports focus around here, so much that we only see our own team, not the clubs we compete against.

Are the Bengals, on paper, better than ‘21? Seem to be.

If RT La’el Collins stays whole and rookie RG Cordell Volson survives, the O-line will do better by Saint Joe than it did last year. Joseph Ossai is playing, rookie safety Dax Hill looks legit. Does anyone think the passing game last year was a fluke?

The Bengals are better. Better enough?

This year isn’t last year. After years of black-cloud living, the ‘21 Bengals spent last fall walking on sunshine. No crippling injuries, no COVID issues, a last-place schedule. Simply remarkable Ws, damned near unique in their good fortune. The sort of Three Musketeers locker-room vibe familiar to all teams that suddenly go from swamp to mountaintop. You know: The sort of mood that never lasts in professional sports. Ain’t that right, Jessie Bates?

And the schedule.

From Nov. 27 to the end of the season, the Bengals are at Tennessee, Tampa and New England, and home with Buffalo and the Ravens. Week 2 is in Dallas. And there’s a roadie in Nawlins.

My guy Bengal Boy believes all that will be defeated by a generous sprinkling of Joe Burrow Fairy Dust. Do you?

The opener could be eye-opening. Mike Tomlin has spent several months conjuring ways to dismiss the fairy dust. He’ll have the advantage of applying his conjures to a Bengals offensive line that still needs name tags. Hello, my name is Ted.

Is keeping your team healthy a better strategy in August than getting it ready for a real-live game? We’re about to find out.

Regardless, a loss to the Steelers would provoke the same sort of cynicism among Bengals fans that UC’s L at Arkansas did Saturday night.

Big expectations are good. They’re what you want. They’re also a bitch.

JIM DAY’S PODCASTS are so good, they’re enough to make you pray for rain delays. Day has developed an approachable, non-confrontational interview style that elicits the best from his subjects. His chats with Joey Votto ought to be standard listening in Broadcast Journalism 101. His back-and-forth with Cowboy and Tommy Thrall was by massively informational and entertaining.

Day proves you can do your radio/TV sports gig — being “positive’’ to the point of annoyance — without annoying us.

SPEAKING OF MEDIA. . . Thom Brennaman is doing a daily sports show. "Off the Bench" runs from 10-noon Monday through Friday on Chatterbox Sports' YouTube and Brennaman's social media platforms. He has the sway to book big guests — Brian Billick was on last week, Bob Costas is planned — and he has the financial backing locally.

And well, um, he has Me! Me! Me! on every Wednesday. TML sez ckitout.

DID SOMEONE SAY BITE ME? No, Morning Man, no one did.

Well OK, I will. Bite is a strange name for a restaurant. Normally, I don’t patronize places that try to get hip with one-word names. Red, for example, is simply too cute by half, yeah?

I made an exception for Bite Restaurant – Have A Bite To Eat (bitefoodie.com)

It has a few things going for it. It’s in the boonies, sort of, near Milford off State 131. It has a very nice setting for dining al fresco. And it’s BYOB, which cuts your bill down considerably. Johnny Thinwallet loved that. And the food was fabulous, with lots of locally sourced ingredients. Take advantage of the fleeting fall weather. Bring your own Keystone.

RUFUS ALERT. Watched the movie Licorice Pizza Sunday afternoon, on Amazon Prime. Interesting and weird, something you’d expect from a movie directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, The Royal Tanenbaums). But at two-plus hours, it’s not always coherent and the ending is unsatisfactory. For Anderson groupies, mainly.

PROGRAMMING NOTES. . . I’m headed to Asheville Thursday for my annual mountain sojourn with my son. We’ll kick the new TML into high gear upon my return, sometime around Sept. 15. For OMs (Original Mobsters) the format will be familiar, with hopefully a few new wrinkles. I’m bringing back my Drinking Column Guy and my Local Entertainment Guru. I hope to sway more reader engagement by making TML 2.0 more about you and less about me. I’m pondering adding a podcast featuring the wit and wisdom of my two best boys, Pogo and Bengal Boy.

And so much more. Stay tuned.

And give our virtual sports bar multiple shout-outs to everyone you know, and everyone you don’t. Thanks.

TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . Maybe my favorite one-hit wonder. Feel free to submit yours.