Perfect throw after perfect throw. Derrick Henry running to Nowhere. Players known best by their moms delivering over and over. (Earl Weaver, baseball manager/savant, called it “deep depth’’)
Three Sherman-to-Atlanta drives to end the game and the Titans. (Know your Civil War history, kids.)
We’ve spent a fair amount of keystrokes on skepticism in This Space. Light schedule, L’il Debbie QBs, inconsistency etc. We waited for big-time validation that these Bengals had the same Frebruary potential as last year’s crew.
Well?
The Men had the right stuff Sunday, with the sort of all-hands show (finally) that leaves you thinking, Why Not?
Of course, KC might come in Sunday and rearrange anew our perceptions. The Supe looks like it’ll be played at the intersection of Mahomes and Hurts Streets. But this is the NFL. And the Bengals did beat Mahomes twice last year, so. . .
No asterisks today. No Yeah-Buts. Baltimore loses at Jax and hasn’t looked championship in weeks. Buffalo has an achy QB and no Von Miller. The Dolphins are the league’s sexy team at the moment. Would you take Tua over Burrow? Miami’s very good receivers ahead of the Bengals great ones?
Other than Mahomes and arguably Jalen Hurts, who has a player more inevitable than Burrow?
This isn’t a great team. You wonder about the secondary without Awuzie. The pass rush isn’t daunting. Of course, an injury to Mr. Inevitable would be disastrous. But who else, this morning, is obviously better than the Bengals?
Now, then. . .
TEN THINGS, AND WE DON’T MEAN THE NUMBER OF TIMES D. HENRY RAN TO NOWHERE. . .
The Titans are very good but woefully one-dimensional on offense. They have no plan after Give Henry The Ball.
A round of applause, please, for the Bengals entire personnel staff. You need a little luck and faith to wind up with Samaje Perine, Trenton Irwin, Hayden Hurst, Wilcox, Adeniji etc. etc. etc. But you also have to know what you’re doing.
Perine is Lawrence Taylor’s “crazed dog.’’ (Lookitup). His stiff-arm on the first play of the game — the first play! — let the Titans know what the terms would be Sunday. Joe Mixon might be a better back, but no better a fit. Perine just brings it.
The Bengals waived Irwin three times, and three times signed him to the practice squad the next day. They saw something in him no one else did. They were right. Nice toe-tapping in the 4th Sunday.
Hayden Hurst is a better receiver than CJ Uzomah was, and apparently just as quality a teammate. The Men have gone 3-1 without Chase. Next question.
An overlooked reason The Men are winning is, the O-line has stayed mostly healthy across the board. A certain Head Mobster might have noted in September, when everyone was screaming the familiar Line Sucks! scream, that the line’s biggest issue was a lack of game reps together. Well. . .
The line was terrific Sunday against the NF of L’s best defense. Burrow had time to throw. Time? Mr. Inevitable looked like Belushi strolling the buffet line in Animal House. Burrow-Plus-Time is, well, inevitable.
That throw to Tee Higgins on 2nd-and-10 from the Titans 41 — you know the one I’m talking about — might have been the best throw I’ve seen Burrow make. It went for 29 yards and resulted in a field goal.
In fact, Cincinnati’s last three drives put a physical and mental hurt on the Titans they’re not likely to forget anytime soon. Three possessions, 32 plays, 201 yards. Ten points that would have been 13 or 17 but the Bengals took a knee to end the game inside TN’s 20. Will, imposed.
Now don’t go out there Sunday and stain all this gushing.
Now, then. . .
NOT EVERYTHING WAS GREAT AROUND HERE this weekend. Luke Fickell is leaving for Wisconsin. Just like that. I addressed this in yesterday’s TML. The Cliff’s Notes:
Not sure why he did it. It’s not a lateral move, but only because the 10 is better than the 12, on the field and at the bank.
He’ll never overcome OSU and Blue and, starting in ‘24, USC. Think Auburn in the SEC.
He was, with only slight argument from the BK fans (are there BK fans?) the best football coach UC has ever had.
Never believe any coach when he cites his family as reason he won’t be moving. All coaches move.
Thank Luke and send him on his way, warmly.
I’D LIKE TO TELL YOU WHO MR. NEXT IS, but I’d be faking it. I hope it’s a younger guy, not Tom Herman or (sigh) Kerry Coombs. I hope AD John Cunningham doesn’t try for a guy who’d win the press conference (ie, Tuberville) but maybe a lesser-known, smart, high-energy guy who’s good at dealing with boosters and alums and can convince local studs to stick around. Like Kelly or Jones or, you know, Fickell.
This is a very good job, worthy of highly qualified applicants.
BUCK-NUTS ARE STILL WONDERING how Ryan Day could be so badly outcoached. I don’t normally knee-jerk blame coaching when teams don’t perform well. It’s too easy and I’m not a coach and don’t pretend to be. But the complete lack of defensive adjustments was damning. I mean, when it starts to rain, don’t you head beneath the nearest roof?
UC HOOPS DID BEAT VILLE, BUT. . . Their Maui show was dispiriting. The OSU clobbering especially so. This team has lots of time to turn things around, but what I saw was a club without a singular purpose. Nothing defines these Bearcats. They don’t play D like Huggs’ and Mick’s teams did, they aren’t especially tough-minded and lordy, they cannot shoot the ball. Heaving threes as the shot clock dies is not offense.
MEANTIME, BECAUSE I TRY TO HAVE A LIFE (especially now that I’m working for free) I didn’t see a second of X’s winless but seemingly promising weekend. It’s no sin to lose closely to Duke and Gonzaga in November. Sean Miller is a very good coach and he has some talent to work with. The Musketeers will be who they usually are, come March.
IF YOU LIKE WHAT WE DO HERE, PLEASE SHARE AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS, Romans and countrymen. Thank you.
TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . I watched Scorsese’s concert movie over the weekend. Shine A Light was about a Rolling Stones show maybe 11-12 years ago. I’ve seen the Stones four times, but not since maybe 2004. I doubt I’ll see ‘em again. They’re great, but kinda vaudeville by now, yeah?
First time I saw them was in ‘75, Goat’s Head Soup tour. Their audacity was still genuine. Now, it’s tired. And no one is shocked in 2022 to see a giant replica of a guy’s you-know-what emerge from a hole in the stage when Mick’s screaming Star Star.
Anyway, I still love this version of this tune, performed back in the late 60s. The boys at their rockin’ finest, shorn of all pretense.
I like Urban for the job. And no Tuberville comparisons. either, from the peanut gallery.... 2 completely different fish. Has roots here, can/has won the biggest games, knows how to recruit, and, like Sean Miller, needs a combo prodigal-son/redemption moment in his career. He would fit right in and hit the ground running. Obviously the guy knows how to coach. What better place fora resurrection than at your alma mater? I don't care if he leaves in 3 years, just get things running in the Big 12. If he wants to head to greener pastures then, so be it.
Tubby was 100% skum bag the whole time here. Just thinking about him makes me need a shower.
The whole general Cincinnati thing-the Clifton area, the rise in crime, the infighting downtown, the way this town has turned hard and mean the last decade- is my guess why Fick might have left, along with the thought that he will know the Big 10 inside out when OSU tires of Day and comes calling again. The Brannen firing bugged him, too. Madison is a very mellow college town. It will be a much easier, more breathable lifestyle there. He wont have as many inroads with the local kids, but he can build those. He should do well. and I wish him thus. Thanks, Fick, for some really great seasons. You reminded us that character is all about how you live your life.
Re: #7. If, at the end of the season, we call all collectively agree that the OL is as good as it appears to be at this point, I suggest we have proof that buying an OL is much more effective than hoping to choose top draft picks to become NFL Pro Bowlers. Agree? If not, what other conclusion is as self-evident as this one?