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5 Infamous Moments from the Cincinnati Bengals/PS Rivalry

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OK, Cincinnati Bengals fans – the week is here.

The Metal People are coming to town. Even better, they’ve looked as soft as melting gold so far this year. Those from the “pit” are ripe for the picking.

Notice how we haven’t named them yet? That’s because, with some teams, you just dislike them so much that you want to say their name less than Voldemort. And there’s a reason for that hatred. In fact, there are several.

Cincinnati and the pit town have had more than their fair share of run-ins over the last few years. That has mushroomed into a pretty fierce rivalry – one that would give Da Bears!-Packers historic rivalry a run for its money.

Here are five moments/games that have really brought this thing to a head. And made us want to rip someone’s head off.

5 Big Moments in the Cincinnati Bengals Rivalry with “Them”

5. Time to Shine
Some might say this was more shallow than an episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, but it was still fun. Wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh had a great game in a 38-31 victory at Heinz field in 2005. To top it off, he used a Terrible Towel to shine his cleats in the tunnel. We can think of only one better use for the Terrible Towel. Hint: It wouldn’t be the shoes that you wipe …

4. Refereegate
The sting of this one is still fresh. It’s December 2017 and the Cincinnati Bengals are still hoping for a playoff bid. But the black and gold team stopped them cold, with some help from the black-and-white striped team. The Bengals were flagged 13 times for 173 yards (a team record). Many of those were the result of poor officiating. The worst was a BS holding call against Giovani Bernard in the second half that wiped out an Andy Dalton touchdown pass. It was such a phantom call that you half-expected to see an opera along with it. The TD – and the momentum – was officially lost. Along with a 17-point lead, the game, and the postseason.

3. Taking a Knee
The first playoff meeting between the two teams was in 2005. The stakes were high, the tension higher. Said tension reached a fever pitch when Bengals’ QB Carson Palmer was drilled on the second offensive play (in what many people thought was a late, dirty hit) and left the game with a knee injury. Cincy still managed to take a 17-7 lead, but the bottom fell out after that. The Other Team scored 24 straight and won 31-17, paving their way to a Super Bowl title.

2. You’re Late … Again and Again and Again. If you thought one late hit was a doozie, how about a second half full of them? That’s what we witnessed in the 2015 Wild Card Playoff game. Things seemed reasonably calm in the first half. Then the rain started falling … and the bodies. Assistant coach Mike Munchak pulled Reggie Nelson’s hair. Giovani Bernard was on the receiving end of a Ryan Shazier helmet-to-helmet tackle. Vontaze Burfict and Pacman Jones donated 30 yards in penalties to the Make-a-Field-Goal foundation. Even Ben Roth ….Roethles …. Roethlis … Big Ben was pelted with garbage as he was carted off the field after being sacked by Burfict. Where were the WWE superstars to make it a complete circus?

1. You Want Somma This? Well sorry, it’s ours! The 2009 Iron Workers football team allllmost qualified for the playoffs at 9-7. How sweet was it then, that two of those losses were to the eventual AFC North champion Cincinnati Bengals? Because, ya know, without those two losses, Pitt would have made the postseason. Claiming a playoff spot with one hand and shoving your heated rival away from it with the other hand? Ummmm, yes please!

Could 2018 Be Tyler Boyd’s Year?

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Never send just a man to do a Boyd’s job.

Sounds like a cool slogan for a t-shirt, right?

Well, it’s more than that. With Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd coming into his own as a viable target for Andy Dalton, that slogan could become the newest way to express how Bill Lazor’s offense will wreak havoc on opponents in 2018.

Getting to that point though hasn’t been a sure thing at times.

Tyler Boyd: Origins

The Bengals had reasonably high hopes for Tyler Boyd, drafting him in the second round out of Pitt in 2016. He brought a 6’2” frame and 4.58 speed to the team. Cincinnati penciled him in third on the depth chart behind Brandon LaFell and some guy named Green.

Boyd wasted no time jumping into the fray in 2016. He played in all 16 games and snagged 54 passes for 603 yards and 1 TD. Those are solid totals for a second rounder, especially when you consider that his role was mainly to complement Green and LaFell.

But last year, those numbers dipped more than the chorus of Freak Nasty‘s single Da Dip. (You know; I put my hand upon your hip …). Boyd suffered a knee sprain and only played in 10 games. He was targeted only 32 times, and caught 22 of them for 225 yards and a couple of TDs. To boot, he was in Marvin Lewis’ doghouse for reasons that even the cast of True Detective would have trouble figuring out.

Now, it’s year 3.

Through the first 3 games of 2018, Boyd has 15 catches for 249 yards and 2 touchdowns. That’s a healthy 16.6 yards per catch and a yardage total that already surpasses last year. Those numbers should keep growing nicely as Boyd gains experience and assumes a larger role in the offense with LaFell now in Oakland. Boyd is a good safety net/checkdown for Dalton and will team with Green to give the Cincinnati Bengals a powerful 1-2 punch. It’ll be enough to give secondaries that same dejected feeling you get when you’re jonesing for some Chick-fil-A … and then realize it’s Sunday.

Here’s to Tyler, whom we hope will continue to look like a man among boys.

It is too early to give up on John Ross

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The hate has already gone too far.

Enough with the John Ross hate, it’s gone too far with Bengals fans. Fans tweeting for his benching, to replace him with Josh Malone or Auden Tate, whatever it is, it needs to stop. It is far too early to give up on the 9th overall pick from 2017.

Ross played just 17 snaps last season as a rookie, partly due to injuries but also for losing the coaches trust. His rookie season was basically non-existent. 2018 is basically Ross’s rookie season as a Bengal. It all started out great, as Ross got a lot of camp hype and impressed coaches on a daily basis.

His great camp, along with Tyler Boyd’s development, was so strong they decided to cut veteran Brandon LaFell in favor of younger players. It was a very unusual move for the Bengals who tend to heavily favor vets but it shows just how confident they were in both Ross and Boyd. His good camp continued, getting compliments from coaches and teammates on his good play and about how good he looked coming off such a bad rookie year. Everything looked like it was coming together for a big 2018. His preseason was up and down but we witnessed how great of an athlete he can be.

Yes he also struggled with some drops but being basically a rookie one should expect there to be some bumps in the road. We even see veteran guys like Julio Jones, Antonio Brown, and even A.J. Green struggle from time to time.

Ross was quiet in week one versus the Colts, catching one ball for a touchdown. Yet it demonstrated how useful he can be for the Bengals. Adding him as a weapon to pair with an already loaded offense could be the missing piece the Bengals have needed. After a quiet week 2, his preseason hype had died down. It appeared maybe a week 3 breakout was on the horizon against a banged up Carolina secondary.

This is where we catch up to date on the John Ross situation. There was good and bad in this game for Ross. First, the good. Ross saw a career high 7 targets from Andy Dalton against Carolina. After seeing just 6 combined in the first two games it was nice to see Andy start looking his way more. We saw Andy look his way on a third down near the red zone that Ross caught setting up a touchdown. It was not an easy catch but Ross was able to secure it for the first down.

Now the bad. We saw multiple times in this game where Ross and Dalton could not connect. The first was in second quarter when Dalton took a deep shot to Ross near the end zone.

The ball appears to be just a bit in front of Ross, of course other camera angles show it was catchable, an incompletion nonetheless on what could’ve been a HUGE gain. The takeaway from this is that it was not Ross’s fault anymore than Daltons. They just could not connect.  The next play is on both Dalton and Ross again. Dalton forces a ball towards Ross near the sideline, not exactly a great throw. However, Ross also doesn’t go for the ball as hard as he probably could have resulting in an easy pick for the defense.

Again, the mistake is on both of them. The last play is the one that set fans over the edge. Late in the fourth quarter down by a touchdown, the Bengals need a spark to get the drive moving and tie the game. We see Dalton wind up and let the ball fly deep. He is looking for Ross on the play, and as many of you know the ball is picked off.

At first glance, it appears Ross gives up on his route and may have even been running the wrong way. But, if you watch Joe Goodberry’s breakdown of the play, you see it’s possible that Dalton threw the ball to the wrong spot. This doesn’t excuse Ross for giving up on his route, but it still is not all on John Ross. Most of the mistakes he made in this game were not completely his fault. And for those fans wanting Josh Malone in over Ross, Malone also was main the reason for an interception in this game.

The point is, John Ross is still young, basically a rookie trying to adapt to the NFL under a spotlight with gigantic expectations. Some guys like A.J. Green come into the league and are instantly studs, but for some it takes time. Take Tyler Boyd for example, who last year was made inactive at times and looked to have regressed a bit in his 2nd season and now is one of Dalton’s top targets and is playing like a stud. Ross needs time to develop and build that connection with Dalton. Week 4 will be a huge test to see how Ross can handle the criticism he has gotten and bounce back. There is no reason to give up on someone as talented as Ross. He is facing tougher criticism than someone like Boyd did but he is not yet a bust. We also shouldn’t be giving up just yet. Let him prove us wrong by working harder at practice, finishing his routes, and showing us more of what we saw in college at the NFL level.

It is simply too early to give up on John Ross after just 129 pro snaps.

Be sure to follow me on twitter @Pierson242FF and share your Ross thoughts with me. Who Dey!

Cincinnati Bengals Resign Geno Atkins, Carlos Dunlap

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Breathe easier Bengals fans – we landed the beef.

Let’s clear that up before one of you reports this site to your nearest censor or parenting group: The Cincinnati Bengals signed defensive tackle Geno Atkins to a $65.3 million extension that keeps the 6-time Pro Bowler in the Nasty Nati through 2022.

This news makes us happier than when a Cleveland fan starts trash talking before the Battle of Ohio. Atkins is perhaps the most vital defensive cog on the team. He logged 9 sacks in 2017 (third in the league among defensive tackles) and 10 TFLs (sixth among DTs).

Combined with the developing Andrew Billings (1.5 sacks against the Buffalo Bills in week 3 of the preseason), the Cincinnati Bengals now have the most important pieces in place to take away their opponents’ inside running game.


That was the cake. Now here’s the icing.

Defensive end Carlos Dunlap has also inked a new extension – 3 years, $45 million. Dunlap has 2 Pro Bowls to his credit and has started 79 of 80 regular-season games in the past 5 years. He has tremendous versatility, which he’s proven by logging 13.5 sacks one year (2015) and defending 15 passes the next (2016) in addition to being a solid run defender.

Last month we wrote about why we felt it was so important for the Bengals to keep both Atkins and Dunlap after 2018. We’ll be glad to see these two guys in tiger stripes for the next few years. Opponents, though, probably won’t feel the same way …

Deepest Position Groups on the 2017 Cincinnati Bengals’ Roster

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There are certain Cincinnati Bengals position groups that we hate to see get hit by the injury bug (quarterback, linebacker, offensive line). While you never want anyone to get hurt, it is comforting as a fan to know that an injury to a position group won’t have you popping a Zantac.

So we took a look at the Bengals’ roster and found two places where the team has some serious depth. These are the groups that can survive a few dings in 2017.

Deepest Cincinnati Bengals Offensive Position Group – Wide Receiver

What a difference a year makes. At one point in 2016, the Cincinnati Bengals were just one A.J. injury away from having a Cleveland Browns-caliber passing attack.

Fast forward to this year. Green is healthy and ready to go. Tyler Boyd had a fine rookie campaign (54 catches, 603 yards) and has a high ceiling. He’s ready to take the next step in his career. Brandon LaFell averaged 13.5 yards per reception. Draft picks John Ross and Josh Malone and second-year man Cody Core are impressing so far.

Them, plus several youngsters and pass-catching tight end Tyler Eifert, means one thing. This group is deep enough that you can put diving boards over it.

Deepest Cincinnati Bengals Defensive Position Group – Defensive Tackle

A lot of good DTs on your roster means you can rotate guys frequently. Keep them fresh. Withstand the rigors of a 16-game season. Oh, and stay in the face of the other team’s offense.

The good news for Cincy is they have the personnel to improve on their 21st-ranked rushing defense from last fall. Geno Atkins and Pat Sims are the veterans who bring seven and nine years of experience, respectively. Atkins consistently attracts double teams, notched nine sacks last year and is a disrupter.

The team has high hopes this season for Andrew Billings who was projected as a 1st or 2nd round draft pick in the 2016 draft but fell into the Bengals lap in the 4th round before missing his entire rookie season due to injury. DeShawn Williams is only in his second year out of Clemson, but is a 6’1” 295-lb Geno Atkins-like bowling ball who is tough to push around. Brandon Thompson is back after missing all of 2016 with an ACL tear, further adding to the depth. Marcus Hardison has looked impressive the past 2 preseasons but hasn’t been able to stay healthy to impact the regular season, throw in 2017 fourth round draft pick Ryan Glasgow out of Michigan and you can see the wealth of young talent this team will have competing to make the roster in training camp and the preseason.

Things are looking good for these two position groups. And if they are able to do their jobs well, things will look a lot better for the rest of the team.