AFC North Championship = respect

After a terrible first half offensively, the Bengals pulled together a respectable effort, beat a bad Chiefs team, and clinched their division.

As the snow began to fall, the Bengals began celebrating their second division crown of the Marvin Lewis era. Awful looking graphics filled the stadium, the Black Eyed Peas were played (I'll bet you can guess which song), and AFC-North 2009 Championship tee-shirts flooded the Pro Shop.

Chants of Who-Dey could be heard all around Cincinnati. So much so that people outside of Cincinnati finally heard the call.

It took literally the entire season, but the Bengals finally landed a prime-time game!

In the last week of the season there is no Monday Night Football game, and the Sunday Night game isn't announced until a week before the game. This is to ensure that the best possible matchup lands the spot, as many teams are eliminated from the playoffs by then. With the Jets facing a win-and-you're-in scenario, and the Bengals chasing a higher seed than the Patriots, the powers in New York decided to put Bengals-Jets in the final prime-time spot of the regular season.

I was ready to write a post about the Bengals getting overlooked by a national audience, possibly due to some sort of conspiracy theory. After all, the Browns - who finished a half game worse than the Bengals last season - had TWO primetime games, a Thursday nighter against the Steelers and a Monday Night Football showdown with the Ravens.

The Raiders got a Monday Night game against the Chargers, and the Thanksgiving game against the Cowboys despite being only a half game ahead of the Bengals last year.

A lot of mediocre teams from last year received multiple primetime games as well. The Redskins, Broncos, and Packers each got two or more despite finishing at or below .500. Was there really no room for the Bengals?

Well there is now. We'll see Sunday night if the Bengals can finish the season with a bang. If they do, it will be the final game ever played in Giants stadium, and the first time Cincinnati has ever won there.

This rant is over.

Down but not out

OK, we've all had a chance to digest Cincinnati's 30-10 loss to the Vikings yesterday, and it's time to approach the situation with some clarity.

The team mostly looked bad, especially on offense. Too many penalties, too little pass protection, and an offense that was too conservative (with the exception being the first touchdown drive) doomed the Bengals pretty early in the day. Although the defense held the Vikings in striking distance most of the day, the inability of the offense to stay on the field and score points would eventually doom them to their worst performance of the year.

It seems most local and national coverage is already giving up on the tigers. This was supposedly their preview of postseason football, and the Bengals clearly failed. Plus, this team hasn't won a playoff game since 1990 (the longest draught in the league, naturally). So while I don't necessarily blame them, I think I can see a bigger picture.

After each of the Bengal's losses, they have responded very well the next week. After Denver, they came and beat the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau. At the time the Pack were the darlings of the preseason, and even now they're almost certainly a playoff team. This was a total win, with great offensive and defensive efforts

After the somewhat embarrassing loss to the Texans, the Bengals responded by destroying the Chicago Bears. This was clearly the high water mark for this offense, and should be a reminder of what can be done, but far too often isn't.

Lastly, after a totally embarrassing loss to the Raiders (I think this is embarassing - the Raiders are hard to figure out - they did beat Philly and Pittsburgh, too), the Bengals responded by totally controlling the Browns game. Although they didn't score a lot of points, it never looked like the Browns would seriously threaten the lead.

Well, I guess back to back games against two of the league's four worst teams, maybe the Bengals had gone a little soft. Really though, it comes at a good time. Even with the loss, Cincinnati would still steal the 2nd seed in the playoffs from the Chargers with a win, plus another win or two to close the season.

Because optimism for this team isn't running high right now, this isn't the scenario that most people are looking at. Analysts have been using any number of stats to point to the Bengal's recent futility in the passing game and inability to score touchdowns in the second half even before the Vikings game. Obviously there's some truth to this, but I cannot believe that a nine win team that swept its division is going to be one and done in the playoffs.

Why not? Because last year the team that met that description was the Arizona Cardinals, who made it to the Superbowl.

Be patient, Bengals fans. It's not January yet.