Sigh.
What can anyone say to possibly sum up what all Bengals fans are feeling right now?
Nothing.
Cincinnati lost to the Houston Texans to make the Bengals' trip to the playoffs about as long as a Brittney Spears marriage. Again. The play calling was awful, Andy Dalton almost made me miss Carson Palmer and the highly touted defensive line never got near Matt Schaub.
It even had the hallmark of a classic Bengals loss: Fans were given legitimate hope at the very end.
And then, with one overthrown TD pass, it was all taken away.
Cue the fire and brimstone. Cue the calls for the heads of Dalton, Marvin Lewis, Jay Gruden and everyone else who may have contributed to a loss that ended Cincinnati's season the same way it did last year. And in 2009. And in 2005.
In some respects, these calls are justified. Going by Einstein's definition of insanity, change must be made. But maybe in a few weeks cooler heads will prevail and Cincinnati's esteemed owner Mike Brown will bring back the entire cast of characters who raised the Bengals to the highest level of play they've been in years.
But what if that's not enough?
What if this cast of characters has hit its ceiling?
We've seen what this crew can do. And to be honest, it's not much better than what we saw from the Dick LeBeau/Gus Frerotte-esque combinations of the '90s and '00s.
I'm not going to pretend I know what the real answer is. Whether it's getting rid of Gruden, Lewis, Dalton or some combination of the three. But I do know another slightly above average season will no longer cut it in Cincinnati.
The bar has been raised. More is expected out of the Bengals than before. Unfortunately for Cincinnati fans, we have an entire offseason to think about exactly what those expectations are.
No comments:
Post a Comment