All I found was a video of Chad getting his helmet knocked off against Cleveland.

This sort of depends on who is active this week. Jerome Simpson has barely played since we drafted him ahead of DeSean Jackson a few years ago, but Marvin Lewis seems extraordinarily optimistic that Simpson will be a productive pro. I’m under the impression that the guy is a burner with a lot of athleticism to boot. If he’s active, he may stretch the secondary a couple of times.

Aside from Henry, Chad Ochocinco has always been known as a wide receiver that can stretch the field vertically. Andre Caldwell has shown the capacity to get open in the middle of the field for intermediate (read: 20) seam routes.

Laveranues Coles apparently does not get open down field anymore, and has not been very effective for big YPC numbers, but he’s been decent if not underutilized, outside of some bad drops earlier this year. I like to chalk this up to inexperience with the offense and Carson Palmer, and last week Coles had a much better game. So, I’m hoping that becomes a trend. Laveranues has had an excellent career and this kind of drop off, stat-wise, is probably more indicative of a familiarity issue than of a declining talent issue, although he is getting old.

So, to answer your question, I’m not entirely sure. They like to send Chad deep, but I think the Henry injury’s impact is being blown out of proportion. He is a very good player, but 1/3 of his receiving yards came on just one play. Jerome Simpson, if active, can probably do much of what Henry did from an athletic point of view. They’re very similar physically (Henry is taller and more experienced), but Henry did not play that much before he was injured anyway.

This is a different Bengals offense than we saw in 2005 where the vertical game meant so much. This offense is much better when it establishes a decent running game, utilizes play-action passes, and methodically works down the field. The thing that Carson has done really well this year is spreading the ball around – but no defense has really been able to take Chad out of the game yet, and as a result he’s blowing the other Bengals receivers out of the water statistically.

Antwan was obviously a huge force on the edge, and even in games that he wasn’t getting sacks, he had applied consistent pressure on the quarterback as his size and strength simply blew opposing tackles backwards.

In his place, we’ve seen Jonathan Fanene, Frostee Rucker, and rookie Michael Johnson (linked for your convenience). Flacco was absolutely awful against the Bengals last week, but I think credit has to be given to our corners and defensive front. He was sacked 4 times, and hit 8 more, according to ESPN. With all the praise that Oher and Gaither seem to reel in, I think that’s a fairly impressive performance.

The numbers aren’t staggering, but Cincinnati ranks 7th in the league with 21 sacks, 2 behind the Steelers. Is there some fall off? Certainly. But Rucker and Fanene are big guys (285 and 295, respectively) that really like to get after the quarterback. Rucker is not as good against the run, however, and is an injury liability.

Obviously, much of Odom’s success comes straight out of the dominant performance he had in Green Bay. Losing him certainly hurts because coordinators were scared of him, but I think the backups have performed pretty well in the two games since we lost him. I think a lot of that can probably be attributed to the emergence of Leon Hall and Johnathan Joseph as a premier cornerback duo. Joseph seems to finally have a grasp on the fundamentals, and Leon Hall has been pretty good for a couple of years now. As some Cincinnati journalists have written about, the fact that Zimmer leaves these guys alone on islands somewhat frequently allows him to do a lot more with pressure schemes up front. Zimmer has also adopted some zone blitzing a la Lebeau, although it’s not as useful or prevalent in our base 4-3.

I personally really like our cornerbacks. I know the numbers say that our passing defense isn’t so hot, but a lot of the yards we’ve given up through the air have come at the end of games on desperation drives by opponents.

For example, Brandon Stokely’s 87-yard fluke touchdown in week one;

92 yards for the Packers on their last two drives in week two;

Ben did a good job against us in week 3;

Derek Anderson had what must be described as a fluke performance against us in week 4, no excuses, these two games the Bengals secondary wasn’t so good;

Flacco was pretty bad in week 5;

Schaub tore us up in week 6, but that is largely attributable to check-downs and missed tackles. At least 100 yards in that game were a result of missed tackles on Slaton or Johnson;

Jay Cutler put together a yardage-heavy second half in week 8, but that was after they were down 4-5 scores. Understandably, the Bengals defensive playcalling probably let up a little.

Last week, Baltimore tacked on 35 yards on a dump-off on the last play of the game.

So, I think our pass defense is much better than it’s appeared on paper. I like our corners in this one, especially since rookie CB Morgan Trent has been much better lately, as has Chris Crocker, I feel a bit better about the Mike Wallace match up.

I’m pretty concerned with our rush defense, if Keith Rivers is absent (hurt his calf last week), and probably a bit concerned with our pass rush against a much-improved Steeler offensive line. I think I’m cautiously optimistic about the Bengals offensive line vs. the Steelers front 7/8, just because we’ve played really well against the 3-4 this year, and this is one of the most-improved units in the league this year. Andre Smith might even play this week!

I think Troy being back in that defensive secondary will make things more difficult for our WR, but this game will be decided in the trenches and in the running game. Which team slows the oppositions’ run enough to eliminate the play-action threat?

Sorry if that’s a bit rambly. In short: I like our CB vs your WR. I don’t like our run D if Rivers is out, and I’m not particularly optimistic about the pass rush.

Do I have to?!

This is pretty hard for me to predict. The Bengals have been pretty decent against 3-4 defenses this year, and we’ve struggled more with 4-3 fronts. Obviously, Lebeau is a great coach and puts together some really difficult blitzes. Big Ben likes to hold onto the ball too long. I expect both quarterbacks will be sacked a couple of times.

I think play-action will have a lot to do with this game too. It’ll depend on who gets a running game going. We both have top-ranked rush defenses (1 and 2), but neither of us have played particularly adept rushing offenses.

Also, if I recall correctly, didn’t you promise a bunch of people you’d take your top off if the Steelers lost to the Bengals earlier this year? :P

All jokes aside, I don’t think you missed much without Mendenhall earlier this year. Willy has always been good against the Bengals. Sweed sucks – sorry. Troy not being in obviously makes an impact, but it was your offense that failed to put the Bengals away in the second half. Much like the playoff game in 2005, Steelers fans said that Carson wouldn’t have made a difference in the game because the defense sucked it up in the second half. Well, the inverse applies to the first meeting between these teams in 2009.

The Bengals offensive line has struggled mightily since 2005 and/or since Center Rich Braham was replaced by Eric “the awful” Ghiacek (I can’t even spell his name). Last year was the last we’d see of that awful center, thank god, and his replacement has made all the difference. Kyle Cook has been hugely impressive at Center for the Bengals. Andrew Whitworth has been steady and quite excellent at the LT position. Evan Mathis, who will probably be replaced by Nate Livings this week after hurting his ankle against Baltimore, has also performed admirably at LG.

The left side of the line has been better than the right, at least in the running game. Benson is averaging almost 2 more yards per carry to that side behind Whitworth and Mathis. The Bengals also like to use an unbalanced line with 3 tackles on one side, and two TE or a TE and G on the other side a couple of times a game.

The right side of the line is currently led by RT Dennis Roland, backed up by first round behemoth Andre Smith, who should be getting into a game any time now, and consistent veteran RG Bobbie Williams. These guys have been pretty good in pass protection, but as I mentioned, not overwhelming on rushing plays.

Carson has been sacked only 11 times so far this year. That’s the same number of sacks he’d endured at this point in the 2005 playoff campaign.

This is a smart, cohesive offensive line. There is a very tight human bond between these guys, as they spend a lot of time together in players-only meetings, at dinners with each others families, and on the field. They have the intangibles—football IQ, trust, recognition—and the physical traits—big, strong, nasty—needed to be effective in the AFC North.

All the credit in the world to Whitworth for making the move to LT, Livings and Mathis for stepping up at Guard, and Kyle Cook for being the smart, blocking-scheme savvy center we’ve been missing since Richie Braham departed.

Heath always gets open against us, too, especially in the RZ. It’ll definitely be a challenge for the Bengals.

But the Bengals have been pretty good with WR, TE, and HB screens (to Brian Leonard more often than Benson).

It’s definitely something I expect to see, to try to catch the Steelers on a blitz.

If he is, I don’t know if he’ll be any more problematic than Andre Caldwell or Coles would be, although I imagine all 4 of those receivers on the field at the same time may create coverage problems underneath.

Wallace will probably draw a little bit of everyone. I figure Joseph and Trent, with safety help every now and then, will be matched up with the speedy Wallace.

I don’t think the Bengals defense cares what RB it’s facing. Mendenhall is a good, strong back, but I think the Bengals are more vulnerable to the speed back that can run around and away from, rather than through tackles.

I think all coordinators gameplan for Troy. I don’t think it will change the overall offensive philosophy, though.

Perhaps. I don’t know enough about those tendencies, but I’ve seen Palmer pick on weaker DBs this year. He’s not afraid to make any throw regardless of who is in coverage.

i’ll just say this…..Willie Parker has this mojo against the Bengals. Seriously, what has he done this year besides that first half in Week 3??? It’s so damn frustrating for us to watch any sort of promising Bengal defenders look like deer in the headlights when Parker gets the ball.

Who knows, maybe Tomlin will play him and we won’t be able to stop him…..

he got hurt in the second half

Kick off returns have been lackluster. Punt returns have been pretty great – Quan Cosby is 5th (I think) in the league in punt return average, and is a threat to break a big one.

The only other problem, Brad St. Louis, has been addressed.

has ripped off a few nice punt returns (60 yards was his best). Caldwell got across the 50 one time on a KOR, but barely.

They got beat up by Cribbs, but they were playing that game short handed. (resting starters the week after the trench fight with the Sitllers). Since then, they’ve shutdown the likes of Hester, Johnny Knoxville, and Lardarius Webb. Even in the loss to the Texans, Jacoby Jones and Andre Davis didn’t get much.

Stefan Logan is pretty good. The bengals will have their hands full

There is a drop-off. Hopefully, it’s not too significant. Backup LB Brandon Johnson has seen a lot of PT already this year.

you all know that he’s a liability in pass coverage. Ndukwe is much faster, a sure tackler, and not bad hitter either.

in their fantasy “points allowed” column. It also includes PAT. Says the Steelers have given up 121 points (i.e. 3 DTD against to make up for that 18 point difference), and the Bengals have given up 123 points (2 DTD against).

The top few in point allowed by defense, including PAT (on DTD against):
1. NE 103
2. Indy 108
3. NYJ 110
4. Den 118
5. Pittsburgh 121
6. Cincinnati 123

with Troy, It would be interesting to see if you take those 6TDs out the picture what the PPG would look like with troy.

That’s why the Steeler D has to work so hard.

I recommend you stay away from the ARN.