FanPost

Bengals - Turning point for a franchise


The Cincinnati Bengals have two crucial weekends coming up. A franchise that has been in serious decline since Kemo von Oelhoffen rolled into Carson Palmer's leg is on the verge of laying the foundation for a strong playoff seed and redefining the disappointing Marvin Lewis Era.

The Bengals are currently 5-2, tied atop the division with Pittsburgh and one ahead of the Ravens. Just as importantly, they are 1-0 against both teams. They host the Ravens this weekend and travel to Pittsburgh next Sunday.

Two wins and they are 7-2, have a sweep of their rivals and have at Oakland, Cleveland and Detroit up next. With the schedule after that (at Minnesota, at San Diego, KC and at the NY Jets), they'd really have to screw up to blow the division, holding the tie-breakers as they would.

But lose both games, and they'd (with some luck in Denver) be two games behind the Steelers, wtih a season split, and (assuming the Ravens beat the woeful Browns next weekend) one game back of Baltimore, also with the season split.

The Bengals have not had such a critical point in a season since week 13 of 2005 when they beat the Steelers and essentially secured the division title.

Think about it: after Palmer got hurt in the wild card, the last vestige of hope for Bengals fans was three-plus quarters of desperately willing that backup QB Jon Kitna could beat the Steelers. He couldn't and Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl. After going 11-5 and winning the division, Cincy finished 8-8, 7-9 and 4-11-1, while Pittsburgh won yet another Super Bowl. The momentum of a franchise was stopped dead when Palmer went down.

I'm telling you, Bengals fans are keyed up for the next two games. They've waited for years to be important again. It's generally acknowledged that the only reason Marvin Lewis hadn't been fired was because Mike Brown is too cheap to pay him not to coach. Now, Lewis (who is a good guy) has Cincy lined up for a return to prominence. Huge two weekends for the Bengals. Hard for Steeler fans, who are accustomed to continual success, to fathom. But it's there.

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