Alright Bengals fans, here are my three Bengals related thoughts following week one, first and foremost; if I continue to be a Bengals fan, I’m going to be impotent, bald and homeless by week five. Secondly, my friend Mel came up to me Sunday morning before the game and said “John, stop worrying, there is no way the Bengals can lose, ESPN says that no team has ever won their opening game with a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback starting at the same time, so Baltimore can’t win.” On a side note, Mel’s goal in life is to tell me a statistic that I’ve never heard before, even if it’s as stupid as the one above. Anyway, I called my bookie 30 seconds later, because if I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s that if ESPN, Vegas and Mel all think the Bengals are going to win, not only are they not going to win, but they’re going to lose so embarrassingly bad that I’ll have to take some sort of Advil, valium, heroin combination after the game.
PASSING OFFENSE: C-plus — Carson Palmer hit for four touchdown passes, but he also threw two interceptions and was sacked six times. He lost one of three fumbles when hit in the pocket. The Steelers held Chad Johnson to one catch for 11 yards, but it came at a p rice. T.J. Houshmandzadeh had nine receptions, two for touchdowns, and two of Chris Henry's six receptions went for scores. They had single coverage. The line had trouble with Pittsburgh blitzes.
RUSHING OFFENSE: C — The Bengals stayed with the run, in an attempt to balance their offense. Though Rudi Johnson was held to 47 yards on 19 carries (2.5-yard average), Kenny Watson ran three times for 35 yards, one for 18 yards on a draw play that pushed the ball inside the Steelers 5 and set up a touchdown pass.
Palmer, Bengals upend Steelers to remain unbeaten PITTSBURGH (AP) -- He hated the eight months of exhausting rehabilitation, and the team that made him go through it. Carson Palmer didn't play the way he wanted against the team he dislikes the most, but the result couldn't have been more satisfying. Alternating between brilliant and awful, the Cincinnati quarterback threw two touchdown passes to T.J. Houshmandzadeh less than a minute apart midway through the fourth quarter following Pittsburgh Steelers turnovers and the unbeaten Bengals rallied for a 28-20 victory Sunday over the Super Bowl champions.
"We're a better team than we were last year and we expected to come in here and win this game,but it took everything we had," running back Rudi Johnson said.
Coach Marvin Lewis expects middle linebacker Odell Thurman to be suspended for the rest of the season following his arrest early Monday on a drunken driving charge, making him the sixth Cincinnati Bengal arrested this year. Thurman, already serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy, could get an additional one-year suspension from the league.
The NFL Substance Abuse Policy is clear: If a player under a four-game suspension (Stage 2)is found to have violated his treatment program, he automatically advances to Stage 3. A third violation carries a minimum of a one-year banishment from the league.
Thurman, currently serving a four-game suspension for a second violation of the policy, was cited this morning for driving under the influence of alcohol. The contents of his treatment plan are not known.
Thurman busted in OVI check Teammates in car had "more than I did," he told police
BY MARK CURNUTTE | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER Bengals linebacker Odell Thurman told police he had "a couple of beers" and he was driving because his teammates in the SUV "had more than I did" when he was stopped at 3:05 a.m. today and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.
Thurman was one of at least three players in a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe stopped by police in the East End. The vehicle is owned by Bengals rookie wide receiver Reggie McNeal, who was a passenger, said a source at the scene. Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry was a passenger and threw up out a window of the vehicle. Neither McNeal nor Henry was cited or charged. A police videotape shows an officer asking Thurman to step out of the car and asking him how much he had to drink. "I had a couple of beers,'' Thurman responded.
Carson Palmer wasn't about to lose this one. Not against the Pittsburgh Steelers, the team he says he hates - the team he spent eight exhausting months rehabilitating his mangled knee mostly for the chance to face. Alternating between brilliant and awful, the Cincinnati Bengals quarterback threw two touchdown passes to T.J.
Quarterback Rex Grossman of the Chicago Bears and running back Rudi Johnson of the Bengals are the FedEx Air & Ground NFL Players of the Week for games played on September 17-18, the NFL announced today.
Grossman completed 20 of 27 passes for 289 yards and four touchdowns for a passer rating of 148.0 in the Bears? 34-7 victory over the Detroit Lions. He threw touchdown passes of three, five, 31 and 41 yards.
Johnson carried 26 times for 145 yards and two touchdowns in the Bengals? 34-17 victory over the Cleveland Browns. He scored on touchdown runs of one and nine yards in the fourth quarter.
Grossman and Johnson were selected from among finalists in air and ground categories through 139,748 fan votes. The other FedEx Express NFL Player of the Week finalists were quarterbacks Eli Manning of the New York Giants and Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts, while running backs Warrick Dunn of the Atlanta Falcons and Frank Gore of the San Francisco 49ers were the other finalists for the FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Week.
Grossman received 36 percent of the fan votes for FedEx Express NFL Player of the Week, while Eli Manning received 34 percent and Peyton Manning received 30 percent. Johnson?s 66 percent of the fan votes for FedEx Ground NFL Player of the Week beat out Dunn?s 19 percent and Gore?s 15 percent.
Two games into the season, Cincinnati Bengals running back Rudi Johnson leads the AFC in rushing and is showing an unmistakable spring in his step. It wasn't there last year. Johnson's left knee has been fixed by surgery. His body has been redesigned by a new diet. And his game is looking a whole lot better, giving one of the NFL's top offenses yet another way to torment defenses. Instead of plodding, Johnson now can shift into another gear. "Oh, yeah, I feel good, man," he said.
