Bengals Take Improbable Season To Playoffs

CINCINNATI — In this most improbable of all NFL seasons for the Cincinnati Bengals, the playoffs begin Saturday and the Bengals are one of 12 teams chasing a Super Bowl title.even Cinderella is shocked.Picked by some NFL experts to go 0-16 this season, you could not find many others who would have predicted more than six wins for this perennially struggling franchise. In fact, th 1; official over/under line at the Las Vegas Sports Book and Casino for Bengals wins before this season was 5.5.the Bengals eclipsed that mark on Nov. 6., when the Bengals beat the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. they were 6-2 at that point and had the entire professional football world talking.”I mean, we really didn’t care too much what the outsiders said,” Bengals safety Reggie Nelson said earlier this week. “We put ourselves in a good predicament right now. And the only thing that c ounts is that we made it here. We’ve just got to take advantage of it.”Indeed, the opportunity is enormous for the Bengals. Though they’re playing in their second playoff game in the past three season, the Bengals haven’t actually won a playoff game since 1991. Ironically, that was against the team that left Houston several years later and migrated to Tennessee.since then, the Bengals delivered to their fans far too many losing seasons, interrupted only by a strong 2005 campaign when they finished 11-5. In their first playoff game after that season, the Bengals hopes of a Super Bowl were dashed when Carson Palmer suffered a torn ACL on the team’s first offensive play of the game. a playoff appearance after the 2009 season lasted one game, when the Jets knocked the Bengals off in the Wild Card round.this year, the Bengals sprinted to that quick 6-2 start behind the passing combination of rookie quarterback Andy Dalton and his rookie wide receiver, a.J. Green. while rookies aren’t accustomed to that kind of immediate success in the NFL, making the start all the more improbable was the man orchestrating the offense.Jay Gruden had never been a full time position coach in the NFL, let alone an offensive coordinator. And the Bengals accomplished their 9-7 record in the wake of the NFL lockout, which shut the league down from early March until late July.One of the players who held th&# 101; team together, and organized voluntary workouts in the greater Cincinnati area, said the Bengals have more than good, young players.”Really, just got that attitude, that we’ve got nothing to lose” veteran tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “We’re the little one that most people counted out. We come out swinging.”But Saturday in Houston, the Bengals will face a stiff challenge from the Texans. Houston won the AFC South, despite losing two veteran quarterbacks along the way to injury. Saturday, as in the regular season game in December that ; the Texans beat Cincinnati, Houston will start rookie T.J. Yates.with Dalton leading the Bengals, it will mark the first time since the AFL-NFL merger that two rookie quarterbacks will face each other in a playoff game. Houston has a formidable one-two punch at running back, with Arian Foster and Ben Tate together averaging better than 150 yards per game on the ground.Defensively, the Texans boast a lot of playmakers, including former Bengal cornerback, Jonathan Joseph, who left the Bengals this past summer and signed a $48 million deal with Houston. Mix in the return of wide receiver Andre Johnson, who is finally over his hamstring problems, and a loud Reliant Stadium crowd that’s expected to watch the Texans’ first-ever playoff game, the hill the Bengals will have to climb will be steep.the Bengals, aren’t shrinking from the challenge.”Everybody’s ready man,” cornerback Adam Jones said. “I think they’ve done a good job putting this team together. We all getting along really good. the main thing, everybody’s on the same page.”Long suffering Bengals fans are hoping the stor& #121; that’s written on that page Saturday, has a happy ending.WLWT Channel 5 will carry the game live beginning at 4 p.m.

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