Bengals Ticket Selling Extended While Jaguars, Raiders Are Blacked Out

The Cincinnati Bengals was approved a day’s extension to sell out and avoid a local television blackout for Sunday’s game versus the Houston Texans.  The NFL gave an extension of until 1 p.m. ET Friday to the Bengals to sell those tickets after finding out that as of Thursday afternoon, more than 3,000 tickets are still unsold for the game.   The Bengals, with a 4-1 slate this season.  In the Paul Brown Stadium, they have sold out their last 46 games.

The last blacked out local game on Nov. 9, 2003 was against the Texans.  They also got a 24-hour extension against the Denver Broncos before the season opener and were able to sell out in time and the game was shown on local TV.  There are two more teams with a local TV market home game blacked out.  The Jacksonville Jaguars was not able to sell out the game against St. Louis Rams and the Oakland Raiders against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Wacky TD gives Broncos 12-7 win over Bengals

Brandon Stokley jammed the deflected pass, turned and looked up field. Not a soul stood between him and the end zone. Unbelievable! In the time it takes to run the length of the field, Stokley ran Denver out of a devastating loss and into franchise lore. His 87-yard touchdown with 11 seconds remaining on Sunday provided a 12-7 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, who are going to need a lengthy time to recover from this one. A half hour past it ended, a Bengals fan in an orange Rey Maualuga jersey sat single-handedly in the otherwise empty area of green seats behind the end zone, staring at the field, trying to understand what had just happened. One odd bounce had changed everything.

Down to desperation, Orton threw a sideline pass that was almost intercepted. The next play was a throw to the other sideline for Brandon Marshall, who was covered. Cornerback Leon Hall cut in front and went up for the ball and tipped it into space. The carom went to Stokley, who couldn’t believe his providence as he headed for the end zone, running sideways a few steps to waste time before finally crossing in.

2009 NFL Draft Reports- The Bengals

Don’t you just love the draft of the Bengals? Love Andre Smith at the 6^th spot. Keen on Rey Maualuga in the second round, Michael Johnson and Chase Coffman in the third. In the fourth round they get Jonathan Luigs, who could be their starting center. And their fifth- and sixth-round picks, Cincinnati punter Kevin Huber and Michigan cornerback Morgan Trent were well thought of, both were on the North team for which the Bengals served as the coaching staff in the Senior Bowl in January.

Now, you can point out that Smith would have fallen if not for the Bengals picking him, and that Maualuga and Johnson did fall because of character/work ethic questions. And you could do a whole post on the troubles of sixth-rounder Bernard Scott. But the Bengals got a whole lot of talent in this draft, and if a couple of these “questionable” guys pay off, they’ve made themselves better in more than a few areas.

BALTIMORE (-8.5) vs. Cincinnati

Baltimore is still winning games, but the Ravens are doing things a bit differently this season by winning with a better offense and an ordinary defense rather than a dominating defense and an ordinary offense. The Ravens actually haven’t been all that great so far, as their improved offense is only 0.3 yards per play better than average (6.0 yppl against teams that would allow 5.7 yppl to an average team) while their defense has given up 5.2 yppl to a collection of teams that would average only 5.2 yppl against an average team. The Ravens were able to limit bad offensive teams Kansas City and Cleveland to an average of just 187 total yards but they gave up an average of 397 yards at 6.1 yppl to San Diego and New England.

Cincinnati’s offense is somewhere in between, as the Bengals are not as bad as KC and Cleveland but not as good at the Chargers and Pats. Cincy is actually slightly worse than average offensively so far this season, averaging 5.0 yppl against teams that would allow 5.2 yppl to an average team, but the Bengals’ defense has played well in allowing just 5.1 yppl (excluding the fluke 87 yard tipped pass TD by Denver that beat them in week 1) to teams that would combine to average 5.4 yppl against an average defensive team. The Ravens only have a small edge on Cincinnati overall from the line of scrimmage, but they have an edge in special teams and in projected turnovers. The math model favors Baltimore by just 5 1/2 points and it is best to lean with the Bengals plus the points despite a solid 176-98-5 ATS statistical indicator that favors Baltimore.

Andre Smith Return Likely in Week 9

Bengals first-round OT Andre Smith who is recovering from a broken foot from shortly after he arrived at training camp, could play in Week 7 but is more likely to return in Week 9 following the team’s bye, NFL Network reported. After a lengthy contract holdout, Smith reported at more than 360 pounds, and improved conditioning is the key to his development. Smith, college football’s Outland Trophy winner, was expected to start at right tackle, but that position has been held by Anthony Collins.

According to Cincinnati Bengals coach Marvin Lewis, Andre Smith’s progress has been really quick and going real well. Also, head coach Lewis said that Andre Smith would likely be getting back in the field for on-field work in the next 10 days – 2 weeks and then will incorporate him back in practice. The Bengals, who have a 3-1 record, can’t wait to get their first round pick into the fold of things and might even be the Cinderella story of the NFL this year.

LeBron Calls Edwards Out for Supposed Fight

Braylon Edwards was aggressive Sunday, exchanging little hits with one of Cincinnati’s huge defensive linemen. Later, Cleveland’s controversial wide receiver supposedly took a swing at someone much smaller but with a soaring, more famous friend: LeBron James – and the King isn’t happy about it. James called Edwards “childish” for purportedly hitting his friend early Monday morning following a disagreement outside a Cleveland night club. The Cavaliers star said Edwards hit his friend, Edward Givens, a promoter who was just doing work outside the club around 2:30 a.m. EDT.

The enormously gifted Edwards, who is in the last year of his contract with Cleveland, has been a nuisance for much of his time with the Browns. While recovering from a foot injury—he slash his heel running in his socks after practice—last year, he was pulled over in his Bentley for driving 120 mph in a 65 mph zone. He hasn’t caught easy passes, criticized almost every play Cleveland calls, argued with the team and notably took a helicopter to the Ohio State-Michigan game in 2006 regardless of being told not to go.

Bengals Squeak Past Browns in OT

Marvin Lewis wanted to play it out of harm’s way. The Cincinnati Bengals wanted a victory. After Palmer and his teammates persuaded their coach to risk on fourth-and-11 with just over a minute remaining, Palmer scrambled for 15 yards to position Shayne Graham’s 31-yard field goal on the last play of overtime, giving Cincinnati a 23-20 win over the listless Cleveland Browns on Sunday. The Bengals, whose all four games have all gone down to the last second, faced a fourth and 11 at Cleveland’s 41 with 1:04 remaining on the clock. Lewis was at ease to play for the tie, but when the Browns called a timeout, it gave the Bengals an opening to convince their coach. They made a convincing argument indeed. Carson Palmer dropped back to pass, and seeing his receivers were all covered downfield, tucked it away and ran for a first down. Cincinnati then ran two plays to get Graham in position, and the kicker kicked the winner.

Palmer, who led a rally last week when the Bengals won over the Super Bowl champion Steelers last Sunday, finished 23 of 44 for 230 yards. Chad Ochocinco caught two of his touchdown passes.

5 Reasons Why Packer Fans Can’t Hate Brett Favre

He is going to be playing against his old team mates in the Monday Night Packer vs Viking game and you Green Bay fans may need some reasons not to hate him, here are my top 5 reasons why you Packers fans can’t hate Brett Favre: 5. Record Breaking Game: On September 30 2007 Brett Favre threw a pair of touchdown passes, but most importantly he threw the 421st of his career, making him the NFL’s all-time leader in that category passing former Dolphin’s QB Dan Marino. 4.  September 30, 1992: Favre replaced Don Majkowsk and threw the game winning TD pass to Kitrick Taylor with 13 seconds remaining for the win over the Bengals 24-23.

That was Favre’s first game dressed as a Packer and the beginning of an All-time consecutive starts record win streak of 293 games.

3. Back to back playoffs appearances:  Packers fans can’t forget that he led his team to the playoffs for the second straight time, he ran for the game-winning touchdown with 14 seconds left against the Falcons on December 18 1994. 2. Out of this world performance: A Monday Night that Favre and the Green Bay faithful will never forget was in 2003 against the Oakland Raiders when he started one day after his father died of a heart attack. 1. Super Bowl ring: On January 26 of 1997 Favre and the Green Bay Packers beat the Patriots 35 -21 at the Super Bowl XXXI. Favre passed for two touchdowns and ran for another in the Packers’ first Super Bowl win in 29 years.

Cleveland Vs. Cincinnati

The Brady Quinn era ended pretty quickly in Cleveland, as the Browns’ Quinn-led offense has averaged just 3.9 ypp. Cleveland has played 3 teams that are good defensively (Minnesota, Denver and Baltimore), but those are bad numbers even when you take that into account. Derek Anderson takes over and should be better, but Anderson has not been able to back up his very good 2007 season. Anderson has averaged just 5.1 yards per pass play in 11 games since the beginning of last season and that’s where I’ll rate him heading into this game.

The Browns have to face another good defense this week, as Cincinnati has allowed just 5.2 yppl to teams that would combine to average 5.6 yppl against the normal defensive team. Cincy has been about average offensively so far (5.1 yppl against teams that would allow 5.1 yppl to a normal team) but the Bengals’ attack should have flourished against a sub-par Browns’ defense which couldn’t stop the run (5.6 ypr allowable) and has only gotten worse than the usual contrary to the pass too (6.8 yppp allowed to quarterbacks that would combine to average 6.4 yppp). My ratings favor Cincinnati by 7 points and using this year’s games only (and adjusting for Anderson at QB for Cleveland) results in a prediction of Bengals by 8 points. There are good situations favoring both teams in this game, so I’ll stick to the math and lean with Cincy minus the points.

Bengals End Domination of Steelers in Cincy

Carson Palmer’s 4-yard touchdown pass to Andre Caldwell with 14 seconds left gave a 23-20 victory Sunday that ended the Pittsburgh Steelers’ nearly decade-long domination in Cincy, one that appeared set to go on for an indefinite period of time until the closing drive. Pittsburgh had won its last eight games on Cincinnati’s home field. The last time the Bengals beat them was in 2001, when Chad Ochocinco was a rookie who hardly ever started and still went by the name of Johnson.

The defending Super Bowl champs conquered most of the game but shattered chances to put the Bengals away. Jeff Reed missed one more field goal, and Limas Sweed dropped a pass in the end zone, keeping it tight to the end. Palmer led the Bengals on a 16-play, 71-yard drive against one of the league’s best defenses, frequently converting there-or-else passes. His 11-yarder to Brian Leonard on 4th-and-10 moved the ball to the 4. After a spike to stop the clock, Palmer found Caldwell open in the center of the end zone to finish Pittsburgh’s domination of 8 years here in Cincy.

The NFL Draft Results

 Matthew Stafford was picked first as expected but there were some surprises in the draft itself.  The Ravens picked tackle Michael Oher and Paul Kruger, two individuals that would serve to bolster their defense. The Bengals chose tackle Andre Smith and linebacker Rey Maualaga that would fit their needs up front. The Eagles on their part got the best wideouts in the draft in Jeremy Maclin and LeSean McCoy. The Packers got the best defensive tackle in the lot by choosing BJ Raji who can play nose guard and tackle on the offensive line.

On the other end, Dallas drafted down but got players that may not even break into the team. The Buccaneers traded up to get Josh Freeman, but is the gamble worth on an unproven player still to mature. Some of the other teams made conservative moves of the draft and the fruits may still be seen when the regular season comes rolling in.