Justin Bahr's Cincinnati Bengals fan blog

It seems that I’m not the only person who foresaw the Bengals having another dismal season this year. It appears that most season ticket holders are attempting to sell their tickets second hand online. Yet the season tickets holders can’t even find buyers. While the Bengals have been sold out since the opening of Paul Brown Stadium, it isn’t the season ticket holders who are contributing to the sell outs this year.

It turns out that even on the second hand market, Bengals tickets aren’t going for face value, in fact they are quite below that value. While this is the Bengals home opener and is historic for selling second hand at almost twice the value this year the tickets are going for less than half( a 64 dollar ticket is going for 29 dollars). I happen to be a season ticket holder of the Bengals and am very glad that I was able to get rid of the tickets for this Sunday’s game against the Titans before the prices dropped (due to myself going to the Purdue-Oregon game and then staying on campus to watch the OSU-USC game and not being able to make it back in time). I also happened to sell the Browns and Pittsburg tickets about 2 months ago due to the fact that I predicted the Bengals would have a disappointing season and by selling these tickets I pretty much covered the expenses of the whole season. While I was lucky, it is apparent that other tickets holders as well as ticket brokers are feeling the hurt.

Continue reading "Goodbye Paul Brown Sell Out Record..."

It turns out that Vince young won’t be playing against the Bengals Sunday do to physical and mental problems.  When your mother has to come out and say to leave her son alone, there must be serious problems going on.  I think that obviously Vince young has had something horrible happen recently with his family that he must deal with on a day to day basis.  My best guess is a death in the family.  Although for all I know she can be referring to the fact that he is known as a player who doesn’t LOVE the game.  Therefore his mental problems can be Ricky Williams-esk in that he just doesn’t want to play football for the rest of his life and is content with the money he has made/ saved.

A lot of commentators think that even though Vince is out, the Titans will still be a great team, if not better then where they were with Vince.  Thus him being out can be seen as a good or bad perspective for the Bengals Sunday.  Although seeing Flacco scramble for a touchdown and knowing Vince is a running quarterback puts my mind at ease a little bit.

Continue reading "Good and bad news for Sundays game"

So today my question was finally answered… I’m not the only one who thinks that Carson Palmer has lost his leadership role in the huddle and on the field. This morning while watching Sportscenter the topic came up and the decision was unanimous.

I first noticed the different Carson Palmer last year. It seemed that ever since his injury he lost his ability to control the players and assert his command. He seems scared in the pocket and with that he seems scared to get in a linemen’s face to tell him to block better. When we had that one great season and actually made the playoffs, I was clear who the leader was. Then the injury came and all was lost. Chad took over as a trash talking almost anti-cincy villain and Carson waited too long to comment on Chad’s behavior. I also remember a time when Chad would b*tch Carson out on the sideline for not throwing to him/ calling his number in the huddle.

Continue reading "We need a leader..."

Well here we go again, another horrible season…

I honestly can’t believe how horrible our offensive line is.  They allowed Carson Palmer to get sack on the first 2 passing plays.  Due to their horrible play Carson had to run around constantly afraid he would get his head knocked off by a very experienced Ravens defense, which lead to many horrible passes/ dropped balls, bad plays in general.  We need to do something about this line which has made me realize/ hope we take an offensive lineman in one of the first 2 rounds of the draft next year. 

Chris Perry was a lot better than I expected him to be (except for his fumble), and I feel he would be a lot better with a offensive line to actually block for him.

I can’t get over how well Jonathan Joseph played today.  He played like a true pro-bowl corner and I can’t wait to see him the rest of the season.  Leon Hall played ok, as did the rest of our defensive backs, but Joseph far excelled in all areas of the defensive backfield(as well as scoring a touchdown).

Continue reading "Notes on todays game.."

AFC North Predictions

Bengals over Ravens -Ed Reed is out, therefore Carson Palmer can simply air it out all day while we can see what Chris Perry can do on the ground. I just don’t believe Joe Flacco can get it done against our defense.

Cowboys over Browns -Although Adam (Pacman) Jones will most likely get the start and hasn’t played for some time, I simply believe that the Cowboys are too powerful of a team for the Browns to overtake. I do foresee the Browns gaining a lot of yards through the air, but the Cowboys are too sound on both sides of the ball.

Texans over Steelers -This is by far my biggest upset of week one. I feel that the Texans have the ability to outplay the Steelers with their defense as well as get Andre Johnson the ball enough to score. Both teams have great defenses and while the Steelers have a better offense, I see the Texan’s pass rush getting into Big Ben's head and forcing errors.

Continue reading "Week One Predictions"

Keith Rivers will officially be wearing jersey number 55, the number he truly deserves.  He wore 55 as a linebacker at USC due to his amazing abilities and true leadership qualities.  He number 55 jersey is given to the best linebacker at USC every year and has been worn by many popular names.  Although Rivers started out the season with number 55 he will now be in a more comfortable jersey number of 55.  This can be seen as a great move for a great guy.  If the Bengals need anything right now it is to wash away the “convict player” mentality, and Rivers is the guy to do it.  He is a stand up guy that I don’t see ever being in trouble with the law.  Also a side note, Rivers was the leading tackler for the Bengals all preseason, which is a good sign of things to come.

Continue reading "Rivers in a familiar place...Willie Anderson in a not so familiar place"

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “Players tell fans; please hang in there.” I’m glad they realize the pain of the fans, too bad the owners/ coaches don’t. The article made sure to point out that all positive looks toward the season happened before Chris Henry was picked back up (which also means it was before Anderson, Johnson and O’neal were released). Yet it seems fans (even me), will still continue to flood to the stadium on Sundays with our season tickets. Looking towards 44 straight sell outs for Paul Brown Stadium, yet we can’t even yield a winning team. I can only hope that we turn things around on the offensive line and our defense can step up big, then maybe we can make the season worth watching. On a lighter note… If Corey Lynch (sa

Continue reading "Bengals players feel the fans pain"

Welcome to Detroit Rudi Johnson...

SI.com reports "[Newly signed Lions running back Rudi] Johnson left his bags outside CEO Matt Millen's office while he met with team officials and, ultimately, worked out a deal with the team. So when Johnson came back to get his bags, they were nowhere to be found. Johnson and Millen were stumped. Enter the eye in the sky. The team checked the videotapes generated by the team's in-house surveillance system, and they quickly identified the culprit. So who might it have been? None other than Tatum Bell, who lost his gig with the Lions after Rudi arrived."

OK, so hopefully this takes a little heat off of the bengals for taking Chris Henry back (I still can't believe we're that stupid).  Honestly who is dumb enough to pull a move off like this, not knowing there are video cameras everywhere now a days. 

Continue reading "And people say Cincinnati is know for having Convicts...and bad news for our running game"

It appears that Joe Flacco has been named the starter against the Bengals.  This could be a great sign for the first game.  I was a little apprehensive if Troy Smith got the start simply due to the fact that he is quite mobile and we simply don't have the experience linebackers to chase him around.  Yet by some luck he still has a viral infection so we may have a chance at taking a run at their rookie.  Although it would be nice to see an OSU boy play...

Another thing we can look forward to is Chad Ocho Cinco's first game with a new name.  He said he set out to "clear his name from the mud of the offseason."  So we can only hope he doesn't re-injure his shoulder in the process of his celebrations and hopefully some spectacular catches.

Continue reading "What to look forward to verse the Ravens"

Is it just me or does it look like at the end of this year the bengals will have a top 5 draft pick?  First we bring Chris Henry back after we cut him to "teach him a lesson."  Then we decided to cut arguably one of the best tackles in bengals history (W. Anderson), a probowl running back (R. Johnson), and a pro bowl defensive back (D. O'neal).  While i understand how Rudi was losing the starting running back race to Chris Perry, I can't believe that we didn't at least try to trade him for a solid 3rd receiver until Henry is healthy.  The Bears are dying for a running back of Johnsons  caliber, yet they don;t have any receivers worth taking so I understand why nothing came of that.  Yet Deltha O'neal was picked up by the Patriots as soon as it was possible to have a contract finalized...I hate to say it but they seem to have the "winning solution" down, so i think they know something more then we do.  Anderson should have been kept out of respect, but mainly for the reason that our offensive line let Palmer get slaughtered during the preseason and we need anyone who could help.  Thus I conclude that we are headed no where this season.  while I am a die hard fan and I'm sue it won;t come across this way, I can't get over the evidence that we are headed down the gutter.

Continue reading "Top 5 Draft Pick???"