Dan Salyers's Cincinnati Bengals fan blog

Alright, so Football season is right around the corner. July always seems to drag on, as we are on the cusp of training camps starting in just 2 weeks. Football season is so close you can almost taste it, but it still only is July 14th, with the regular season being almost 2 months away.  Nevertheless, Cincinnati vs. Dallas happens 3 weeks from Sunday, so there's hope. That being said, let's talk some preliminary Bengals stuff:

Cedric Benson: I have to admit, I was really disappointed to see that Benson put himself in such a dumb situation and found himself arrested.  This has been a problem for the league and continues to give haters more fuel for trash-talk.  I'm hoping that Benson is not suspended by the league, but can't say I would be surprised if he were.  The power running game would greatly suffer if he had to miss the first two to four games as Cincy has to go to New England and also go against Baltimore's ridiculous run defense in week 2.  We need Benson to play in these two games for sure. 

Continue reading "July is the longest month of the year"

Well, I have neglected this blog all year, but I had some free time today, so I figured I'd add a new post.  The first two weeks of the NFL season have been pretty good, with the stupid Hail Mary from the Broncos to win week 1 (gosh I hate watching the highlights of that play) to the great game between Dallas and the NYG last week in the Texas palace.  But the thing that has me the most excited is the Bengals' defense.  They played hard all preseason, did really well agaianst Denver, minus that stupid Hail Mary, and recorded 6 sacks on Aaron Rodgers last week.  This defense finished 15th last year and I feel they are well on their way to being a top 10 unit.  With Odom healthy, it's easy to see why Cincy shelled out so much money for him last offseason.  He has 7 sacks on the season (which leads the NFL) and works really well on third downs with Geathers on one end, Michael Johnson on the other, and Odom inside.  This combo causes a lot of problems for the offenses and I feel that it will again this week against Pittsburgh.

Continue reading "Steelers are going down this Sunday"

Well, Pittsburgh won the Super Bowl again.  Santonio Holmes won the MVP, which makes me happy as we are fellow Buckeyes from the same years.  After the Super Bowl, I always get excited for the Draft (no, I don't care about the Pro Bowl).  This year, however, I started gearing up for the Draft in about the first week of January.  I don't know where the new focus came from, but I have been checking big boards/ espn.com/ watching a lot of College Football Live to get a glimpse about who will go where.  I of course am a Bengals fan, so I've been looking to see who they would draft.  I really think that OT is the best bet, despite what many people on bengals.com have been suggesting (RB, WR, DE).  I can understand taking a DE if some of the OTs are off the board, but it simply won't help, as the O-Line was putrid last year.  Stacy Andrews is worthless, overpaid, and very injured, thus I feel he won't be back.  Levi Jones is best suited as a backup, as his age is starting to show.  Anthony Collins and Nate Livings played well in fill-in spots, but they're untested. 

Continue reading "Super Bowl is over, time for the Draft"

So after watching the Steelers/ Ravens game, I have noticed one thing about Pittsburgh... they are a dirty team.  Ryan Clark hit Willis McGahee helmet-to-helmet in the closing minutes of the Fourth Quarter to force a fumble, which was recovered by the Steelers.  Unfortunately for the NFL and for fans of the game, the referees did not call the hit illegal.  A very similar hit was called illegal (and a fine was given) earlier this season on Anquan Boldin, which knocked him out for several games.  These hits are very dangerous and can cause paralysis.  The league needs to be more uniform in the hits they call.  There are less calls made against offensive players making helmet to helmet blocks (see video of Hines Ward breaking Keith Rivers' jaw in a game against Cincinnati).  Also less frequent are helmet-to-helmet hits on running backs from defenders.  It's like the league feels that defensive players deserve to get hit this way, and since running backs are naturally taking the most hits, they deserve it in a way.  Receivers and quarterbacks are too fragile to allow these hits to be put on them, so the league fines players for hits on these guys.  Come on!  The reason some are called illegal is "to prevent injury".  All of these hits, regardless of position, can injure the guy.  (Did you see McGahee carted off the field on a stretcher, or Keith Rivers get his jaw broken?)  Bottom line, both of these hits referenced were by Pittsburgh Steelers players, and neither were fined or even called as penalties.  I feel like the NFL gives Pittsburgh a free pass because they have a reputation as a physical, hard-hitting football team.  The league needs to get their act together and fix this very baised system. 

Continue reading "Steelers' cheap shots"

So, how about them Bengals??? Winning streak of 1 game! I'm calling it! two games will be the streak after this week. Fitz will get his swagger going early, and Chad should have a good game.  I think Philly will do well this week, but I think Cincy will keep up their winning ways this week and rise to 2-8. McNabb has been struggling as well as the entire Philly offense.  They do not have many weapons beyond Westbrook, so I think Cincinnati will take out that weapon by spying him often.  Jonathan Joseph should flourish against young and untested wideouts.  All in all, I see Cincinnati winning this game 31-27 in a fun game. 

Continue reading "2 in a row against the Eagles?"

So the Penn St. fighting teddy bears (as i judge by their mascot) come to c-bus to try to get their first win at OSU in a very long time.  Not happening this year!  Pryor will have a great game with 3 TDs and 2 more rushing, as OSU goes toe to toe with PSU for the first 3 quarters before the defense shuts Daryl Clark down in the 4th quarter.  I think Buckeyes win 41-28.  The Bucks' D has made great strides after starting slow against Wisconsin and looked absolutely dominant against a VERY good back in Javon Ringer.  I see Tressel putting Freeman or Laurinitis as a spy on Clark at all times and letting the studs in the secondary take the interceptions.   Bottom line: Penn State still has yet to play a non-soft team.  Bucks should get back in the Top 5 after beating the Nittanys this week!! O-H-I-O!!!!

Continue reading "Alright, everyone get ready... OSU WINS!!!"

alright, now that I have your attention, I feel that Cincinnati will win this weekend.  They are playing the soft Texans (one of their wins came last week against the Lions (the only team worse than cincy)).  While the Texans have a decent pass rush in DeMeco Ryans and Mario Williams, i think that Cincy's improving run game with Cedric Benson will help open up the passing game, not to mention Fitzpatrick is getting better each week.  The amazing thing about this season is not so much Cincinnati's record (0-7) but the defense (ranked in the top 20 in most categories).  the young group of defenders keeps getting better, and the more games they play, the better they'll be.  Zimmer is a fantastic addition to the team, and should be promoted to head coach next year if t

Continue reading "Bengals will win this week!"

Well, Oklahoma and Texas made it to the game this year with their respective top 5 rankings intact.  That is rare, as the teams usually choke the week leading up to it in "trap games".  This year's game should be a good matchup of two great passers in Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy.  Both are in the Heisman hunt and should finish the season with some great numbers.  The point of interest for me is not the stellar play of both QBs, but the lack of commentary on these two teams.  The media constantly speaks of what USC needs to do to get back to the title game or which SEC team will be there to face them.  I have news for the stupid media: Get over your East/West coast bias!  Oklahoma is probably going to end up playing BYU in the title game, in fact, I hope it is Boise St. vs. BYU so all the haters of anything non-SEC can shut up.  True, the SEC is a great conference, but they all have to play each other.  There should not be a 1 loss team from the SEC in the title game over an undefeated (even if they are from the mountain west).  Now, on to the game:

Continue reading "a red river shootout where the teams didn't choke the week before!"

Ok, so the Bengals are 0-5 and the season looks like a wash.  Cincinnati travels to New York this weekend to play the Jets, who everyone is high on.  I have news for all the people who think the Jets are going to ride Bret Favre to the division title or at least to the playoffs: The Jets were 4-12 last year.  They traded away their best player in Jonathan Vilma.  I do think Favre is a massive upgrade from Clemmons/Pennington (heck he threw 6 TDs in one game already this season), but i don't think that the Jets defense is good enough to get them there.  That said, I think that Cincinnati has a really good chance of pulling out of New York at 1-5.  I think that (assuming Carson plays) Cincinnati will throw all over the Jets D and get a few passing TDs, maybe eve

Continue reading "Beat the Jets baby!"

Ok, so how many fumbles this season will it take for the Bengals to realize that they need to get Rudi back (or draft one Beanie Wells) and dump the sad fumble-happy Chris Perry??? He simply cannot hold on to the ball for the life of him.  It's really sad.  Today was the worst, as the Bengals, coming in 0-4, had a real shot to beat Dallas.  They had recovered the onside kick (great coaching by the way) and were in Dallas territory driving.  Then Perry decides that he sucks and should have stayed at turnover happy michigan.  I am formally requesting (via blog) that Marvin Lewis bench Perry and let Benson run the ball, at least he can hold on to the ball.  I am simply blown away that Perry had his 5th fumble in 5 games.  This is the NFL and he should learn that he's being paid millions to hold the ball and run.  Professionals should not have this problem and he needs to go.

Continue reading "Chris Perry, Go back to Michigan"