10/1 Update: Rey tweets that he has heard from his brother in Samoa and that he’s OK. Great news!
Original post & updates: Rey Maualuga and Jonathan Fanene are among NFL players watching events in the Pacific as an undersea earthquake sent walls of water ashore in Western and American Samoa.
A series of tsunamis smashed into the Pacific island nations of American and Western Samoa killing possibly more than 100 people, destroying villages and injuring hundreds, officials said on Wednesday.
A Pacific-wide tsunami warning was issued after a huge 8.0 magnitude undersea quake off American Samoa, with reports of a small tsunami [...]

In the wake of the win over Pittsburgh, the Cincinnati Bengals are finally starting to draw a bit of notice from the usually dismissive national media. Over at CBS, former NFL GM Charlie Casserly details how the seeds of this year’s team were planted in the last three games of 2008. Meanwhile, perennial Bengals-hater Vinny Iyer, who just two weeks ago picked the Packers over the Bengals as his “lock of the week,” (ha-ha) talks with current NFL sack leader DE Antwan Odom about how everyone is buying into the system.
All this is giving James Walker a case of the [...]

The return of the Cardiac Cats has Bengaldom feeling its roar for the first time since 2005, but mind head coach Marvin Lewis: “After looking at the tape, obviously there’s a lot of correction to be made.”
Indeed, that’s the most striking thing — to me, anyway — about the Cincinnati Bengals’ 23-20 victory over visiting Pittsburgh yesterday. It’s not just that they pulled out their first win against the Steelers at PBS in forever, but they did it while playing like crap for the first half of the game.
Granted, “crap” is a bit strong for the D, which twice held [...]

Carson Palmer finally leads the Bengals over the Steelers in Cincinnati. Brian Leonard had a huge fourth down catch and run to keep the drive alive. Then Palmer hooked up with Caldwell for the game winner, check it out:

David adds: Instant reax:
Walker: One of the most thrilling victories for the franchise in recent memory. Update: Contenders.
CBS: Bengals earn some legitimacy.
Reedy:

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. And he made a trip to Cincinnati today. And I now owe my daughter $100 because I bet here there was no way they would win.
And you know what? She can have that cash gladly!
Now if you will excuse me, I have a large amount of alcohol to drink!
WHO-DEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Game time approacheth. The usual suspects are inactive. Will the Bengals finally bust the Steelers’ five-game winning streak at PBS? They certainly haven’t had a better opportunity in years. Who-dey!

Here’s a report from someone who is not only embedded in enemy territory, but living in the city permanently (no joke)…
Steeler Nation is very concerned about Pittsburgh’s pass defense – and for good reason. Starting safety Troy Polamalu is still recovering from a knee injury and will miss Sunday’s game. Backup Tyrone Carter is not 100-percent and there’s an inexperienced player behind him, Ryan Mundy. As some of the experts noted on Bengals.com, the Steelers are limping into Paul Brown Stadium and for once the Bengals have some distinct advantages. Now is the time to exploit them.
Cincinnati needs to spread [...]

Doc think the Bengals need to quit being bullied by the Steelers. Stripe Hype agrees, of course. For any Bengals player who has questions about how to go about this, we offer the following instructional videos at absolutely no cost:

Same stuff, different year.
Bump.
Just do it. It’s past time.

As some of you might recall, last April the NFL tweaked the schedule after Jets fans in the New York area kicked up a fuss about a conflict with a key Jewish holiday, Yom Kippur. As a consequence of the shuffle, the Pittsburgh – Cincinnati tilt was moved from 1 p.m. to a 4:15 start.
As a result, the Bengals will be seen across all or parts of more than 20 states Sunday, with the game set to be called by CBS’ No. 1 team, Jim Nantz and Phil Simms. The Bengals thus have a prime opportunity to change perceptions for the [...]