Bengals 10, Vikings 30
The Cincinnati Bengals sleepwalked through a trip to Minneapolis today, losing 30-10 to the Vikings in Minnesota. It was a no-show game for the stripes, who had nearly as many penalty yards (85) as passing yards (91). Thanks to one big 42-yard scamper, RB Cedric Benson had a big day, running for 96 total yards and recording the first 1,000+ yard season of his NFL career.
But overall, the offense couldn’t make anything happen, and special teams contributed their own mistakes, with poor punts by Kevin Huber and an unforgivable-in-a-dome out-of-bounds kickoff by our franchise player, Shayne Graham. The D strove mightily, but ran out of gas in a game where the Bengals lost the TOP battle 32-27 and change.
The silver lining? Of their final four games, this was easily the least important. Against an NFC opponent, its only real impact is on the total won-loss record. The final three games are all against AFC opponents, and will determine playoff position and seeding. A win here would have been better, no doubt. But San Diego can’t relish hosting a ticked-off Bengals club, and they will see that now next week.
Post-mortems:
Vikings looked like they were playing at warp speed versus Bengals.
Won’t win next week without a better effort. Yeah, James, we kinda figured that out.
[...] Dave blows off the loss to the Vikings. [...]
December 14th, 2009 at 6:44 pm