Stripe Hype | A Cincinnati Bengals Blog

Bengals to Face “New” England Patriots

nate — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:51:31 +0000

When the schedule was released, my gut instinct was that Cincinnati would probably lose the season opener in New England. Now, I’m not so sure. One of the reason for my optimism, is the inexperience in New England’s secondary. With Leigh Bodden out for the season, the Patriots will likely start rookie Devin McCourty and second-year man Darius Butler, who has only started five games. According to Tim Graham, it’s expected to be the least-experienced starting duo in the entire league. And with Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens staring at those corners across from them, Carson Palmer should be smiling. If the Bengals offensive line can give Palmer time to throw, Cincinnati should carve up the Patriots through the air, especially considering that they no longer have an elite pass rush. But Cincinnati’s best offense might be the run game with Cedric Benson and Bernard Scott that keeps Tom Brady and company off the field. Either way, Cincinnati has a good chance to win the game.

And that outcome is quite a bit better than my first instinct.

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Hitting the Links

nate — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:44:16 +0000

It’s time for a few previews to get you ready for the NFL season, which is just over a week away. As always, things here are Bengals-centric.

The first preview comes from AOL’s Fanhouse, which gives the Bengals a “heat rating” of 31 out of 50. The site calls them a playoff contender, but says a slide back to five or six wins wouldn’t be shocking. I say the team only slides back to five or six wins if Carson Palmer gets hurt. The loss of any other player would be damaging, but not devastating. I think.

The second one comes from NFL.com. All six experts predicted at least nine wins for the Bengals. To me, that mark seems about right. Given Cincinnati’s schedule, anything between eight and eleven wins seems possible. Anything more or less than that would take some extenuating circumstances. And frankly, if this team falls back to those Dave Shula-Dick Lebeau levels, I don’t want to watch. But I will. And you probably will too, because we’re Bengals fans (i.e. modern-day sadomasochists).

I’ll make my own prediction next week. But I’ll have a large glass of orange Kool-Aid first (i.e. orange optimism). Ahhhh.

Drink up. Football season is almost here.

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Ochocinco a Minuteman?

nate — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:19:31 +0000

Chad Ochocinco has hit the Twitter-waves and declared that he’s already planned his touchdown celebration for Week 1 in New England. As relayed by ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss, if Ochocinco scores in the season opener, he’s going to grab a rifle from New England’s Minuteman mascots and fire a shot. If that happens, fines will certainly follow.

I love Ocho’s enthusiasm for the game, but I’d much rather he spend his free time planning how he’s going to downfield block on a running play or catch a pass across the middle. So I guess I’m with Missy Elliott on this one (see video). I don’t want Chad Ochocinco the Minuteman. Give me Chad Ochocinco, the run-blocking maestro. Perhaps I’m asking too much.

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