With a little over 1 minute to go in the first half, the Bengals totaled just 20 yards on 19 plays, no successful 3rd down conversions, 6 punts, just one first down and 5 three and outs in a row. However on the final drive of the half the Bengals marched 89 yards to make it a less-abysmal game, 13-3 at halftime.

Although Cincy was able to put some pressure on Flacco at times and gave up 52 yards rushing, the Bengals offense wasn't much help with 5/16 passing from Fitzgerald and 12 rushing yards from 5 attempts. The fact that the Bengals were outgained by more than double their 109 yard amount (Ravens-248) and that the Ravens had the time for more than double of Cincy, didn't help things either.

We've seen some earlier games where the Bengals lost, but were competing (Giants for example), in this case it's obvious to everyone watching that Baltimore is just a much better team basically in every area from Quarterback to Linebacker.

At the time of watching this the Ravens are now winning 27-3 in just the 3rd quarter, just an absolute slaughter. The amount of recaps lately haven't been done because of a few things, for one I've felt that the season has been over for about a month now and although I still watch, it's all about next year and just "hoping" some positive changes can be made.

At least we're better than the Lions. (Not much of a compliment)

After a "decent" 1st quarter (we were down 7-3 after all), the expected collapse on both offense and defense preludes that and quite frankly they're pathetic to watch.

One has to wonder what will happen with management after this disastrous season, either a whole lot of nothing or a lot. After seeing the bad start the Bengals had it slowly came apparent that bad feeling that the Bengals were back to the "bad days". I know most people thought this after 4 games, but I figured we could bounce back. However when Palmer got injured, the worst possible player for Cincy to lose, the outlook was much grimmer.

As for today's game, right now the Bengals are getting pounded 35-6. It was a decent 14-6 game at halftime and as always, our defense got worn out and is getting abused, our offense stagnant and innefective. If there can be good notes with a game where Cincy went 0-8, it was the running game. Benson got 49 yards on 13 carries (still low avg of 3.8) and kind of sadly, Flitzpatrick got 39 yds on 6 carries!

Cincinnati did solid in 3rd downs, but turned it over 3 times vs 0 takeaways and at this point, outgained by over  100 yards overall. In the passing game Fitzpatrick had 2 INT's and went a mediocre 20/31 for just 155 yards whereas Shaub had nearly 300 yards, 3 TD's and went an amazing 24/28.

I remember early on in the season when I was trying to be optimistic and I did believe that the Bengals were a good team. We've seen glimmers but it's quite apparent that those were glimmers of decency with a plain bad team. There is talent, but in every game it's been obvious that the Bengals have been beaten by better (and at times MUCH better) teams, out coached and outplayed.

Maybe next year?

If it couldn't get worse for the Bengals, they lose promising rookie linebacker Keith Rivers for the whole season with a broken jaw according to ESPN. Rivers was the Bengals 2nd-leading tackler and left the game today with a hurt jaw.

We received the info via ESPN text message, we'll provide a link once the story is up on ESPN. A bad day to be a Bengals fan.

The Bengals are now 0-7. There doesn't need to be much else said other than the NFL-worst record. At times the Bengals defense has shown promise and has a bright future, the Bengals running game has been the worst in quite some time and the passing game has struggled badly with a pitiful offensive line looking much worse than 2007.

In this match up where it had been 7 years since the last Bengals win against Pittsburgh, at home, they predictably lost. To start off the game was one of the worst starts I can ever remember, with it taking 25 game minutes for Cincy to even get a first down! Once they did, they were able to manage a TD to make it appear as a close 10-7 at half-time.

The somewhat bright spot was a defense that seemed good at times and made two big stops on 3rd and 1, however they ended up allowing nearly 400 yards. Benson started his first game as a Bengal and was decent with 52 yards on 14 carries. However in the end the Bengals lost badly, 38-10 and were out gained by nearly two times.

Fitzpatrick was okay going 21/35 for 164 yds and a TD, Roethlisberger 17/28 for 216 and 2 TD's. Overall it was quite clear Pittsburgh was a MUCH better team and although it seemed to be a close 10-7 game at half-time, it wasn't close and when the time came in the 3rd quarter with the Bengals at the Steelers 40 yd line...the Bengals blew their chance.

Maybe next year?

Is this the Giants game we're seeing? For just the 2nd time all year the Bengals were VERY competitive against a VERY good team and then lose it.

In the 1st half the Bengals were plain out awful (unlike the Giants game) and were lucky to only be down 17-6 at half-time. Carson was playing bad and the Cowboys were scoring at ease on the slow Bengals defense.

Then in the 2nd half the game kept switching momentum. An INT by Romo helped the Bengals very little and fumble #5 by Chris Perry screwed the Bengals from one of many lost opportunities in the game.

So the good? Romo didn't even pass for 200 yards (although was 14/23 with 3 TD's) and Carson was great in the 2nd Half, netting 217 yards on 23/39 passing with 2 TD's. Best of all the Bengals were very competitive and were in the game for most of the 2nd half.

The bad is a lot. The Bengals once again lost a game they should of won. Romo played maybe his worst game of the year and the Cowboys run game got 176 yards, every time Felix Jones had it I thought he was going to get a Touchdown.

Maybe the point where any hopes of the Bengls winning happened when the best running back in the league, Chris Perry, showed off his horrible mechanics with fumble #5. This happened in Cowboys territory and came at a horrible time. But maybe that point was on the 2 point conversion, when they threw it to Utecht who hasn't exactly been "hot" lately. I know he's taller, but who do you ignore the 3 or 4 better receivers?

Irregardless despite a gutsy onside kick and a late comeback, the Bengals defense once again was worn out and could do nothing to stop the Cowboys score the last TD of the game. It's hard anymore to find any other words to use then "awful" and "dissapointing".

In these first 5 games the Bengals have shown that they can be a decent team, yet at the same time without a win have solidified themselves as in the bottom 5 of the NFL. Next week the Bengals face off against Brett Favre and the Jets.

p.s. Any team want Chris Perry or David Jones? I mean maybe a 6th round pick, whatever, we'll take anything!

Week 4 and the Bengals are now 0-4, who would've thought? After a very solid performance against the Giants the heartbreaking news that Carson wouldn't play crushed the hopes for win #1 against the Browns.

For now the 4th straight week my main complaint is the offense. Yes, I know Flitzpatrick was at the helm and yes he did bad. (21/35 for 156 yards, 4.5 avg, 1 TD, 3 INT) But what is a very telling stat is the total of 69 rushing yards, 41 from the QB! Yep, Chris perry had just 28 yards on 12 carries which really doesn't make Fitz's stats surprising. The Bengals needed to have an efficient running game to alleviate the pressure on the passing game, unfortunately however the running game could never get going (besides Fitzpatrick) which made the passing game a priority.

Once again 3rd down efficiency was a factor, 4-13 which is similar to week 1 and 2. Easily the worst was turnovers, 3 INT's from Fitz and 2 fumbles from Cincy.

Defensively the Bengals have been quite solid. The biggest complaint has been the fact that they cannot play a 60 minute game. They may for example hold the Browns to 3 points at half-time (see: today), but then allow say 17 points in the 4th quarter. (see: TODAY )

We did get 2 turnovers, 1 INT (didn't score off of it, first of the year) and 1 fumble. We also got just our 2nd sack of the season and allowed one.

Overall just a mediocre game. Defense did well for 3 quarters, bad in the 4th. Running game was just awful, though I got a kick out of seeing Fitzpatrick running for 41 yards head-first. Passing game was too relied on and with a guy with just his 4th start, struggled and turned it over.

With the Bengals nation still looking for just win number one, we may have to wait with maybe our toughest game of the year next week, the Dallas Cowboys.

Who knows, maybe we'll see another game like the Giants, except a win. Here's hoping!

So close, yet so far away. The Bengals were within yards of winning the game in the 4th quarter with just seconds to go and what seemed like an impossibility, the Bengals winning this game, shortly became inevitable. The play clock management in one word was "atrocious" in the final drive in the 4th quarters, they should of had 2 shots at the end zone and instead wasted 15 seconds to only tie the game and lose in overtime.

For those that didn't watch, the Bengals lost in a heart-breaker 26-23 in overtime. First before I talk about the horrible overtime, let's get to the positives! First is Carson going 27/39 for nearly 300 yards and a TD. Perry had 74 rushing yards and the Giants were held to just 117 yards rushing. Secondly the Bengals committed no turnovers, had the ball longer, went a pretty good 10-17 on 3rd downs and had 24 1st downs.

The first half the Bengals defense stopped Jacobs and Eli struggled. Carson did pretty solid and Chris perry ran quite well. In the 2nd half the Bengals defense started to ware down, mostly in the 4th quarter but the offense responded to keep up. Really the only "bad" play was the last 30 seconds of the 4th quarters and overtime.

And yes it's good to know the Bengals aren't a bottom 3 team like they seemed to be, but we are 0-3 and lost a game we should of won. Everyone I heard say anything about this game was expecting a blowout, even I predicted a 35-13 loss. (and I was being generous!) At a minimum, a loss seemed guaranteed, the Giants were even 10.5 point favorites!

In the end it was a loss. The Bengals on both sides showed good things and a lot of it that hopefully can carry over to some competitive and I REALLY hope, some quality wins. It was a loss and most frustrating was awful play clock management and then awful play calling in overtime. Luckily we have Cleveland next and we won't have our heads as low as when going to the Giants.

A tough loss, but a great football game.

After a horrible start to the season, a game where the Bengals couldn't even get a hundred yards passing, it was worse in the 2nd game of the NFL Season againt the Titans. The stats and even basically drive-by-drive run down are done elsewhere, Cincy Jungle, I'll just be covering the general crappiness of the Bengals play.

What's most worrying for Bengals fans is the fact that play-wise, we've been crushed twice in a row and we have a tough 6 games ahead (at least 6, the next "ok" team we play is week 13 against the Ravens!). It's not like we had to start out against the Packers and Patriots. Worse the key problems in Game 1, for the most part, were present in this game.

The run game was "better", but a combined 88 yards on 28 carries versus the Titans 177 rushing yards, well it's still not good enough. Although Carson faced pressure, it seemed worse in the Ravens game and he wasn't sacked in this game, yet his rating was again horrible without a touchdown pass this season.

Looking at the stats one has to remember that after the first half, the bengals did practically nothing and a lot of the Titans numbers were in the 2nd half. Once again the Bengals cannot play 4 quarters and worse, 3rd downs last week - 2/13, this week - 3/13.

Next week the Bengals will be playing the Giants at New York. The Giants have outscored there opponents 57-20 after two games but in the words of Carson Palmer - "We need to try to find a way to stay positive". Yeah, good luck.

Game #1 of the NFL Season for the Bengals and I'm typing somewhat stunned at the events of today's Bengals-Ravens game. I wish I could say I'm stunned at how good the Bengals played, but it's the opposite.

The pre-season in so many ways was so worrying and although some fans were worried the team was that bad, I was worried but said that pre-season is just that. But apparently pre-season means more than I thought it did.

Incase you missed it, the Ravens won 17-10 in a score that made the game sound 10 times closer than it really was. Until a 65 fumble return for a TD by Jonathon Joseph, it was 17-3 and seemed the game was over.

What was so bad in this seemingly close game? To start off with, the run game. Chris Perry got 37 yards on 18 carries (2.1 avg), versus a combined 229 yards on 46 carries by the Ravens. Next up - passing, Palmer had a career low 35.3 rating on 10/25 for 99 yards and 1 INT. Flacco had a decent first game (expect him to be highly overrated, I want to see him play against a decent team), going 15/29 for 129 yards.

The only other stats I want to mention before I try and forget this game is 2-13 on 3rd downs for the Bengals and our offensive line struggling once again. Carson was sacked twice in the first quarter and was pressured without much protection for the whole game.

All in all it's tough to find positives. In the first half the Corners did do well covering and we saw a few small good things, but all in all an incredibly awful start for the season. Hopefully a better game next week for the home opener against the Titans!

After the revealing of the surprise release of Willie Anderson and lesser so, Rudi Johnson. With that said, 20 more players were cut, here's the list:

• Rudi Johnson
  
• Willie Anderson
  
• Deltha O'Neal
  
• Jim Maxwell
  
• Nate Lawrie
  
• Ahmad Brooks
  
• Antwon Burton
  
• John Busing
  
• Eric Henderson
  
• Jeff Rowe
  
• Nate Livings
  
• Dane Uperesa
  
• James Blair
  
• Angelo Craig
  
• Anthony Hoke
  
• Dan Howell
  
• James Johnson
  
• Clye Logan
  
• Maurice Purify
  
• Mario Urrutia

I've highlighted in bold the biggest ones or heck, the only ones most Bengal fans have heard of. We knew about Rudi and Willie, but surprised (again) with the release of Deltha O'Neal (THANK YOU!) and not a surprise with Ahmad Brooks.

One last surprise is the release of Jeff Rowe. Seeing as he got much more play time then Jordan Palmer...but what do I know! What a crazy day in all, the moves made today without a doubt, will effect the team for years to come.

Can't wait until September 7th!