It's football season

Let me start off with a big fat Who-Dey in response to the win by the Bengals over the Steelers on Sunday. For whatever reason, this city just needed that win! Forget records and standings for a second...this city needed to see the Bengals not only beat the Steelers, but get one good sack of Big Ben. To quote the TV announcer from Week 2's game: "Antwan Odom...is not human!"

But let us talk about standings for a second. Power rankings are out.

Steelers are ranked #8 after enjoying a bit of time ranked 1 and 2. What additional comments do we get from Fox Sports:

BETTER THAN RECORD: Chalk up the 1-2 mark to a slight case of Super Bowl
hangover, but more to the loss of defensive leader Troy Polamalu. There's no way
the Steelers blow back-to-back fourth quarter leads if the hairy All-Pro safety
is doing his thing. But even when they won the Super Bowl last season,
Pittsburgh's margin of error was never too vast. Which means they're not far
away from getting back on top.

Now the Bengals - Ranked #13, up 9 spots from last week, and towering over their season-low ranking of 28 - the Bengals deserve a bit more respect. What do you have to say Fox Sports:

RECORD IS JUST RIGHT: That Ochocinco dude may have flown over the cuckoo's nest several years ago, but give the hombre props for being right after he yelled all
summer about his team being a contender once again. Carson Palmer is arguably
the NFL's best QB not to win a playoff game, and his return to health along with
Cincy's improving defense will keep the Trojans (err, Bengals) in playoff
contention all year long.

My Opinion...

So, with TP, the Steelers could have won? Guess what, he's out. And even if he was in there to stop those last plays of the game, that doesn't mean that the rest of the game would have played out the same either. Here's the funny thing about football: you can only play the game with what you have. You put your available guys on the field for 4-quarters and you do what you have to do. At the end of 4 quarters, it is what it is and you have either won or lost. You will never get to play that game again with any different conditions. Why waste your breath on what could have been?

And really, does your focus need to be on Chad's off-field antics. We know he's a clown! Show the same respect to the Bengals that you appear to show the Steelers. We can just as easily argue the Bengals potential playoff contention had Carson's knee not been taken out.

It is what it is. And at the end of the day, the Bengals have more heart and more wins than the Steelers. Now if they could only get a little more respect.