I was at the game yesterday...

[Stewy]

(01-03-2022, 12:15 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: I agree that this was the best win and the best feeling as a Bengals fan for me. We've had other playoff years, but barely any of them felt like we could go and win the Super Bowl.

In 2009, we were the cardiac cats and I honestly never felt like we dominated anyone other than the Bears, so I was skeptical of whether or not we'd win in the playoffs. Especially since we were playing the Jets, who we'd just lost to in the final week of the season (granted, we were resting our starters, but still, it was weird).

In 2011, we had a rookie QB and were just happy to be there. 2012 to 2014, Dalton was in his prime "Bad Dalton/Good Dalton" phase and it was hard to really believe he would be clutch in the playoffs and 2015, the one year Dalton felt clutch and fully "arrived," he gets injured and we limped into the playoffs with McCarron leading our offense.

Maybe older fans had this same feeling in 2005, I can't be sure. I became a fan in 2004, so 2005 was still relatively new to me and I don't think I fully appreciated that team for what it was.

Burrow is just built different. I don't know if we'll win the playoffs, but this is the best I've ever felt about our chances of winning in the post season before and I am so excited to see if they can pull it off!

Having been a fan since the early 80's, I've only seen three Bengal offenses that make me feel as though they can score on anyone  88, 2005 and 2021.  Even 2015 didn't give me that vibe, but it was of course a very good team.  What 88, and 05 share with 21 is having an opportunistic, but not awesome defense to keep games close, 88 especially.  What 21 lacks compares to the other two is that in 88 and 05 we the height of quality for our OLines and thus stellar running games.  (The league changing play action passing game of Sam Wyche wouldn't have worked without a running game). Those were some of the best OLines not only that we've ever had, but that ever were.  We need to focus on that in the off season, to take as much advantage as possible of the young skill positions that we have ATM.

But from a gut feeling point of view, this is a rare Bengals team we are watching, IMO.