01-13-2022, 09:42 AM
(01-13-2022, 09:02 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: I know I am going to come off as a jock sniffer, but I absolutely love the vibe of this team. There is a youthful energy and enthusiasm that I believe springs from the culture of ZT and Tobin getting QUALITY individuals (almost all were captains) from winning backgrounds, and then the leader of it all, Joe Burrow.
Burrow's work in rehab and his leadership of this team (Does everyone remember the first Raven game where he said to Higgins and Boyd: "If we can win this division, we can win it all") has the entire team thinking they should win every time they take the field. You could see it in the KC game.
No one team out there is absolutely better than the Bengals. Every team has flaws. The Bengals have a real shot, and I am just loving every minute of this season.
Sure, the future is bright, but I am not looking past this season. Enjoying this so damn much.
One of the reasons I’ve supported Zac was because it was obvious when listening to the players that he had not lost the locker room despite the losses. I’ve heard players giving lip service support to their coaches and that’s not what these guys were doing. These guys were genuinely supportive of Zac. When I saw all the back stabbing going on with Urban Meyer all I could think was no one on the Bengals did that even when their record was that bad. People who didn’t want to buy in are gone unlike in the Marvin years where they hung around setting up a two tier systems. We all heard the stories about people half assing it at practice or sleeping through meetings and sloppy play reflected that. Not saying that they weren’t good players still but that they weren’t all in on changing the Cincinnati culture. The players Zac has selected have led what he’s been trying to do. How many of the current players resumes open with “former team captain” or “coach’s kid”? It takes guts to reject a potentially really good player because they were looking like locker room poison.
We’re having fun because for the first time in a long time the team is having fun. Every time you see the players interact it is easy to see they actually like each other and are not just co workers. There have been lots of interviews these past several weeks with former coaches and players. To a man, they are all saying this team is different from those other teams of the past. They have confidence, swag, joy to go along with talent. We are heading into this game, as fans, thinking our team CAN win. I don’t think any of us, including the team, thought that in any of those 5 straight playoff appearances.
I love this feeling. I love the excitement. I love the real hope. I love the belief. I don’t want it to end.
Fueled by the pursuit of greatness.
