Athlon Magazine Picks Bengals 3rd in AFC

[kevin]

I see Street and Smith, a long time Pro Football Summer prediction magazine is out. They have Bengals finishing 2nd in AFC and say Bengals will be pretty good. Although I'm not sure of their idea of pretty good, since they don't have Bengals in Play-Offs....For a Bengals team trying to WIN a play-off game for first time since 1990 season, and hoping AJ Green and Company can go Super Bowl before it all blows up, I can't agree that missing the play-offs and watching Pittsburg Steelers in play-offs would be good. To a New York writer that may be good, not to a Bengals Fan.

So Athlon has Bengals having a lousy season due to offensive line, and Street and Smith things Bengals will bounce back but not enough to make play-offs. I guess they figure 8-8 is good for Cincinnati.

I myself feel if the O Line can BLOCK, and if the D can TACKLE, Super Bowl could be possible. We will start to see what we have in August preseason. I agree with the one mag that says all the WR's and RB's we drafted won't mean a thing if we can't block. That's just Football 101. ...but if they open run lanes, and if they open passing lanes and give Dalton the needed time to drop back and throw, then this team could be awesome. The #1 law of football is protect the QB. Protect the Superstar as in Longest Yard movie. They do that and they can win. They don't and it's one long bad season.