So over the last few years. From what I can remember during our final regular season home games. They do some prize give aways to fans. Super Bowl tickets and autographed merchandise and stuff.

Well this past Sunday. They did it like a game and showed it on the Jumbotron during halftime. A select group of I think season ticket holders got to answer some trivia questions and if they got it correct they would get a ball with their name on it placed into a basket. Once all the questions were over they started mixing up the balls and drawing random ones out and then announcing what prize they would get. There was some smaller stuff like a Microsoft surface and $500 kroger gift card.

But one lucky winner got his name drawn and the prize revealed was a years worth of Donatoes pizza. But he also had more balls with his name on them still in the basket. Couple prizes later and the same guy won a car.

I couldn’t believe it. I know I’d be happy to go to a Bengals game and win a years worth of delicious pizza and a new car.

Hell yeah!

The general of our offensive line is doing work and bringing some positive light to our team!



First time a Bengals player has won it and it awards $35,000 to his charity!

This is just for the charity challenge, but I love that our fans helped him get the W!

WHO-DEY!

Do we keep him?

What do we really have in Mixon? He's 8th in rushing yards this season. He has elite ball security. He's pretty good as a receiver. His pass blocking has improved a bit I believe. He's decent at goal line rushing when he lowers his head and hits the hole with authority, however.......

He stinks running out of the shotgun. He doesn't have the speed/quickness to get outside against most D's. He usually only gains what's blocked between the tackles. He doesn't have that extra gear to turn 7 yard gains into 15. He only has three 20+ yard gains this season and two of them were for 22 and 21 yards. The last Cleveland game padded his stats a bit.

My question arises from is all of it truly his fault??

1. ZT and Co. aren't about the run game by and large. Mixon had 10 games this season with less than 15 carries!!

2. The Oline excuse. I'm not a big believer in the all/most of Maxon's problems are blocking related. However, I also think it's fair to say on many plays our run blocking did him no favors.

3. The sweep and pitches outside to Mixon are just a bad idea. It certainly hurts his stats. 1 yard gain, -2, back to LOS and so on.

It's not a big mystery, I'm not a big Joe Mixon fan. But to be fair is it really all his fault?? Is he worth bring back as a spell back and 3rd down receiver/goal line?

It's not a big secret either that I'm a big believer in the lack of an efficient running game is in the top three of the Bengals biggest problems'

Well, it's over, and what a roller coaster ride it was. I remember back in pre-season and everyone was pumped, super Bowl run baby!!

And then the wheels started coming off the bus. Joe Burrow went down in camp and we sucked the first 4 games stumbling into a 1-3 record. How we beat LA ??? Hope was gone.

Then Joe got better and we ripped off 4 wins in a row including beating a decent Seahawks team and the good Bills and 49ers team, he's back. The playoffs and SB seemed back on the table.

Then we lost to a decent Texans team (CJ Stroud seems to be the real deal) and a bit of air came out of our sails. Then the boom was lowered again in the Ravens game, Joe's wrist and all hope was lost.....again. The Steelers game kinda confirmed that Jake Browning was taking us nowhere and I was calling it a season.

To the tune of Rocky, the light came back on!! Browning looked like the 2nd coming of Montana and we reeled off 3 wins in a row. Hope was restored.

The 2nd Steelers game brought us back to reality and pretty much the season was over in one foul swoop.

Please can the football gods smile on us next season and Joe Burrow have a full pre-season and we play the Oline a bit there. And more importantly can Joe stay healthy all season? Aren't we due?? I can't handle the drama anymore haha.

Not only was he the Bengals' highest graded defender, Jordan Battle had PFF's 5th highest safety grade of any rookie in the last 10 years. pic.twitter.com/veKVT8oxoD

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) January 8, 2024

Jordan Battle received a 90.0 PFF grade in week 18 after collecting 3 tackles, a sack, an INT and allowing 1 catch on 4 targets.

The Bengals rookie ended up being the highest graded defender for Cincinnati (82.5) after playing 524 snaps this year.

Of ALL rookie defenders this… pic.twitter.com/HmNeIfpT96

— Goodberry (@JoeGoodberry) January 8, 2024

Has there been any word on him coming back? This was his 3rd year back and that’s the length of most of these assistant contracts I assumed….So I was HOPING we would move on since the guy has shown ZERO ability to coach up our draft picks and our line has continued to be bad every year, despite a lot of decent talent.

Seriously, how do they think they can sell keeping him to this fanbase? My God how stubborn are they?! It’s so frustrating. They are SO CLOSE to being a yearly top team, yet they just refuse to take the final couple steps that the top teams take. Like keeping a position coach year after year that has cost this team 2 super bowls already.

I hope someone here can tell me they’ve heard something that could give us hope he is gone?

The #Panthers requested an interview with #Bengals OC Brian Callahan for their head coaching job, per source.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 8, 2024

Jonah Williams still far from thinking about free agency but appreciates what he’s helped build with Bengals pic.twitter.com/70Ucal7Zbt

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 8, 2024

DJ Reader promises to be back playing somewhere, enjoyed his role as Bengals leader pic.twitter.com/1xzEjvhXef

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 8, 2024

I gotta say, I think we found an absolute gem in this kid. ELITE speed and athleticism, and he's flashed when given the opportunity this year. I REALLY think he's going to be special. He seems like he's got the right attitude to work and get better as well.

Pair his speed with Chase Brown's speed, and man...next year we are going to have some weapons on that offense.

“It was super-gratifying” Andrei Iosivas on his 2-TD day and his rookie season pic.twitter.com/y0U9V3g36F

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 7, 2024

Nuggets:

Joe Burrow: "We know the standard here. That's what we've got to get back to."

Joe Burrow: "Everyone's expectation is Tee will be back. The offseason plays out in crazy ways to don't expect, but we want Tee back."

Joe Burrow said that the Bengals discussed with him the plan for the future of the roster when he negotiated the contract extension. They talked about these moves over the summer.

Joe Burrow on Tee Higgins: "We'd love to have Tee back. He's a big part of what we've done here. It's no secret, our relationship. I expect Tee to be back. We all want Tee back."

Joe Burrow on the under center offense: "It brought some different things to the offense that we were not able to do at the start of the year because I physically couldn't do it (because of the calf)."
"It was a good couple weeks."

Joe Burrow is lifting with his legs and doing a lot of core work. Tougher to do upper body workouts, but they're modifying a plan to keep his upper body strong.
"It's tough when you watch from the sideline. I was focused on getting myself better every day and doing what I could for Jake."

Joe Burrow: "Feeling good. Getting better every day."
No target date to throw. "I think I should be good for OTAs. We'll see."