Just Watched Bengals Beat Chiefs Replay on NFL Network

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(01-28-2022, 05:54 AM)kevin Wrote: It's hard to believe this is all in January.  Ohio State won Rose Bowl January 1st.  Bengals beat Chiefs to Win AFC North January 2nd. Rested most of team against Browns.  A hard fought win against Raiders in Cincy in Play-Offs.  A hard fought win against Titans in Tennessee in Play-Offs.  Now to AFC Championship against Kansas City Chiefs again.  ALL IN JANUARY.  

Watching that again and Chiefs up 21 to 7 early.  Then 28 to 14 and First Half ends 28 to 17.  The Chiefs would only get a field goal rest of the game.  After 28 to 14, Bengals beat them 20 to 3 the rest of game.  Great Defense and Great Offense.

We see Bills give Chiefs the ball back with 13 seconds and Chiefs still tie the game in 13 seconds.  Here is where Bengals getting down near the goal line with over 3 minutes, but never scoring a touchdown paid off.  A holding penalty on Chiefs also gave Bengals from 4th down to 1st down at the 1 yard line.  At the end Burrow had to leave and Allen came in for the last 2 snap kneel downs.  McPHERSON GAME WINNING KICK as TIME RAN OUT....Mahomes NEVER got the ball back.

I enjoyed watching it again tonight on NFL NETWORK.   It seems like a year ago, but it was just this same month of January.

Coach Taylor made some crucial going for it on 4th down moves.  The one that could have been disaster was 4th down still not at the 50, Chiefs would have got great field position.  Higgins reached out on that screen pass, and how he caught it, I don't know, and then he ran for the 1st down.  So many big plays by everybody in that game.  The celebration at end as Bengals Win the AFC North.  What a Game. What a Month.  Just beating out tough Browns, Steelers and Ravens to win AFC North was HARD.  AFC North had no easy teams.

Watching this, I thought, when Bengals beat Chiefs again, they really won't be able to send any coaches to the Senior Bowl, but who cares if Bengals are GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL.

I'm glad this game came up.  There has been a lot of apologizing for why the Chiefs lost that game:

They didn't have their starting tackles.  

They weren't playing at home.

They had less to play for.

Blah, blah, blah...

Here are some other things that every talking head has seemingly forgotten: 

The Bengals made a few blunders.  They dropped TWO INTs.  They went in single-high three separate times and were torched all three times.  Lesson learned?  

The Bengals were just getting Logan Wilson back who didn't have a very good game and was rusty, if not still a little injured. Well, he just graded a 90 against the Titans.  Safe to say he is back.

The Bengals had lost Pratt to COVID.  He is back and playing his best ball ever.

I said it in another thread.  Where are the Bengals weak?  One high sack total game doesn't make an offensive line horrible.  One stat I couldn't believe was that Burrow had one of his highest % games of "clean pockets".  This despite the sacks.  And he STILL threw for 350 yards despite being behind the chains so often.  Other than the offensive line, I think the secondary, the LBs (Bailey was great against Tennessee as well) are very tough, the defensive line is really, really, good.  On offense, the Bengals are tough at every position group except maybe guard.  Even Hopkins has been playing his best all season.

I think, most importantly, is that the team knows this and believes in themselves and the coaches to put them in the right plays and schemes.

Who dey, my friends.  It is going to be a great one.