Nfl.com on Hill and Bengals Offense

[BengalChris]

(06-18-2015, 10:44 AM)djs7685 Wrote: I do agree that this roster is pretty damn talented. I'm excited about the upcoming year, but you have to realize that most Bengals' fans have good reason to not believe the hype since we hear the same thing year after year after year with similar results.

In the early 2000's I remember it being "this is the year we make the playoffs!" (I can imagine Jungle Noise would have been the same way if it were around at the time), and then the same old, same old. Once we finally started making the playoffs, it has been "this is the year we win a playoff game!", then we get bounced in the WC round 6 times in the past 10 years.

As solid as I think the roster is, there's part of me that can't get tooooo excited just because of the last 25 years. There are a lot of people that share the same feelings, and it's for good reason. This team has gotten more people's hopes up than every stripper in Las Vegas combined. Every year I hear "this is the year! we've just been unlucky in the past!" from a portion of Bengals' fans, and it just loses it's luster once you hear it so many times without seeing results.

We could hire Bill Belichick, trade for Aaron Rodgers, J.J. Watt, and Rob Gronkowski, build a time machine and sign prime Jerry Rice and Barry Sanders, and there would still be people questioning if we could win a playoff game. It has gotten to the point that a lot of people are sick and tired of hearing about it being our year without the elusive playoff victory. Is making the playoffs every year now better than praying to get to .500? Sure! It makes the regular season a hell of a lot more fun as a fan of the team. It just sucks to hear the same crap all offseason each year with nothing more than playoff appearances to show for it.

Yep, been hearing the hype and excuses for years and years. In fact, been hearing it since Mike Brown inherited the team.

Won't believe it's our year until it happens. I am looking forward to seeing how Hill is used and how the defense plays. Expecting more or less the same Andy Dalton cause there's no reason to believe otherwise. He will have some really nice games but he'll also have some bad Andy games.

When it comes to the playoffs it's not like the team is losing close games, the team just gets blown out, panics and loses its head. That's true for Lewis and Dalton and the assistants and the defense and the receivers.

In those tough situations, the team has to rise above that panic feeling and keep their heads in the game. That starts with Lewis really, but has to continue with the assistants, the offense and the defense. It's one of those things that we really won't know until the situation arises and the team responds.