01-11-2018, 05:14 PM
(01-11-2018, 04:46 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Who says that merely winning a playoff game = success? The goal, as with any sports team, is to win the Championship.
I'll bet you that if you interviewed any lifelong Cubs or Redsox fans (both teams were supposedly "cursed", until they weren't) and ask those fans if they were ever satisfied with winning the Wild Card, the Division, or even the Pennant, and if they considered those distinctions as being successful, I think that you would be surprised to learn otherwise.
As a kid and as a young man, I watched my team play for the championship and fail both times. I was crushed both times, I did not consider those seasons "successes". However, I did remain supportive and optimistic, because I felt at least like they were capable of getting to and winning a Championship.
What you say is true as a General Rule and every team (even the Bengals) will have the Championship goal.
Before that can happen a Benchmark has to be surpassed.
That Benchmark has been engrained into the minds of Bengal fans for around 27 years now.
Just like Buffalo ending a 17 year Playoff appearance drought, the Bengals have to end a Playoff win drought.
Talk of Super Bowls by Mike & Marvin ring hollow to fans who first need to see the Playoff win benchmark surpassed.
That alone would mark unusual success here in Cincinnati.
It would be celebrated in a way similar to Buffalo's recent celebrations, while Fans of say the Patriots would be less enthused with just a Playoff win.
A Barometer of the True State of the Bengal Organization and where Fans have been forced to set their sights in a way.
When Mike or Marvin talk football, fans don't think Super Bowl around here. They think "win a Playoff game".
Prove to us that you can do that first. Then maybe the Bar of realistic expectations can be raised by Fans.
