Which team has been more successful?

[*ochocincos*]

(03-12-2018, 02:38 PM)McC Wrote: Unless you're Mike Brown, playoff wins is the measure of success.  It always has been.  If the goal is to win a SB, you can never reach that goal if you can't win one playoff game.

If you've been to the playoffs seven times without a single win, you have established your ceiling.  After two or three of those losses in a row, hopelessness sets in.  We're in the playoffs again.  So frigging what?  We're running in place, stuck in third gear.  Enthusiasm wanes.  

But you don't think that should have any effect on fans when that is just the natural reaction to being fed five big doses of failure in a row.  And not just failure.  Humiliating, nauseating, maddening failure.  Bitter pills leave a bitter taste.  Stops feeling like any kind of success when the last image is mind boggling failure.

I think the real answer is a bit more complicated.

At least for me, there are tiers.

1) Have a winning season
2) Make the playoffs
3) Win a playoff game
4) Make conference championship
5) Make Super Bowl
6) Win Super Bowl

Bengals have done 1 and 2. Next logical step is 3. If you're not climbing that progression, you're treading water at best.
And the Bengals have been able to consistently do 1 and 2, so number 2 has become the expectation for (some of) the fan base.