Woo hoo! We’re 4-1! First place in the AFC North! The game ball easily goes to Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer. If you didn’t know, Zimmer’s wife suddenly passed away this past Thursday (the cause has yet to be released or even determined), and he still came to Baltimore and coached a superb game. The defense held the normally potent Ravens rushing game to 82 yards and their passing game to 175 yards with only 12 first downs for the whole game. Jonathon Joseph had a ridiculous touchdown-saving interception in the red-zone (which we did nothing with afterward). The only bad play from the defense came when they didn’t tackle Ray Rice on a 2nd and 24 play, but that play I give Rice credit for keeping his balance and finishing the play. Our guys could’ve done better, but he made a heck of a play.

Speaking of good plays, Ed Reed nearly single-handedly won the game for the Ravens. The Bengals defense held their offense to only one touchdown, and the other touchdown came on a pick-six by Reed on a Palmer throw. Palmer should’ve seen Reed coming over, but he made a heck of a play. Reed also made a nice play on forcing Chad Ochocinco to fumble. Despite that fumble, Chad had a good game with 7 catches for 94 yards.

Overall I was fairly pleased with our offense. Cedric Benson had 120 yards rushing and a touchdown.  This is the first time since 2006 that the Ravens have allowed a 100-yard rusher.  That was 40 games ago.  That was huge for our entire offense.  We still had way too many penalties. It ALMOST doesn’t bother me since we won, but our luck is going to run out eventually and those penalties are going to bite us in the butt. Speaking of penalties, I was glad to hear John Harbaugh at the end of the game NOT blame the refs for the loss (even though the press guys tried their hardest to goad him into blaming the refs: “Are you SURE the game wasn’t decided on the field?” They seriously asked him three separate times the same question to get him to blame the refs. It’s a fair question to ask once, but after that it’s just stupid). There was no phantom roughing the passer call like the Patriots game against the Ravens last week. That hit by Ray Lewis on Chad was pretty vicious and unnecessary. The pass interference call on 3rd and 16 was a huge play for us, but I feel all those penalties were legit.

Two players the Bengals need to demote/fire: long-snapper Brad St. Louis and tight end Daniel Coats. Last week I defended St. Louis because I thought it was a combination of several factors for the field goal and extra point being blocked. But today he clearly had several horrendous snaps. Let’s find some vet NOW and replace St. Louis immediately. He is a ten year vet, but I think the bad snaps are getting into his head and I fear that his career for the Bengals is over. As for Coats, I now know how Steelers fans feel with Limas Sweed: Catch the (bleeping) ball! Coats didn’t have just one dropped pass, he had two. Both passes were thrown perfectly and hit him square in the hands in stride. Dropped them both. And both could’ve been easy touchdowns. With the bad snaps and the two TD drops, we left some points on the field.

Once again, I don’t know if I can take all of these last second drives. I predicted just about the entire fourth quarter, too. I said the Ravens were going to score and then I knew we couldn’t respond on the NEXT drive, because that touchdown would’ve been too soon. But the defense holds up and then we get the ball and we have to convert a 4th and 2 with a Palmer run (second week in a row!). And then Andre Caldwell catches his second game-winning touchdown in the last two weeks. He only has two touchdowns in his career. I swear this is just ridiculous. When will our luck run out? We can’t win like this every week. When are we going to dominate a game on both defense AND offense?

The next four games are going to be crucial for our playoff chances. We face the Texans, Bears, Bye (I think we’re favored by 3 for that one), Ravens (again), and then the Steelers. I can see us going 0-4 or 4-0. You just never know.

After five crazy games and five crazy finishes, anything is possible.