To say the Bengals have officially confused the hell out of me this season is an understatement. First off, the Bengals almost lose to the Browns, and then they get beat by a decent-but-not-great Texans team. We have played well on the road but have been mostly crappy this season at home… except Sunday against a very good Bears team. Here’s a review of all the experts and analysts on ESPN: 14 pundits, 14 predictions: 7 said the Benglas will win, 7 for Da Bears. One analyst from Sports Illustrated called the Bengals-Bears matchup the game of the week, and that was over a compelling Vikes-Steelers matchup. Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer predicted a Bears win 24-23 or something like that. Peter King of SI.com picked the Bengals with like the same score. Bill Simmons of ESPN – who has correctly picked every Bengals game this season – picked the Bears. His reasoning was that the loss of Antwan Odom would open up both the passing game and the run game. That was a very good reason, considering that is exactly what happened when Odom went down during the Texans game.

So for the Bengals to come out and play like they did this Sunday against a stout Bears defense, and an explosive offense, I don’t have very many words to explain it. The Bengals didn’t even punt until the fourth quarter. During the first seven Bengals possession, the Bengals scored 6 TDs and a field goal. Carson Palmer had more touchdown passes (5) than he had incompletions (4). Chad Ochocinco had two TDs and 118 yards. Cedric Benson had 189 rushing yards and a touchdown.

My wife’s brother texts me during the game, asking why Benson was still in the game in the fourth quarter. I didn’t realize this at the time, but Benson was supposed to be sitting on the sideline with Carson, but his backup Bernard Scott twisted his knee and was hurting. I thought it was odd, too, but it wasn’t like the Bengals were trying to run up the score or anything.

Where have these Bengals been all year?

I feel like that little boy in Oliver: Please, sir, can I have some more? We’ve seen these Bengals in spurts. For example: one drive against the Broncos, 2.5 quarters against the Packers, one quarter against the Steelers, 1.5 quarters against the Browns, the majority of the game against the Ravens (even though the score didn’t reflect it), and the first half against the Texans. I think there have been more sightings of Sasquatch than the Bengals offense this season.

I just thought of the perfect analogy for the Bengals offense this season. It’s like that scene from Monty Python and Holy Grail, where Jon Lithgow’s Sir Lancelot is charging a castle.  At one point you see Lancelot sprinting toward the castle, and you hear a bunch of drums. The camera switches to the two guards, blissfully watching Lancelot. But then it switches back to Lancelot and he’s inexplicably several yards back from where he was before. Switch back: the guards are watching. Lancelot: moved a little forward but not much. Back, forth, back, forth. Finally out of nowhere Lancelot runs up to the guard, stabs one while the other one says, “Hey!” Lancelot proceeds to lay waste to anyone, everyone, and anything in his way. That’s how I feel the Bengals offense has been: It has see-sawed back and forth the entire season, between good and bad, competent and inept. They would take a few steps forward, and then five steps back. Now everything is clicking and they just laid waste to a good Bears team.

I hope that this is a harbinger of things to come and that the offense is here to stay. We had a great balance of run plays and pass plays. Carson did a good job selling the run and using play action pass. They even did a Wildcat play with Benson in the shot gun formation. I don’t know if the bye week is coming at a “bad” time for us. I’d like to bottle this moment up and unleash it on the Ravens and Steelers, our next two opponents. Those games are the two biggest one-two punch games that I have ever seen for the Bengals. If they want to have any hope of making the playoffs, they will need to win one of those games. Now I have to wait 13 more days and pick my butt while waiting for the next game. That’s all right, I’ve gone through worse. Let’s go Bengals!!!!