Guess what, Steelers? You thought you were going to win the game. But you didn’t. You diiiiidn’t!!! Oh yeah! The Cincinnati Bengals, folks, are, believe it or not, in first place of the AFC North, swept BOTH the Ravens and the Steelers – that’s the first time EVER – and are practically guaranteed a playoff spot AND are in the driver’s seat for the AFC North. We’re 5-0 in AFC North, and unless the Browns somehow convince Jim Brown to come out of retirement and find the fountain of youth, we’ll be 6-0 in our division. This win effectively puts us to not just one game ahead of the Steelers, but TWO games because we hold the tie breaker in the head-to-head match up.  So even if the Steelers tie us at the end of the season with their record, we would still win the division.  We’ve got three games against cupcakes next: Raiders, Browns, and the Lions. I am slightly nervous that there’s a trap game in there somewhere, but I think we’re a mature team who can beat them. We’ll see what happens. Anyway, here are my accolades for the game:

1. Bernard Scott: He scored the only TD of the game with a 96 yard kickoff return, which I didn’t even see because CBS went to commercial after the Steelers field goal, and I changed the channel to see what’s going on with other games, but the next thing I do is switch back and they’re showing a replay of Scott’s TD return. What the hell, CBS? Thanks for totally faking me out and making me miss the only TD of the game. Doucebags. Anyway, even though Scott’s return TD ended up being the difference of the game, he also came up huge for us when he filled in for Cedric Benson who tweaked his hip muscle. He had some great runs to help us win the game. His contribution was huge.
2. Michael Johnson: For some reason ESPN doesn’t have his stats on their game summary page, but he had a heck of the game. He was involved in some very important passes defensed and helped out on sacks. He was a guy who was supposed to be a first round draft pick but somehow got a bad rep and we got him in the 3rd round. He was awesome.
3. Jonathon Fanene (pronounced like Jonathon Fan-ey-hey!): He had two sacks and two QB hits. He’s been filling for Antwan Odom, and he had his biggest game of the year in the most important game of the year (so far).
4. Brandon Johnson: He had two passes defensed and he made some huge tackles in place of injured linebacker Keith Rivers.

Some negatives: Carson Palmer over threw or under threw a few times to some receivers. He could’ve made the game not so close. Punter and field goal holder Kevin Huber could’ve held on to the ball better on the extra point for the only TD of the game. The missed extra point and the field goal that was Oh So Close by Shayne Graham on the first drive would’ve iced the game for us much earlier, but I’m not going complain about those misses.

Guess what, Steelers?!! We beat YOU!!!! Who Dey? Not You Dey!!!! Ha! Take that, Whines Ward and Ben Worthlessburger!  GO BENGALS!!!!!