Even though a very huge part of me wants to say that the reason why the Browns beat the Bengals because of some complete B.S. ref calls against the Bengals, it was really a combination of a few poor plays by the offense + the good play of the Browns Peyton Hillis.

Still, I’m pissed at those B.S. calls. I know that’s the crying call of a sore loser, but let me be a sore loser for a few moments:
1) No way is Bengals defensive end Pat Sim’s “holding” anyone on that play in the fourth quarter. Maybe the ref saw Jake Delhomme holding Seneca Wallace’s jock on the sideline.  But Sims was just playing football. Result of the call: Browns keep the final drive arrive to put the Bengals away.
2) Terrell Owens gets manhandled in the end zone. No call.  On the replay I saw that all the refs were staring at Eric Mangini because he was making a really stupid-looking face.  Which meant they were never watching the game.  Result: Bengals settle for a field goal.
3) On 3rd and 6 from the Cleveland 40, Dhani Jones was flagged for pass interference. I looked up the definition of pass interference in the NFL rule book, and it said, “If the defender looks at the wide receiver funny, that’s just not cool. Fool.” This continued a drive that led to a Browns touchdown.

Despite all of these complete and utter B.S. calls (which the announcers themselves thought were B.S. themselves), the Bengals shot themselves in the foot for the most part, especially on four particular plays:

1) The Bengals decide not to block Scott Fujita, who blocks Mike Nugent’s field goal (which would’ve been the tying score).
2) Chad Ochocinco inexplicably pushes a Browns cornerback on the last drive of the game that forced the Bengals into a 3rd and 13, and pushing them back out of field goal territory.
3) On the next play, Carson Palmer thought he was taking a stroll in the park and somehow did not feel 6’4”, 275 lb. Matt Roth plodding after him for a sack, pushing the Bengals out of field goal range and pretty much costing the Bengals the game.
4) On 2nd and 7, on the Browns last drive to the game away, Keith Rivers couldn’t catch powerful-but-slow-as-your-grandma Hillis for the Browns, allowing him to get a first down and ice the game for the Browns.
I hate giving the Browns any credit, but they played well enough to win.

The Bengals shouldn’t blame anyone but themselves for losing the game (despite the complete B.S. calls, which were really egregious, and they totally piss me off, in case you were wondering or thought I have ambivalent thoughts on this matter).

The biggest positive of the game is that Carson Palmer had a pretty darn good game. His numbers were awesome: 371 yards and 2 TD. He made some great throws consistently throughout the game, with only a few ill-advised throws. He connected with T.O. ten times (should’ve been eleven for a TD) for 222 yards and a TD. He also conducted the no-huddle drill masterfully. But that one costly sack killed a great scoring chance for the Bengals. This is not to say that I’m blaming Carson for the loss (it was the GD refs… Okay, not really, but I really really really want to blame those sons of bitches for costing us the game), because there were a myriad of things that could’ve gone much better for the Bengals.

Nevertheless, all the Carson Palmer haters out there can suck it.

Despite my better feelings about Palmer’s quarterbacking ability, the bitter pill of the loss is still tough to swallow. At least the Ravens beat the Steelers for goodness sakes. But if we can’t beat the Browns in a close game on the road, I don’t know about our chances against the tougher teams out there.

The silver lining, though, is that the Bengals offense played better against an underrated Browns defense. Hopefully the Bengals can bounce back from this and build on this loss.

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