Cincinnati Bengals Tickets

Cincinnati Bengals 2009/2010 Playoffs Preview The Cincinnati Bengals surprised everyone this year by winning the AFC North, which was expected to be another showdown between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Bengals crashed that party in a big way, doing the unthinkable by sweeping their four games between those two teams. In fact, the Bengals went 6-0 against the AFC North. Talk about dominance.

The Bengals had their share of triumph over tragedy, as they lost the wife of defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer to cancer and then had to deal with the tragic death of well-liked wide receiver Chris Henry. Despite all that, the Bengals managed to scratch and claw their way to the playoffs and have the look of a team that could make some noise once they reach their destination.

Or at least so you would think.

The Bengals have been anything but dominant down the stretch, and they more or less stumbled into the division title after looking so impressive in the first half of the season.

The offense has been shaky at best, especially the passing game. Carson Palmer is a quality quarterback, but the Bengals don't want him throwing the ball 40 times a game. They would rather use a balanced approach and let running back Cedric Benson pound away at opposing defenses.

Benson has been one the best free agent acquisitions in the NFL, and he hardly costs the Bengals anything. He, like several other players signed by the Bengals, has really made the most of a second chance to make a living playing football.

Cincinnati was embarassed by the Jets, 37-0, in the season finale, although several of their starters sat out the game with injuries so that they could rest up and be 100 percent healthy for the playoffs. If Cincinnati was smart, it would have benched all of their starters against the Jets and run the most vanilla offensive and defensive schemes so as to give them nothing to prepare for in the playoff matchup.

The Jets ran the ball at will on the Bengals, but several of their defensive starters that sat out the game will have something to say about that in the playoff rematch. I'd expect the Bengals to stack the line of scrimmage and make rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez win the game with his arm. Good luck with that if you are the Jets.

The Bengals are much improved and have shown they can fight through plenty of adversity and then some, but do they have anything left in the tank? They should be able to use their homefield advantage to get past the Jets, but the playoff run will likely end there.