The Bengals end their long season with a win. At least they ended with a win streak but still fell way short of most fans’ expectations. They weren’t picked by many experts to do too much this year but I think many fans knew that with their talent, they had a chance to make some noise.

Carson Palmer threw for 316 yards and 3 touchdowns (he also had 1 interception). 2 of those touchdown passes went to Chad Johnson who broke the Bengals’ single-season receiving record. He ended with 1440 yards and he owned the old mark of 1432 back in 2005.

T. J. Houshmandzadeh grabbed 9 passes to tie Wes Welker for the NFL lead with 112. He had a chance to get to 113 but dropped the last pass thrown his way.

Kenny Watson ran for 69 yards and his seventh rushing touchdown of the season. He’s been a nice surprise this year and is definitely something to give more hope to next season.

<>For the Dolphins, Cleo Lemon threw for 135 yards and a touchdown before getting injured. John Beck came in and threw for 123 yards and a touchdown.  Jesse Chatman had 42 yards rushing and Ted Ginn Jr. added 53 yards receiving and a touchdown.

It’s always good to end the season on a good note, especially after all of the disappointments that this season had. I’m sure there will be some changes on this team and I saw something about Marvin Lewis saying they would need to blow this team up but I don’t think that’s necessary. Several young players got some good experience this year and that will only help next season. With a little more luck health-wise, I think this team can still do well.

Well, it wasn’t the offensive shootout we got last time but the Bengals pulled out a win. The Browns were looking to make it into the playoffs and now have to wait one more week to find out if they’re going or not.

Carson Palmer was 11 of 21 for 115 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Kenny Watson was given much of the workload and he had 30 carries for 130 yards and a touchdown. Rudi Johnson was inactive for the game.

Derek Anderson was 29 of 48 for 251 yards, 2 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. Jamal Lewis ran for 92 yards and Braylon Edwards hauled in 8 catches for 52 yards and 2 touchdowns.

The Bengals were just playing for pride, wanting to end their season with a couple of wins. They’re halfway there and will look to close out their season with another win next week.

The 49ers had the NFL’s worst offense but they looked pretty good against the Bengals. They were even starting a third-string QB making his first career NFL start. So most Bengals fans were practically drooling over this one. But things didn’t go as some of us expected.

Shaun Hill was 21 for 28 and threw for 197 yards and 1 touchdown. He also ran for a touchdown.  The 49ers did run a lot of short routes but the Bengals couldn’t seem to stop them. And when they weren’t passing for yards, Frank Gore was running for them. In a down season, especially compared to last year, Gore rushed for 138 yards.

For the Bengals, Carson Palmer threw for 251 yards and a touchdown. The team was back to having no running game as they got 61 total rushing yards. Chris Henry made his only catch of the night count, hauling in a 52 yard touchdown reception.

So the Bengals are assured of their first losing season under Marvin Lewis. As bad as it’s been this year, there is hope for next year. Many young players are getting some good experience and should be able to add to the team’s depth next season.

The Bengals picked up their fifth win of the season after defeating the Rams today. These two teams have some things in common after injuries have struck hard. The Rams have a very talented offense but have lost a few linemen and Stephen Jackson and Marc Bulger have been in and out with injuries.

Bulger was out again today and Brock Berlin made his first NFL start. It wasn’t a good day for it because it was a rainy, messy day. This is the second week in a row that the Bengals have played in such conditions.

The defense hassled Berlin as he ended the day with 153 yards and an interception. The Bengals were able to focus more on Stephen Jackson but he still ran for 91 yards, although 54 of those yards came on one run.

With the bad weather, the Bengals’ offense wasn’t able to do much. Carson Palmer was 21 of 29 for 189 yards and two interceptions. But Rudi Johnson rushed for 92 yards and a touchdown. DeDe Dorsey had another good game, rushing for 81 yards on 4 carries.

There are three games left in the season so the Bengals could still finish at .500. They’ll play the 49ers, Browns and close the season against the Dolphins and all three are winable games. But this team has lost several of those winable games already this season.

The weather was sloppy but the field didn’t seem too terrible. I did see several players slip and others had trouble holding onto the ball.

No one really looked great but the Steelers played better. Willie Parker seemed to just break through for big gains and I was surprised that he only had 87 yards. Big Ben threw for 184 yards, 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Hines Ward caught 11 passes for 90 yards and 2 touchdowns.

For the Bengals, they were back to the poor rushing attack. Rudi Johnson had 34 yards but did score a touchdown. Kenny Watson had 23 yards.

Carson Palmer was 17 of 44 for 183 yards. He had no touchdowns and no interceptions. He just seemed to be off all night and overthrew receivers on many plays. After looking so good last week, he just looked bad most of the night. I don’t know if it was the rain, sloppy field or the ghosts of his knee injury but something didn’t seem right.

The Bengals’ defense was able to get 2 interceptions and 2 fumble recoveries but the offense couldn’t get much for them. Also, Glenn Holt fumbled a kick return which the Steelers recovered and went on to score again.

It seemed to be a pretty physical game. The Steelers were still angry about Houshmandzadeh wiping his feet on a Steelers towel. They hit him every chance they got.

The loss drops the Bengals to 4-8. Not that they were likely to make it to the playoffs but they’re surely done now. If this were just one of their first losses, I’d chalk it up to the weather but since it’s loss number 8, there are many other problems going on here. 

For those of you that watched the game, you’re probably wondering where this has been all season. With all the injuries and suspensions, maybe the team has finally played together enough to actually play as a team.

There are lots of good things to talk about in this game. Offensively, they were almost perfect. Palmer was 32 of 38 for 283 yards and 3 touchdowns. His throws were on target and he was in the zone. He did have one interception but it was a tipped pass so not completely his fault. That 4 interception game last week was just not like him and he came out to prove something this week.

For all the people down on Rudi Johnson, he had 88 yards rushing and his first touchdown of the season. Rudi had 25 carries this week compared to 5 for DeDe Dorsey (42 yards rushing) and 4 for Kenny Watson, who had 17 yards rushing and a touchdown.

Chad Johnson caught 12 passes for 103 yards and 3 touchdowns, all on great plays. He faked out the defender on his second touchdown so badly, he was wide open in the end zone. Houshmandzadeh had 7 catches for 66 yards and for a rare game this season, did not have a touchdown reception.

Defensively, it was something we haven’t seen most of the season. They pressured Vince Young and tackled well. The Titans had 61 total rushing yards. Even when the game was pretty much in control, the Titans appeared to rush for a touchdown. It looked like Chris Brown’s knee was down and Marvin Lewis challenged the play. He could have just let it go since it wouldn’t have mattered but this defense needed it. The play was overturned and the defense stuffed the Titans on the next play and then batted down a pass in the end zone on fourth down to make a stand.

That stand was fantastic. I was yelling at home for them to challenge the touchdown. I’ll admit, I still almost expected the Titans to be able to punch it in but I wanted the defense to have the chance. They got their chance and made the most of it.

On special teams, they didn’t even look like the Bengals. Long punts, great tackling, where did this come from? Leon Hall even caught a punt to down it inside the 5 on one play.

It was just a great game to watch. I’m glad it was televised here. As a Bengals’ fan, I haven’t had that much to cheer for this season but today was fun. I hope the defense is turning the corner and will continue to play well. I just want to see them end the season strong.