Carson Palmer, Cincinnati Bengals / Image: Zuma Press

After the game, quarterback Carson Palmer credited his team’s work in the trenches:

“We kept grinding, and at the end of the day, I think the offensive line won that battle up front and pushed them around and gave us a chance to finish off that last drive with a field goal. We had a couple of nice first downs on some runs, and kept battling. And if you’re winning with field goals, you win. If you’re winning with touchdowns, you win. We’ll take a win any way we can get it.”

Check out these facts. It was the first time since 1998 the Bengals have season-swept the Steelers. And they essentially opened a two-game lead on Pittsburgh because they own the tiebreaker, should it come down to that. Plus, for the first time in the team’s history, the Bengals are 5-0 in the AFC North. Who dey! Who dey! Who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals? In the AFC North, nobody.

Sources: Bengals.com, NFL.com

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Bengals Take Control of AFC North

Source: NFL.com

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Chad Ochocinco Does the Lambeau Leap

Carson Palmer, Cincinnati Bengals / Image: Zuma Press

But more recently, Carson spoke with a hopeful tone and said he looks forward to Chad’s return:

“He’s a damn good receiver—that’s obvious, everybody knows that. But the guys that are working here and busting their butt here deserve a shot. When he shows up he’ll show up and hopefully he’s in great shape and he’s ready to play. But I never once said anything about not wanting him here and not needing him. He’s a Pro Bowl receiver. He’s put up a ton of yards. He’s extremely dangerous to cover. We would love him when he comes here, but he’s not here right now.”

Chad will show up when the HBO cameras start rolling for a new season of Hard Knocks. As to the rumor that he has added 18 pounds of muscle and is in the best shape of his life—obviously, that’s yet to be seen.

Source: Bengals.com, Cincinnati.com

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Carson Palmer Looking For Chad Ochocinco

The Bengals began their offseason workouts yesterday and their quarterback appeared to have his mind right:

“No more ‘Hopefully next year, we’re going to get better. Next year we’re going to be this …’ It’s going into year seven and I feel like I haven’t really played football yet. I definitely haven’t played in any significant games in seven years. The more years you put in the NFL the more you realize you can’t look to next year whether it’s Week 1 or Week 16. You can’t think, ‘Well, next year we’ll be a little more experienced. Next year this guy will be this.’ The time is now. I think once you hit years four, five, six in the NFL you start to realize you can’t look in the future anymore. You need to seize the moment. You need to seize the year and this is our year.”

Wow. That’s confidence. Especially considering the Bengals were 4-11-1 last season and quite frankly, I don’t know how much better they’re going to be this season. But at least Carson is saying the right things and maybe — just maybe — he can get his teammates to actually believe him.

Source: Bengals.com, Photo: Newscom

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Carson Palmer Believes in the Bengals

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

It didn’t take long for the Cincinnati Bengals to replace T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Today, they added former N.Y. Jets receiver Laveranues Coles to their roster with a four-year, $28 million contract. Although I really can’t understand why anyone would want to play for the Bengals, Laveranues was genuinely excited to be with the team, who released this statement from LC:

“The Bengals were very aggressive right from the start in talking to us, and when a team makes you feel really wanted, that’s a factor you’re not going to ignore. They said, ‘Let’s get this worked out,’ and we did. I’m excited. I’m coming off a pretty good year, but I know I can do better. Anytime you come into a situation with a quarterback like Carson Palmer, you’re going to think you can bump up those numbers a little more.”

Laveranues has been around. He’s definitely in the latter stages of his NFL career. In fact, this will be his 10th season. But I think he’s got 50-75 receptions in him this year playing alongside Chad Johnson and catching passes from Carson Palmer. The Bengals are supposedly going to make a stronger commitment to the running game this season, but Laveranues gives them the solid #2 receiver they’ve been used to with T.J. Houshmandzadeh. He’s not Housh, but he’ll do his job and do it well.

Source: Bengals.com, Photo: Newscom

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Bengals Sign Laveranues Coles

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer is likely out for the rest of the 2008 season while he decides whether to have surgery to repair a “frayed” ligament in his right throwing elbow. Tommy John surgery would repair the problem but doctors have agreed that Carson’s conservative approach to that kind of an operation is ok because the damage is more limited than what Carolina Panthers QB Jake Delhomme suffered a year ago when he had the surgery (successfully I might add). But if Carson continues to throw with that bad elbow this season — it doesn’t make any sense for a franchise quarterback to do it under the conditions.

The conditions. Let’s face it. This season is over for the Bengals. At 0-7, they’re already thinking about next year’s #1 Draft pick. You can talk about pride and all that — and the players that are in Cincinnati right now will certainly work hard in the second half of the season. At least most of them will. I know that. But I don’t think it makes much sense for Carson to rush himself back into such a grim situation. He’ll evaluate the possibilities and hopefully get himself ready to perform at 100% next year. Playing again this season isn’t a sensible option.

Source: Bengals.com, Photo: Newscom

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Carson Palmer Likely Out for Season

Finally, the other guys. After two weeks of going against teammates in training camp, all NFL clubs will be able to see a real, live opponent this weekend. It’s the first full weekend of NFL preseason football, bookended by nationally televised games tonight and Monday night.

Tonight – New Orleans at Arizona (ESPN, 8 p.m.) New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees, who has completed the most passes for the most yards in the NFL over the past two years, thinks there is always room for improvement — by himself and his team. He wants to get back to the playoffs. Arizona’s Matt Leinart returns from a broken collarbone suffered last October. He has spent camp perfecting head coach Ken Whisenhunt’s offense, a process that was interrupted last season.

Monday – Cincinnati at Green Bay (ESPN, 8 p.m.) For Green Bay, it will be the first outing as starting quarterback for Aaron Rodgers, the club’s first-round draft choice of 2005. Head coach Mike McCarthy will give Aaron plenty of playing time this summer, starting him in all four preseason games. The Bengals want to get things back to where they were in 2005, when they went 11-5 and won the AFC North. They think they are on the way with a No. 10 finish in total offense last season and a No. 7 in passing. Cincinnati has added to quarterback Carson Palmer’s top-flight receiving corps headed by Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh and will use the preseason to work-in the newcomers. The Bengals signed tight end Ben Utecht from Indianapolis to strengthen their passing game down the middle, and rookie wideouts Andre Caldwell and Jerome Simpson have been strong in camp and will see plenty of action starting Monday.

Other Games to Check Out This Weekend

Tonight: N.Y. Giants at Detroit, Baltimore at New England, N.Y. Jets at Cleveland, Kansas City at Chicago; Friday: Philadelphia at Pittsburgh, Seattle at Minnesota, San Francisco at Oakland; Saturday: Buffalo at Washington, Tampa Bay at Miami, Atlanta at Jacksonville, Indianapolis at Carolina, Denver at Houston, St. Louis at Tennessee, Dallas at San Diego.

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First Full Preseason Weekend Kicks Off

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL

The Chad Johnson saga continued in Cincinnati this week, but I think it’s more hype from the media than anything else right now. Chad completed a three-day mandatory minicamp with the Bengals today and after limiting himself to a few drills during workouts on Thursday and Friday (because of a bum ankle), he looked fine catching passes from QB Carson Palmer today. Well, fine in the sense that his ankle seemed ok. Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski wasn’t impressed:

“He’s rusty. I told him he looked rusty. Nobody likes to hear that. He’s going against guys who have been out here for 14, 16 (voluntary) practices, you know. You’re going to look that way.”

Coach Bratkowski did all the talking because Chad said nothing more that “Vote for Obama” to the media after practice. He’s unhappy with the Bengals and wants to be traded, but it isn’t going to happen. The next chapter for Chad and the Bengals is the start of training camp in late July. And it’s anyone’s guess what kind of antics he’ll bring to the table then.

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Chad Johnson: ‘Vote for Obama’

Kickoff Weekend 2007 will conclude in doubleheader fashion tonight as two All-Pro, veteran AFC North quarterbacks and two promising NFC West quarterbacks square off. I’m loving the two-game thing on MNF, but who can stay up until 1:15 on the east coast? Anyway, in the first game, Steve McNair and his Baltimore Ravens will swoop into town to face the explosive air attack of Carson Palmer and his Cincinnati Bengals (ESPN, 7:00 ET). Steve, a 13-year veteran, has thrown 21 touchdowns against the Bengals in his career. Carson looks to improve upon a Bengals record 4,035 passing yards last season while utilizing receivers Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmanzadeh.

The second game consists of Arizona’s second-year QB Matt Leinart returning to his home state of California to meet the San Francisco 49ers as fellow quarterback — and the No. 1 overall pick in 2005 — Alex Smith takes the field for his third NFL season (ESPN, 10:15 ET). Fresh off an impressive rookie campaign when he took over as the starting quarterback in Week 5, Matt will start his first game on Kickoff Weekend. Alex, a former first-round pick in ’05, is determined to continue his development after setting career-highs in every passing category in 2006.

It should be a great night of football if I can stay up to watch it all.

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AFC North & NFC West QBs Wrap up Kickoff Weekend on Monday Night Football