2022 Benchmark: Cincinnati Bengals
July 14th, 2022
Key 2022 opponent.
When the 2021 season schedule came out, a lot of folks pointed to the Bills-Bucs game as a benchmark for both teams.
Could the Bills challenge for a Super Bowl, in part, by beating the defending champs on their turf? Could the Bucs make a run at a repeat by showing their worth in beating the powerhouse Bills at home?
The Bucs won in overtime. One of the best games played at The Licht House. But both teams fell short of their dreams as both teams and suffered excruciating playoff defeats in the divisional round.
Adam Rank of NFL.com believes this year’s benchmark game for the Bucs is when they host the defending AFC champs the Bengals.
I’m not predicting any passing-of-the-torch moments between Joe Burrow and Brady, or anything like that. But this could be a huge offering, as both teams figure to be challenging for division titles and perhaps the top seeds in their respective conferences at this point. The Bucs will be coming off a road game against the 49ers in Week 14.
Joe believes the Bengals, who barely lost to the Rams in the Super Bowl, will be better this year. Joe Burrow has another year under his belt. Same for Ja’Marr Chase. And the Bengals this offseason beefed up what was a horrid offensive line, in part, by signing former Bucs starting right guard Alex Cappa.
Joe agrees with Rank. The Bengals game will be a benchmark for the Bucs.
July 14th, 2022 at 7:38 am
If not for their offensive line the Bengals would have beaten the Rams in the super Bowl. Joe is the nest Tom Brady/Joe Montana. Even at his young age he a top 5 QB.
July 14th, 2022 at 8:05 am
The game will feature the 2 best QB’s and 2 of the best WR’s in the NFL – maybe a SB preview.
July 14th, 2022 at 8:41 am
got our tickets for this game and against the rams! fun time to be a bucs fan for sure!
July 14th, 2022 at 9:00 am
Montana is my favorite QB, and there is no next Tom Brady. He’s in a class of his own like Jordan, Gretsky, and Tiger. If there’s one thing in football i wish that analysts would do away with is comparing ever QB who sees the tiniest success as the next Brady. Brady has warped people’s brain into thinking SB victories or even appearances are easy. Burrow will be very good, but we need to stop anointing players so quickly, and please never compare another QB to Tom Brady. He’s the ultimate outlier. I think Herbert will wind up being the best of them. His ceiling is much higher than Burrow. And Burrow sure won’t be another Joe Cool!
July 14th, 2022 at 9:06 am
We are coming from the panhandle for our annual game. Not doing the Aints game this year…last year was brutal. Looking forward to this match up and Sangria in Tampa!
July 14th, 2022 at 9:06 am
Second half of the Bills game. Another poor coaching job by Todd. We were lucky they didn’t get it in the end zone at the end there, they were like a yard. Really bad collapse.
July 14th, 2022 at 9:07 am
And the Rams and Saints are the benchmarks anyway. Bengals will revert to the mean.
July 14th, 2022 at 10:14 am
I agree that this game could be a Super Bowl preview, and the Bengals have also improved from last year.
But, so have we, so it will be a great game.
July 14th, 2022 at 10:21 am
Ah, Joe Burrow; the rather small noodle armed QB who was a perpetual backup and kept falling through the transfer portal.
Then he landed in the magical land of LSU. A land with a loaded team and a coach who catered his playbook to Joe’s talents. History was made and Jose drank the Kool-Aid, he believed and now most of the rest of us believe he is the real deal.
The Bengals are on the rise, no one really knows who else will be a contender this year.
But, for fun, contrast Trask to Burrow.
Trask is a big guy with a quick release and accuracy in his throws. He is also a perpetual back up, but couldn’t cram that big body through a transfer portal to a magical land.
He got his chance on a half a##ed team with a horrid coach, who couldn’t cater lunch, much less a football team.. He made his own history. He didn’t show a great arm because his coaches didn’t even try to adjust his mechanics.
He might one day replace Burrow as the rising young QB, he just needs to have some support behind him.
July 14th, 2022 at 10:38 am
Meh, we’ve got a few games that can be considered benchmark games. I’m more interested in seeing the defensive game plan for containing a QB like Lamar Jackson/Kyler Murray than I am about Joe Burrow beating us from the pocket. Davis/Dean versus Chase should be an interesting matchup to watch.
July 14th, 2022 at 10:40 am
Craig – I get it, you’re a Gator fan who hates LSU.
July 14th, 2022 at 12:04 pm
Comparing Trask to Burrow is like comparing the fat chick at the bar to the super model on stage. Trask had the best receivers and TE in the business. I don’t know what universe some posters live in. Toney and Pitts by themselves were enough for Trask. He would stare them down and throw to them double and sometimes triple covered and they’d still make plays for him.
Put down the Trask crack pipe. If he’s lucky, he might be Rudy Carpenter.
July 14th, 2022 at 12:24 pm
Craig, don’t take this personally, but that has to be one of the worst QB comparisons and evaluations in the history of JBF.
July 14th, 2022 at 1:01 pm
Not a benchmark game that late in the season. Neither team will be 100% in December. Likely to be down a handful of players after a physical game in SF. History also does not favor the team that lost the SB the next season. A game to look forward to, but not even likely to earn a notch in the belt of the GOAT regardless of the outcome.
July 14th, 2022 at 1:29 pm
On looking at our schedule after our Week 11 BYE this year, it’s a bear. We play the Browns in Cleveland on Sun, 27 Nov then come back to Tampa to play the Saints at home on Mon night, 5 Dec. And if that’s not bad enough, we then have to fly across the country on a short week to play the 49ers in San Fran the following Sun, 11 Dec.
We then fly back to Tampa to play the Bengals the next Sun, 18 Dec then fly back across the country again to play the Cardinals in Arizona on Sun, 25 Dec (great Christmas present). We follow that up by flying back to Tampa to play the Panthers on Sun, 1 Jan (Happy New Year), followed by traveling up the road to play the Falcons in Atlanta on Sun, 8 Jan.
So after flying to Europe to play the Seahawks (Sun, 13 Nov), we get a BYE week then start flying back & forth across the country forevermore it seems like, playing 7 teams with some pretty good offenses & defenses. Folks can say that we have the 6th easiest schedule, but that sure doesn’t sound easy to me.
July 14th, 2022 at 2:36 pm
>>> But, for fun, contrast Trask to Burrow. <<<
Someone forgot to wear their blue and orange boxers this morning. Whatsa mattah, mommy forgot to wash to your Tim Tebow 15 jersey?
July 14th, 2022 at 3:50 pm
Bengals will fall back to Earth. Burrow is great, but they have holes.
July 14th, 2022 at 9:21 pm
Burrow looks like a top seven qb for the next fifteen years if he stays healthy and the Bengals will shred our secondary if we haven’t improved over last year’s dismal effort. Fingers crossed that Dean plays as well this year as a lot of folks say he’s capable of for an entire year, cause I’ve only seen glimpses of good play.