WhoDeyRevolution

Kurse of the King

Throughout the lost decade of the 90s I knew many a fan that maintained the Bengals' losing ways were the result of the Curse of Paul Brown.  The prevailing thought at the opening of Paul Brown stadium was that by naming the stadium after Paul the curse would be removed and the Bengals would once again return to the playoffs.  Well, as we know, that didn't exactly work out that way, and the only curse Paul placed on the franchise was by having his son run it.

That's the last time I put much thought into the Bengals being cursed by some other-worldly power until earlier this year.  The picture you see at the right is the 2007 Kings of the Cincinnati Gridiron bobble head set from Burger King.  Careful examination of said set will reveal that in every season since the introduction of this set a player whose bobble-headed likeness is featured found employment with another team.  After 2008 Housh departed for Seattle via free agency.  After 2009 the Bengals said adieu to Graham and his playoff choking.  With Ocho's reported departure for New England to unite with his BFF Bill Belichick and Carson's reunion with his couch (at least until 2012) the curse is now complete.

So, in addition to clogging the arteries of the Bengals fans that chomped down on 5 whoppers to procure it, this seemingly harmless collectible has also proven prophetic in eliminating the stars of the Bengals franchise.  Burger King, I beseech you, can we please get a set with Mike Brown, Pete Brown, Katie & Troy Blackburn this year?

WDR to Graham: Facing You Will Be Fun Too

ESPN AFC North blog author James Walker (who incidentally has been growing on me over the past two years - rare that I like anyone from ESPN), posts an article today entited:  "Graham:  Facing Bengals Will Be Fun."

Agreed!  It will be a fucking blast. 

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't highlight Ginger's insult of the Bengals which he disguised as praise for the Ravens:

Graham also said that he's very impressed with the overall culture and atmosphere of his new team.

"They invest a lot in the team and the facility. You can tell they don't spare any expense for anything," Graham said of the Ravens. "They treat their players, their trainers, to the people working in the ticket office -- everyone is treated first class. So it's a great organization. It's great to be around that, and I feel very welcomed here."

Moving on from Ginger

Now that Shayne Graham has officially moved his ginger-haired body out of Cincinnati, it's time to move forward in thinking about the kicker position. In penning an optimistic piece (shocking) regarding the Bengals' 2010-11 prospects at kicker, Baghdad Hob offers hope in replacing the franchise's best-ever field goal percentage player (gasp!), with some help from special team's coach Darrin Simmons, whose words clearly have no slant to them:

And pardon Bengals special teams coach Darrin Simmons, who pulled Graham off the waiver wire the week of Lewis’ NFL head coaching debut in 2003 in the wake of the injury to Neil Rackers in the preseason finale, if he sees some similarities.

Nugent, who has been with three teams, has made 79 percent of his 100 field-goal tries. Rayner, who has been with five teams, has made 71.2 percent of his 59 tries.

“That sounds like Shayne Graham to me in 2002 and 2003,” said Simmons, who coached Graham in Carolina in ‘02. “That happens with a lot of kickers in this league. They’re out on the street and it rekindles that hunger a little bit. Competition brings out the best in everybody. Both of these guys are hungry.”

Look at how close the numbers are.

When Graham arrived in ’03, he was a 73.1-percent kicker, and he had only tried 26 NFL field goals. Rayner, 27, is back kicking after missing much of the spring with a hip flexor. Nugent, 28, made all six of his field goal tries last week two days after he was 4-for-6. After Thursday’s practice, Simmons says he likes the way both guys are hitting the ball. He had just watched them hit a bunch of 20-yard chippies while the line was getting worked on, but he wants to make sure he doesn’t overwork them, particularly Rayner.

So, according to Hob, Rayner and Nugent should work out fine because of three things: that Simmons likes them; that their performance will be elevated to a higher level than normal as a natural reaction to competition; and that their numbers, loosely defined as containing numerals by Hob, are close enough to Graham's to warrant a dramatic one-line reveal.

Hmm. Interesting case (see that Hob--it's a sarcastic dramatic one-line reveal!)

Latte, or an Ice Cold Big Red?

I admit that I would probably would not have written this post if the Bengals won this weekend.  But given the fact that they lost, and that Shayne was one of the many reasons they lost today, I could not hold back.  

What you see to the left is a customer loyalty card from my favorite establishment in Madeira. What you see next to that is, kid you not, a two day old autograph from WDR's favorite soccer player.  

The story goes as such:

I found myself shipping a package at FedEx a couple days ago, right next to Kicker Red. When he went to leave the store I could not help but ask for his autograph.  The kicker of this whole situation (see what I did there?) was the fact that the only piece of paper I had was this Coffee Please loyalty card for him to sign.  The truth is, it was an awkward situation that was enhanced by my asking of questions such as " uh excuse me, are you Shayne Graham?" and "can I have your signatu.. I mean autograph?"

But that's not the point. The point is that right now I am stuck. I don't know whether to fulfill my card and enjoy a delicious beverage of my choice, free of charge, or to hang on to this autograph that just pisses me off every time I look at it. Choice number one sounds like a winner to me right now. But what would you do, loyal reader, if you had the same dilemma? I need some help here...

Let's All Have a Good Laugh at My Expense

First, up, my most recent post where I ask (assuming the answer is basically "no"):

Do the Bengals have an edge in any area against Baltimore this week?

Well, yes, it turns out they do.  They have in edge in every area (except the area where you have to snap a ball seven yards backwards so a Ginger Kid can kick it - in that area the Ravens RULE).

All due respect to my boy Competitiveness, but if luck played a role in this game, it was good luck for the Ravens that they weren't down and out of this game by the end of the 3rd quarter.  The overthrow by Flacco on 3rd down and the convenient penalties on the game-winning drive merely allowed the final score to validate what anyone watching that game should have realized:  the Bengals outplayed the Ravens in every facet of the game and were a better team.

Second, I revisited my season preview and concluded the following:

Bengals fans find out this team has a ceiling.  And that ceiling is the wild card playoff round.

I even underlined it at the time for emphasis.  Whoops!  Instead we found out that the Bengals could beat a team previously thought to be among the class of the AFC (and for the past decade or so, by extension the entire NFL)...on the road.  The defense is legit, I can only imagine the offense can get better from here on out, a team identity for once exists, and a good-karma snowball appears to be rolling downhill and gaining speed.  All bets are off.

But, I remind everyone that the season is LONG and the Superbowl is all that matters.  And with that I will bow out of the prediction business for this season...

Football Outsiders Interview

The Football Outsiders Almanac is perhaps the most in-depth NFL publication available right now, with their advanced stats and groundbreaking findings -- such as field goal accuracy not being a consistent stat -- creating a book high in quality and quantity (517 pages). I highly recommend buying it. The writer who composed the Bengal's section, Rob Weintraub, was kind enough to answer some questions about the upcoming season, and Football Outsider's projections for it:

The Bengals have a 2009 mean win projection of 6.9 games (the system used has many, many variables and stats factored in). Why is the projection system not as optimistic as some of our fans?

Another Look At Graham

This post brings up some unique, fairly hidden truths about special teams play but reaches the same conclusion all have reached nevertheless: slapping the franchise tag on Shayne Graham, in effect making him one of the most highly-paid kickers in the NFL, was an idiotic move, parallel with many others made by he-who-shall-not-be-named. Fortunately a long-term contract has not been given to Graham (contrary to the opinions on here and here), but there is still this move to discuss.

To begin with, the obvious- spending a great deal of money on a kicker does not make a whole lot of sense. Special teams as a whole is worth relatively little when compared to offense and defense, and using the money on a player who may not even be an asset in (I'll explain) the less-important unit, rather than one who will increase the strength of the important one like a third cornerback, is ridiculous.

Football Outsiders is one of the best NFL sites online, creating new, better statistics to help us further increase our knowledge of the NFL, as well as giving us somewhat radical discoveries. One of the more interesting ones was described in this New York Times article in November of 2006. Basically, their findings told us that we had been judging kickers the wrong way; field-goal percentage, the most common stat used to assess a kicker's performance, had little year-to-year correlation (for all of the details, refer to the article). The statistic most consistent year-to-year, and therefore the only dependable one to judge a kicker on, was kickoff length.

It's Somethin'

The Bengals failed to reach a long term deal with Shayne-o-matic.  Fantastic news.  Every dollar over the league average for kickers (or maybe over the 25th percentile in this case) we pay Shayne equates to lighting that dollar on fire.

More on why this is the case later.  But for now, good work Mike Brown, guess you have to get something right from time to time.  Hopefully we can direct our attention to more important news than our kicker and punter going forward.