Rescuing the 1993 Bengals

Julio Riddols · 07-07-2011, 02:56 PM

March 17, 1993: The Cincinnati Bengals traded Boomer Esiason to the Jets for a 3rd round pick, signaling the end of one of the most successful eras the team had seen since joining the league. This meant handing the reigns to David Klingler, a largely untested young passer picked with the number 1 overall pick in 1992 as the successor to Esiason. With a limited number of snaps under his belt in 92, Klingler showed a penchant for getting sacked, and not much else, tasting the turf on 15% of his dropbacks. The future was not looking bright.

To make matters worse, in the years leading up to the trade, there had been an increasing sense that mismanagement was tearing apart what was once a strong contender, leaving only scraps on both sides of the ball. Gone were the days of the potent, high flying, no huddle offense instilled by Sam Wyche. In its place stood a team with very little talent, put in place by two sons of NFL legends who seemed to have genetically received very little of their fathers football sense, and even less of their eye for talent. It was a harbinger of dark days ahead, as the last remaining whispers of 1988 departed, leaving Riverfront Stadium a desolate place. The ghost of Paul Brown hung in the air, a bittersweet reminder of the legend left behind.

Mike Brown, the aforementioned son of Paul, was more of a business man than a football man. He kept a close eye on the bottom line, fielding a team that was far behind their contemporaries in talent in order to save some cash. That all changed, however, on July 4th, 1993 in a fireworks accident that left Brown without his vision. He sold the team to a local business owner for 300 million dollars.

The business owner who bought the team was also more of a business man than a football fan, but also had the sense to hire a GM to run the day to day operations of the team, selecting a little known personnel guru by the name of Shane Allen to handle the job. By the time these pieces were in place, the 1993 season was nearly underway. There was not a lot of time left for a facelift, so Allen set his sights on 1994, deciding to let the 1993 season ride out and see what he had to work with. The following is his story.

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House rules:

-No trades can be made except those offered by the computer.

-No FA can be signed in FA 1 except for Bengals players whose contracts have expired.

-In FA2, only undrafted rookies may be signed.

-Players cannot be renegotiated.

-Franchise tag can be used.

-Players must be offered contract values they request, no alterations allowed.

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Opening Day 1993 starters:

QB David Klingler (21/43)
RB Derrick Fenner (40/52)
FB Harold Green (45/59)
TE Craig Thompson (21/40)
FL Jeff Query (57/57)
SE Carl Pickens (53/70)
C Bruce Kozerski (64/64)
G Scott Brumfield (9/29)
G Ken Moyer (29/29)
T Kevin Sargent (18/30)
T Joe Walter (32/32)

LDE Danny Stubbs (49/49)
DT Tim Krumrie (54/54)
DT Gary Howe (13/27)
RDE Roosevelt Nix (16/32)
OLB James Francis (58/68)
MLB Steve Tovar (14/35)
OLB Alex Gordon (65/65)
CB Sheldon White (44/44)
CB Rod Jones (37/37)
FS Fernandus Vinson (26/38)
SS Darryl Williams (29/62)

P Lee Johnson (55/55)
K Doug Pelfrey (40/96)

The good players you see are basically all we have quality wise. Depth is zero, and many of the starters aren't worth a roster spot on most teams. We do have talent at the skill positions, but no one to block for them. We also have a couple good defensive players, but an injury or two will cripple us. The outlook is not good. We will set our sights on the next draft, with our options pretty much wide open. We can pretty safely select the best player available when our pick comes up, knowing that player will fill a major hole. One player we are totally stunned by is rookie kicker Doug Pelfrey, who appears to be an absolute legend in the making.

The 1993 season results will follow, and our odyssey will take its first steps in the offseason of 1994 as the rebuilding begins in earnest.

cougarfreak · 07-07-2011, 03:22 PM

Jesus........as someone who lives close to Cincy, all I can say is good luck.

Julio Riddols · 07-07-2011, 03:54 PM

After an uneventful preseason in which the team stayed pretty healthy, only losing LB James Francis to a strained abdominal muscle for 4 weeks during our second game, the team started its 1993 season fully healthy, at home with Denver in town.

Week 1: Denver jumps out early to a 17 point lead, but we make a game of it in the second half before succumbing. Our second half defense was inspired, allowing just over 100 yards and no points to the Broncos talented offense.

Final: Denver 17 - Cincinnati 10.

Klingler: 26/42 for only 185 yards with a TD and a pick. He was sacked 2 times.

Next up is Green Bay at Lambeau with a young Brett Favre at the helm.

Week 2: (0-1) By the end of the 3rd Quarter, it was Green Bay by the score of 24 -7. We score two garbage TDs to make it respectable. We won the turnover battle 4-2, but our offense was dismal until the game was out of reach when backup QB Erik Wilhelm had taken over.

Final: Green Bay 33 - Cincinnati 21.

Kiingler: 13/24 for 102 yards, sacked 2 more times.
Wilhelm: 13/24 for 140 yards, 2 TDs, without a sack.

We have fallen quickly to 0-2 with a home tilt against hated rival Pittsburgh looming.

Week 3: (0-2) The offense explodes in week 3. We put up 424 yards of offense, but in classic Bungles fashion a couple bad plays doom us to our 3rd defeat in as many weeks. Pittsburgh benefitted from 2 defensive touchdowns on turnovers deep in our own territory and beat us in the turnover battle 2-1.

Final: Pittsburgh 38 - Cincinnati 35

Klingler shows some promise, with 5 tds, but his overall stat line shows he still is not really producing. He was 32/48, but for only 244 yards and 1 sack. He is averaging 4.66 yards per attempt after 3 games.

Week 4 features the first battle of Ohio of 1993, against the 2-1 Browns.

Week 4: (0-3) We put up only 229 yards and fall yet again, to 0-4. Cleveland wasn't much better offensively on a wet day, but they sacked Klingler 5 times and allowed us only one drive over 43 yards, late in the 3rd when we scored our only points. We're winless after 4, and while it is hard to blame Klingler alone, we will make a change at QB and see if (35/35)Erik Wilhelm can fare any better.

Final: Cleveland 16 - Cincinnati 7

At the Quarter Pole, we have no time lost due to injuries but we also have no wins. WR Jeff Query has been decent, and our run game has produced, but we have played from behind too much, resulting in a very high number of pass attempts and a lack of reliance on said run game. The defense hasn't been total crap, but they also haven't made any difference, giving up 26 points a game. there are no standouts on that side of the ball.

Julio Riddols · 07-07-2011, 04:35 PM

Week 5 sees us against an expansion team, the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore has fared even worse than us, and we feel like we have a shot to get our first win this week.

Week 5: (0-4) The debut of Erik Wilhelm as starter goes well, notching us our first W. RB Derrick Fenner was the real story, with 24 carries for 176 yards and a couple scores. We easily bested the expansion Ravens, but then again we SHOULD win against a team like that, although we are not much better off.

Final: Cincinnati 35 - Baltimore 6

With one win under our belts, We are fortunate to welcome another expansion team into town in the Houston Texans. Wilhelm is getting off easy avoiding any real evaluatable playing time so far, and that will not change this week.

Week 6: (1-4) We again taste victory, this time with a more balanced attack, but Fenner again puts up MVP numbers, producing 109 yards on 27 carries with a score and 75 more yards on 5 receptions. Wilhelm puts up 232 yards and 2 scores on 21/31 passing but was picked twice and sacked once. We also suffer our first major injury of the season, with starting CB Sheldon White going down for 8 weeks with a broken Clavicle. Mike Brim (42/42) will take over the starting LCB spot in his absence. We decide not to place White on IR in case we need him for a playoff push late in the year *snicker*

Final: Cincinnati 27 - Houston 3

We sit at 2-4 now, with wins over a couple cupcakes. Not anything to be proud of yet. Next up we host a struggling Chicago Bears team, against whom we hope to achieve our first measure of real success.

Week 7: (2-4) Chicago ended their struggles this week. Nothing good occurred for us, aside from forcing 3 turnovers. We nullified that by turning it over 3 times ourselves. We give up 385 yards to a team quarterbacked by Peter Tom Willis. Klingler played in mop up duty for us and was impressive, going 4/16 for 44 yards and a pick while being sacked 2 times.

Final: Chicago 26 - Cincinnati 6

Guh, what a week. Neither QB produced at all, and it appears the loss of CBWhite left a major hole in the secondary if Peter Tom Willis could do what he did. We nonetheless pick up the pieces and move on to our bye week, then to face the expansion Ravens for a 2nd time. We might be 3-1 for this 4 game stretch after this week, but there is hardly room for optimism. That would be like punching a dead animal and calling it a knockout.

Week 9: (2-5) Well, well, well. We couldn't even get that right. Baltimore wins their first game in franchise history by riding the efficient arm of the incomparable Jim Chandler (who sifted us for 160 yards on 16/21 passing with a score) and sacking Wilhelm 5 times. Backup WR Milt Stegall goes down for the season with a dislocated shoulder. WR Pat Robinson takes his place on the roster. Our lone bright spot was the sun peeking through an overcast sky briefly.

Final: Baltimore 24 - Cincinnati 13.

So, at the halfway point, we're 2-6. Its been ugly. Its been very ugly. We will have a LOT of work to do in 94.

At the 8 game mark:
1993 5-8.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-07-2011, 05:08 PM

We come into week 10 making another change at QB to give (35/35) Jay Schroeder a shot at the reins. He has been inactive to this point, and has a bit of rust to shake off, which he will attempt to do against the hated Steelers in Pittsburgh.

Week 10: (2-6) We again outplay the Steelers but turn it over 5 times and allow a kick return TD to WR Jeff Graham in yet another loss. Schroeder shook off the rust by going 24/37 for 246 and 3 picks while being sacked 4 times. He did throw for a score, but who cares.

Final: Pittsburgh 20 - Cincinnati 14.

2-7 now, we know we're looking at a possible high draft pick, which is encouraging. We wouldn't mind. We have no more cupcakes on the schedule, and we're headed to Oakland to hopefully get our asses beat again and continue this nightmare. What I'm finding out is that we do not have much at all to build from.

Week 11: (2-7) In a rather unexpected turn of events, Jay Schroeder beats his former team on a late TD pass to backup WR Reggie Rembert with 2:13 left on the clock. We get our first legit win, even if it was only by 3 and we didn't look too good doing it. We had to pick off Jeff Hostetler 3 times to do it, as well as forcing a fumble by Bobby Joe Edmonds.

Final: Cincinnati 20 - Oakland 17.

We move to 3-7 now, which would place us 9th in the draft order if the season ended now. Moving on, we will let Schroeder start one more at least, although he has been about as effective overall as Klingler was.
Cleveland comes to town for week 12.

Week 12: (3-7) Cleveland puts us away in the snow, sealing it with a pick-6 by Terry Taylor with 1:23 remaining. Schroeder is clearly not the answer, as he tosses another 3 picks in a weak effort. Overall, we again played fairly well in places, but the overall package just isn;t anywhere near as cohesive as it needs to be. One or more phases let us down every game.

Final: Cleveland 16 - Cincinnati 6.

We welcome 8-2 Detroit next in what should be a fun one, as we at least get to watch Barry Sanders in action.

Week 13: (3-8) We decided to let Schroeder have one more go at it, so we could compare all 3 starters on an even number of starts to see who we might keep next season. It ended badly, Schroeder throwing 2 more picks on 19/30 passing for 200 yards. The run game didn't help him much, but the point is moot. Schroeder is not near careful enough with the ball that we could rely on him to win a game in the future when we have put together a better squad. We held Sanders under 100 yards (27-98) but got beat worse than any analogy could serve to explain.

Final: Detroit 31 - Cincinnati 7.

With 4 games left, we stand at 3-9, currently good enough for the 7th pick. We have even been fortunate enough to only lose two players to significant injury this season, but it has not mattered. Its been ugly and we can't wait for it to be over.

12 games in:
1993 9-12.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-07-2011, 05:49 PM

We go into our week 14 matchup against Minnesota sitting at 3-9, with Wilhelm behind center for the remainder of the season. Wilhelm hasn't been the most efficient of our QBs rating wise, but we think he gives us the best chance to win a couple and get some momentum for next year.

Week 14: (3-9) Minnesotas D made us look bad, or we made us look bad, or something to that effect. We didn't get trounced, but thats the best we can hope for, it seems. Double digit losses is not fun to look at as the GM of a team. The balanced running of Terry Allen and Robert Smith (34 carries for 123 yards combined) along with the efficiency of Brad Johnson (19/24 for 178 and 2 scores) carried the day for Minnesota. Wilhelm wound up 17/31 for 245 with a TD and 2 picks.

Final: Minnesota 17 - Cincinnati 10.

We lost 3 players to injury in the Minnesota game:

C Bruce Kozerski (3 weeks, strained foot ligament) Replaced by converted T Chuck Bradley (6/28)

WLB James Francis (1 week, strained deltoid) Replaced by Randy Kirk (39/39)

Backup FB Eric Ball (2 weeks, strained achilles)

Week 15 sees us hobble to San Diego, home of the 4-9 Chargers. Although they are giving up nearly 25 points a game, I don;t see us scoring much with pretty much nothing in the way of blocking.

Week 15: (3-10) Wilhelm almost eclipses the 300 yards mark with a 295 yard day but was picked 2 times and sacked 5 more as we found the loss column once again. Stan Humphries is 17/25 for 176 yards and a score in victory. Our starting FB Harold Green is lost for the remainder of the year to a concussion, and will be replaced by the nearly healed but still probable Eric Ball.

Final: San Diego 19 - Cincinnati 7.

2 weeks left, we sit at 3-11 with KC and the Jets (With Esiason) in the final 2 games. We're looking at the 6th pick at the moment, but we have an outside shot at 4th overall if we lose out and the two teams behind us win once each.

Week 16: (3-11) With all we have wrong with us, we nearly take K.C. down. Although we sacked him 6 times, Dave Krieg killed us with 333 yards and 2 scores on 25/35 passing, but we kept up as Wilhelm threw for 291 and a score as well. Ultimately it wasn't enough, K.C. took it from us with 8 seconds remaining on a 31 yard FG by Nick Lowery. K.C. scored 10 points in the final 2 minutes to win.

Final: Kansas City 24 - Cincinnati 23.

We got through the week unscathed, and now we get to see our former QB in his new digs for the season finale. We'll be glad when its over.

Week 17: (3-12) - And we go down to our worst loss of the season in a lopsided drubbing. It was clear we just gave up on ourselves this week, amassing only 104 net yards while giving up 413. Esiason had 264 and a couple scores and wasn't touched by our D, while we were sacked 6 times and mercilessly beat to a pulp. What a way to end the year. At least no one else got hurt.

Final: New York Jets 30 - Cincinnati 0.

We end the year 3-13, ugly in every sense of the word. It should be a tumultuous offseason from a roster turnover standpoint, we shall see what the new year brings. We pick 6th in the draft.

Our team MVPs:

Offense: RB Derrick Fenner
Defense: S Darryl Williams

Most Valuable Rookie:

MLB Steve Tovar (Our compensation for Esiason)

Final Summary:

1993 final.JPG

Izulde · 07-07-2011, 09:14 PM

I don't remember if this was the year I chose for my Bengals dynasty or not. Looking forward to seeing how you're doing.

Julio Riddols · 07-07-2011, 09:20 PM

The 1993 playoffs ended with game MVP Dan Marino winning his first ring as Miami defeated Philly 27-24.

Steve Young of S.F. wrapped up MVP honors with a bonkers year, going 350/496 for 4265 and 36 tds with only 8 picks. He averaged 8.6 yards per throw.

Garrison Hearst was offensive ROY after posting 261-1104-3td as well as catching 73 passes for another 457 yards and 4 more scores.

DROY honors went to Gaptooth Strahan, who posted 8.5 sacks to go with 34 tackles and 12 assists. His PR% was 5.7 and TK% was 7.3.

Whip It Out Haley won DPOY honors in a 15.5 sack year, with PR% of 9.2 and TK% of 10.7

And while Young won MVP honors, OPOY went to Barry Sanders after he ran for 1677 yards and 15 tds for a Lions team that came within a game of the super bowl.

Our 1994 offseason outlook:

We need to look into a new coaching staff, then assess the draft class before we dive into who we will keep and who we will let go.

Coach hiring stage:

Our scout Calvin Morton is decent, but his contract has expired. After a brief search, we do not see a young Scout we like, and Morton is VG with QBs, so we offer him 300k for 5 years to stick and help us turn this thing around.

Head Coach Marty Conrath is not very good, and I convince the owner that we need to spend big to get a name in here that players will look up to and believe in. He says I can spend up to 3.3 million on a guy, so I go for 53 year old Hugh Welch, fresh off a conference final appearance with the Titans.

Offensive Coordinator Jim Hancock is middle of the road, but he is still signed, and fairly cheaply, so we decide to stick with him for at least one more year.

Defensive Coordinator Ty Zimmerman's contract has expired, and he was no good to begin with, so we look to replace him with 51 year old Benjamin Tanner. We are only allowed to offer 1.78 million to him, so we throw it all in a box and mail it in his direction hoping he will sign.
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In the first signing period, DC Tanner and SC Morton sign immediately, but HC candidate Hugh Welch signs back with Tennessee. Our Head Coach search continues.

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Our search leads us to 52 year old Ethan Watson, who is a disciplinarian and an offensive guru. He is new to the league, but has the rep we're looking for, and is the next best thing to Welch. We offer him the same deal we offered Welch, and cross our fingers. He signs, and we have our staff.

HC: Ethan Watson (0-0) Av - Ex - Ex - Fr - Gd
OC: Jim Hancock (3-13) Gd - Av - Fr - Vg - Vg -- Gd (young talent)
DC: Ben Tanner (0-0) Ex - Av - Vg - Vg -- Ex (young talent)
SC: Calvin Morton (3-13) Vg - Av - Ex - Gd - Av - Av - Av - Vg - Av
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Summer League/ Ticket Prices:

I convince the owner to lower some ticket prices if he wants to fill the seats, and we jack up luxury boxes a bit to counteract that.

I send K Doug Pelfrey to the summer league, as there was no other player worth developing out of last years draft. We additionally place the franchise tag on OLB Alex Gordon.

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FREE AGENCY

Cap room: 32.75 million

UFA Contracts Expired:

11th year QB Jay Schroeder - Letting him walk.
8th year WLB Randy Kirk - (39/39) - Wants 400k over 1 year. signed.
7th year LDE George Hinkle - (37/37) - Wants 340k over 1 year. signed.
7th year LCB Sheldon White - (43/43) - Wants 380k over 1 year. signed.
6th year RCB R.J. Kors - Letting him walk.
5th year LCB Alan Grant - Letting him walk.
5th year RG Thomas Rayam - Letting him walk.
5th year SE Reggie Rembert - Letting him walk.

RFA Contracts Expired:

FL Wesley Carroll - (33/41) - signed, 220k over one year.
LDT Mike Frier - unsigned.
NT Gary Howe - unsigned.
RB Ostell Miles - (24/39) - signed, 220k over 1 year.
RDE Roosevelt Nix - unsigned.
TE Craig Thompson - signed, 220k over 1 year.
C Chuck Bradley - unsigned.
FS Forey Duckett - (15/38) - signed, 180k over 1 year.
SS Lance Gunn - (13/28) (92 PDiag) - signed, 180k over 1 year.
OLB Karmeeleyah McGill - unsigned.
FL Pat Robinson - unsigned.
LT Tom Scott - unsigned.

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DRAFT

We pick 1.6, so we should wind up with a difference maker if our scouting pays off.

Mark Brunell goes number 1 overall to the Carolina Panthers, and Trent Dilfer also goes before our pick.

We try to choose between DT Sam Adams and LT Derrick Deese, eventually choosing to go with Deese, as our O-line literally is just a hole for opposing defenses to run through.

1.6 - LT Derrick Deese, USC.
2.6 - SS Robert Griffith, San Diego State
3.6 - CB Tyronne Drakeford, Virginia Tech
4.6 - C Kevin Mawae, Louisiana State
5.6 - LCB Isaac Booth, California
6.6 - QB Steve Matthews, Memphis
7.6 - QB Glenn Foley, Boston College

We decide to try and fill a couple holes up front offensively along with a couple in the secondary and come out pleased with our selections overall. Griffith and Drakeford should team with FS Darryl Williams and make the secondary a lot better. On the offensive line, Deese and Mawae should help stop a lot of the sacking thats been going on while also opening some holes for RB Derrick Fenner. Mawae will likely get some time at G while Kozerski continues to be our C.

Late in the draft, we took a couple shots at helping the QB situation. We had intended on trying to get Gus Frerotte in round 4, but he was snatched in round 3 just a few picks ahead of us. Instead we end up with Steve Matthews and Glenn Foley, two projects, but at least they'll provide some competition behind center.

We had to deal with a holdout in Derrick Fenner, he was asking for a 4 year deal worth 6.52 million, and we agreed to meet his demands, since he is pretty much all we have at the RB spot at the moment. He will again be our bell cow this year.

We go after MLB Trev Alberts, SE Ryan Yarbrough, LCB Nathaniel Covert, DT Lou Benfatti, LT Vaughn Parker, LT George Hegamin, TE John Davis and DE Eric England in PDFA.

Pre/Post Camp ratings:

Deese: 35/59 --> 39/60 +4/+1
Griffith: 23/49 --> 28/50 +5/+1
Drakeford: 25/59 --> 28/56 +3/-3
Mawae: 19/41 --> 23/44 +4/+3
Booth: 15/46 --> 17/39 +2/-7
Matthews: 13/34 --> 15/34 +2/+0
Foley: 7/8 --> 10/13 +3/+5
Alberts: 20/49 +3/-6
Yarbrough: 13/20 +1/+0
Covert: 12/31 +1/-4
Benfatti: 16/24 +2/+0
Parker: 12/26 +2/+0
Hegamin: 8/18 +1/+2
Davis: 12/25 +3/+3
England: 14/25 +2/-1

Overall, we're pleased. We missed a bit on Drakeford, but he is still gonna play a major role for us for a good while. Mawae, Griffith and Deese were solid selections and will provide a big boost. With the improvement Foley showed, he will get a shot to start if others fail. He will definitely be our 3rd QB.

Trades:

We get a trade offer for FB Harold Green, a 6th round pick and 41/41 DE Blaise Winter, a run stuffer who we could use to convert to a 3-4. Add to that the conflict between Green and Fenner, and we decide to take the deal. Eric Ball will be our FB this year.

Roster cuts:

DE George Hinkle
LCB Nathaniel Covert

With those final cuts, we're ready to get on with the 1994 season. Up next, we'll see if the moves we were able to make changed our fate or if we're still the same old Bungles for another year.

Julio Riddols · 07-07-2011, 10:14 PM

We installed a new Offense in the offseason, as well as a new Defense, and we will see if we can make them pay off. Klingler was slightly improved in the offseason, so he will get another shot to be the guy, this time with a better offensive line.

We get through the preseason mostly unscathed, escept for a major blow at RB, where we will be without Fenner for 5 weeks with a hyperextended knee. Ostell Miles is the only other RB on the roster, so we have to go get another guy. We sign David Palmer and let go of FB David Frisch.

Week 1 depth chart (backup in parenthesis):

QB: David Klingler 29/44 (Glenn Foley 10/13)
RB: Derrick Fenner 45/51 (Ostell Miles 27/39)
FB: Eric Ball 37/37
TE: Tony McGee 26/41 (Craig Thompson 26/40)
WR: Jeff Query 56/56 (Wesley Carroll 36/41)
WR: Carl Pickens 65/68 (Milt Stegall 31/43)
C: Bruce Kozerski 66/66 (Kevin Mawae 24/44)
G: Kevin Mawae 24/44 (Vaughn Parker 12/25)
G: Scott Brumfield 21/31 (Ken Moyer 30/30)
T: Derrick Deese 40/60 (Kevin Sargent (21/29)
T: Joe Walter 27/27 (Dan Jones 14/26)

DE: Danny Stubbs 48/48 (John Copeland 19/37)
DT: Tim Krumrie 42/42 (Ty Parten 14/35)
DE: Blaise Winter 41/41 (John Copeland 19/37)
SLB: Alex Gordon 59/59 (Alfred Williams 24/30)
SILB: Ricardo McDonald 30/41 (Steve Tovar 24/35)
WILB: Trev Alberts 22/49 (Steve Tovar 24/35)
WLB: James Francis 67/67 (Randy Kirk 39/39)
LCB: Sheldon White 43/43 (Mike Brim 42/42)
RCB: Tyronne Drakeford 29/56 (Rod Jones 37/37)
FS: Darryl Williams 48/66 (Forey Duckett 20/38)
SS: Robert Griffith 29/50 (Lance Gunn 15/29)

K: Doug Pelfrey 63/96
P: Lee Johnson 55/55

Our opponent for week 1 is Baltimore, and theyre at our place. It would be nice to give the fans something to cheer about this year, starting right now.

Week 1: We play a solid offensive game, putting up 375 total yards and only turning the ball over once while limiting the Ravens to 229 total yards. Klingler was outstanding in his first game out, 22/31 for 274 with 2 TDs and 1 INT for a rating of 106.1. That is the best we have seen from him so far, even better than the 5 TD game he had last season. Carl Pickens was outstanding as well, with 5 catches on 6 targets for 98 yards and a score. If we get our run game going when Fenner returns, we might be able to achieve something offensively this year.

Final: Cincinnati 20 - Baltimore 13.

We move into week 2 to face Carolina, and the team is dealing with a flu outbreak, so we're in bad health overall, coming in.

Week 2: (1-0) We made Carolina look bad and won convincingly in our best performance since the takeover. Our defense was outstanding, holding the Panthers and Jim Everett under 200 total yards. Top pick Brunell got into the game late and was 3/5 for 17 yards. Klingler was again solid, and looks like a different man so far in this offense. He was 25/41 for 204 yards and 2 more scores. Ostell Miles was better this week as well, but still nothing spectacular, with 70 yards and a score on 19 carries.

Final: Cincinnati 40 - Carolina 16.

The fans are happy after this kind of start. Jacksonville is next, so we may start the year 3-0 as improbable as that seems. We should get Fenner back within a week or two too, so if we can win 75-100% of the games he misses, I like our chances of pushing for a playoff spot.

Week 3: (2-0) We polish off a 3-0 start with an easy win over Jacksonville. Darryl Williams and Robert Griffith both have interceptions and Klingler again plays well, 29/39 for 211 yards. He has only been sacked 2 times this season so far. James Francis also has his first impact game from the WLB spot, with 2 sacks, 3 hurries and 4 knockdowns.

Final: Cincinnati 29 - Jacksonville 7.

Well, we have played 3 expansion teams to start the year. I doubt it can get much easier. Next up we have Oakland, 2-1 on the year. We will have Derrick Fenner back in week 5, so to win this one would be a big help.

Week 4: (3-0) Alas, it is not to be. Perhaps this is a vision of how far off we are, as Oakland sends us to the locker room crying from being beat so damned bad. With Joe Montana behind center, we just couldn't compete offensively. Klingler took a step back with a 15/31 performance for only 146 yards and a score with 3 picks, while Montana produced 307 yards on 21/29 passing with 2 scores, although we did manage to pick him off 2 times.

Final: Oakland 33 - Cincinnati 10.

Heading into the quarter point of the season, our next game is against our hated rivals in Pittsburgh. We lost heartbreakers to them last year, and would love some revenge this year. Fenner will be back for that game.

For now, here's a look at the stats so far for the 3-1 Bengals.

1994 1-4.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-08-2011, 03:13 PM

Week 5: (3-1) After this weeks performance, we have to re-think our current direction a bit. Pittsburgh cruised by us, allowing us only 201 yards and opening up a 21-0 lead at the half. We regained a little momentum and dignity afterwards, but that Pitt D was stout. We're tempted to give Glenn Foley a shot behind center just to see if he can do anything for us yet. We did manage to keep Pitt under 300 yards, as well, so the defense was fairly strong given that they didn't get much help from the O.

Final: Pittsburgh 21 - Cincinnati 6.

We move into week 6 and a trip to K.C. also down a man because WR Jeff Query was lost for 7 weeks to a pulled quad. He may not be the guy we should be starting there anyway, given that he doesn't do much with the ball once we get it in his hands and averages a paltry 4.8 yards per target. We give both Erik Wilhelm and Wesley Carroll starting jobs this week, and hope for better fortune.

Week 6: (3-2) Wow. Kansas City racks up a ridiculous 505 yards of offense on us, with Dave Krieg going 30/46 for 400 yards and 4 scores. We went into the 4th quarter down 31-20, but Erik Wilhelm hulked up in the 4th quarter and threw 2 of his 4 TD passes on the day while Derrick Fenner ran for another score, and we pull off the wild win. James Francis had 2 more sacks to go with 3 hurries and 3 knockdowns, and we forced 3 turnovers to help negate the offensive outburst by the Chiefs.

Final: Cincinnati 42 - Kansas City 31

Given Wilhelms performance against K.C., he will again start in 2 weeks when we come off our bye. We did see two more significant injuries against K.C., with RT Joe Walter going down for 8 weeks with a broken clavicle and TE Craig Thompson being lost for 5 weeks with a torn knee cartilage. They will be replaced by George Hegamin and John Davis, respectively. After the bye, it will be a home game against Baltimore, which could put us at 5-2.

Week 8: (4-2) We take down the Ravens on the strength of a strong ground game, with Derrick Fenner rushing for 127 yards on 28 carries. Doug Pelfrey hits 4/5 FGs, 3 of them being over 45 yards. James Francis also notches 2 more sacks. He leads the league with 9 on the year, and has posted a PR% of 14.5, which is incredible. The switch to the 3-4 has been a good call so far.

Final: Cincinnati 20 - Baltimore 6.

We move into our 8th game of the season with Denver coming to town, and if we can get to 6-2, I think we can have a winning season at the very least.

Week 9: (5-2) Denver and John Elway led this one all the way to the end, but Doug Pelfrey was good from 18 yards as time expired to give us another win despite a terrible offensive performance. The D carried us this game, holding Elway to a rating of 67.3 while sacking him twice and picking him off twice as well. Fenner and his knee problems continue to be an issue, he will be on light duty for a few weeks, this time with a minor sprain.

Final: Cincinnati 13 - Denver 10.

We're 6-2 at the midway point, and our D is ranked 10th in yardage and points allowed. We have a potential DPOY in James Francis, and while the offense struggles at times, I think with Wilhelm we may have enough firepower to win at least 2 or 3 more games. Our turnover margin is also a major reason why we have won a couple legitimate games so far, along with the 4 wins over expansion teams.

Half way through:

1994 5-8.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-08-2011, 03:50 PM

Week 10: (6-2) A bad coaching move cost us the game this week, as we turned the ball over on downs in the 3rd quarter from the 2 yard line trying to punch it in for 6. We still managed to tie the game with 42 seconds left, but the Chargers managed to go 27 yards on 4 plays from their own 42 for a game winning FG. We will be making a switch at WR, moving undrafted Ryan Yarbrough into a starting spot to take over for Wesley Carroll, who has struggled. Yarbrough has caught 10/17 for 148 yards in limited action, so we'll give him a shot to see if he can make some plays with extended PT.

Final: San Diego 20 - Cincinnati 17.

Week 11 will see us in Cleveland to face Vinny Testaverde's Browns.

Week 11: (6-3) Ugh, another narrow defeat in a tight, low scoring game. We only had 7 possessions for the entire game, which requires a high efficiency rate to convert into points, but our only TD came courtesy of a Forey Duckett Int return. the offense was stifled and managed only 192 yards in the loss, while Cleveland racked up 364 of their own.

Final: Cleveland 16 - Cincinnati 10.

Two losses in a row leaves us at 6-4, stumbling into week 12 with a winnable home game against a Tampa Bay team that sits at 3-7, having only scored 106 points on the year. We place Milt Stegall in the starting role opposite Carl Pickens, still trying to find that number 2 receiver to compliment our lone offensive star.

Week 12: (6-4) We made hay against Tampa, as expected, with 405 yards of offense to their 283. Ostell Miles came off the bench to score 2 times, once on a 71 yarder, and ended up with 5 carries for 82 yards on the day. Wilhelm was an efficient 19/25 for 264 yards and an INT to out duel Billy Joe Tolliver, and the defense was strong all around. A good week for us.

Final: Cincinnati 28 - Tampa Bay 3.

Minor injury to a key player in James Francis, who will be playing with a broken toe for 3 weeks, while we lose 3rd string TE John Davis for 5 weeks with a pulled quad. Next we travel to meet Boomer and the Jets again. They killed us last year, so it would be nice to get some revenge for that.

Week 13: (7-4) Well it was a close one where both teams had to earn every yard they got, as we split a total of 470 yards of offense almost evenly. Boomer and the Jets were able to punch it in for 6 while we settled for field goals, and that was the difference in a close loss.

Final: New York Jets 17 - Cincinnati 12.

Overall a disappointing 4 week stretch. We need one more win to reach 8-8, which would be a nice improvement over last season. Our remaining games are against Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Cleveland, 3 of which we can win, in my opinion. At 10-6, we might make the playoffs.

After 12 games:

1994 9-12.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-08-2011, 04:38 PM

Week 14: (7-5) Derrick Fenner had a 74 yard run for a score, signaling his knee troubles may be behind him, and Erik Wilhelm was pretty good as well, with a 16/24 effort for 176 yards and 2 scores of his own. On the defensive side of things, we sacked Bobby Hebert 7 times, which pretty much killed the Atlanta offense. We held them under 300 yards and got ourselves another win to move to 8-5 with 3 games left.

Final: Cincinnati 21 - Atlanta 10.

The fans optimism is high going into our final 3 games, which will all be at home. Our defense has been special this year, and we will need them to play a really good game next week against Pittsburgh, who we have not beaten in 3 tries so far. We are also fully healthy for the first time all season, with all our starters available to play. This is a huge game for us.

Week 15: (8-5) Well, damn. We manage 13 points on our first 3 drives, and lead most of the game, then with 9:52 left in the 4th, Deon Figures returns a punt to the house to tie it up, after which Gary Anderson sealed it with a 44 yarder from which we could not recover. That Pittsburgh defense was stout once again, and although our D was equal to the task, that one punt return managed to make the difference. We HATE these guys.
Also, Derrick Fenner once again finds himself on the injury report, this time with a hyperextended elbow. He is Mr. Glass all of a sudden. Ostell Miles is pushed back into action.

Final: Pittsburgh 16 - Cincinnati 13.

8-6 heading into 2 winnable games, with an outside shot at the playoffs still looming. First comes 6-8 New Orleans, who somehow leads the NFC South by 2 games.

Week 16: (8-6) New Orleans' Warren Moon was solid, 22/31 for 271 yards and New Orleans managed to move the ball fairly well against us, but Morten Andersen missed 2 of his 6 field goal attempts, resulting in a win for us. Our ability to halt their ground game helped us kill their drives while we snuck in a score via David Palmer on a 4 yard run. Palmer produced with 19 carries for 80 yards, and has been our best runner overall in my opinion. Not bad for an undrafted guy who we only signed due to injury. Wilhelm was solid, and James Francis had 2 sacks in his best game since the toe injury.

Final: Cincinnati 13 - New Orleans 12.

We have moved to 9-6, a winning season is guaranteed. While we are still outside looking in at the playoffs, this has been an unexpectedly strong season and gives us something to build off of. We'll see what the 95 draft brings us in terms of added talent and maye next year we can win the division and knock Pittsburgh off for a change. We finish the year at home against Cleveland, looking to go to 10-6, and astonish the home crowd with our competence. If the Jets lose to Miami and we win, we WILL secure the final playoff spot, amazingly, thanks to the Jets 6-6 tie against Detroit this past week.

Week 17: (9-6) Well, the Jets managed to beat 14-1 Miami to make it into the playoffs, which killed our playoff chances, but not our morale. We get revenge on Cleveland with a hard fought win, and finish at 10-6, which we totally did not expect. I would consider 5 of our wins legitimate wins over quality teams, which is a huge improvement over 0 last season.

Final: Cincinnati 16 - Cleveland 7.

Despite missing the playoffs, we did a damn fine job defensively this year, getting better as the season wore on. We're not sure where we will pick in the next draft, as we had a better record than several playoff teams, but our team MVPs are as follows:

Offensive MVP: Carl Pickens
Defensive MVP: James Francis
Team ROY: Derrick Deese (23/59 KRB, 3 sacks allowed)

Some observations: Our offensive line play was MUCH improved this year, and was actually 3rd best in Opp PR% at 15.6%. Last season we were at 21.3%. We gave up only 17 sacks this year as opposed to 47 in '93.

James Francis wasn't the only defensive star to emerge, as SLB Alex Gordon produced 8 sacks of his own, ILB Ricardo McDonald had 6 interceptions in his first year as a starter, and FS Darryl Willams had 9 passes defensed and 3 picks.

Offensively, Carl Pickens nearly eclipsed 100 yards receiving with a 62 catch, 914 yard effort. He caught 63.9% of the balls thrown his way and averaged 9.42 yards per target, 12th best in the league. He is only entering his 4th year, so there is more to come from him, I am sure.

Final tallies:

1994 final.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-08-2011, 08:22 PM

Miami returned to the title game and took on Green Bay, with Green Bay edging them 28-25 in a close one. Favre wraps up game MVP honors.

League MVP was Thurman Thomas, who ran 416 times for 1815 yards and 13 scores while catching 106 more balls for another 717 yards and 6 more scores. 522 touches for 2532 yards, goodness. I'd say he earned it.

OPOY goes to Thomas as well.

DPOY went to our own James Francis who we fell in love with as a 3-4 WLB last year. He had 74 tackles, 12 assists, 16 sacks, 5 blocks, 29 hurries and 46 knockdowns with 4 forced fumbles.

OROY was RB Jamal Anderson of the Bears. He was picked 1-15 last year, and we looked at him, but passed given our O-line situation. HYe produced a fine year, 257 carries for 1023 yards and 3 scores with 28 catches for 227 yards. He did fumble 8 times, however.

DROY went to Winfred Tubbs, MLB from Jacksonville. He went 5th overall, right in front of us and played well, registering 93 tackles and 35 assists with half a sack, 5 passes defensed, and 2 ints.

We had 2 guys win all league honors for us, Francis was 1st team, and SLB Alex Gordon made 2nd team.

Our 1995 offseason outlook: given the difference our new D coordinator seemed to make last year, we have decided to try and find an offensive coordinator that can make a difference and give us a little more firepower.

Coach Hiring Stage:

We find a young 36 year old Dave Lutz available on the market, who rates good across the board, except for kickers and punters, on which he rates poor. We offer him 2.05 million, which is what he is asking for. He holds off until stage 3, then signs with us, giving us what we see as a very strong staff, as well as a bit of an increased heart rate.

Our staff will be as follows:

HC: Ethan Watson (10-6) Av - Ex - Ex - Fr - Gd
OC: Dave Lutz (0-0) Gd -Gd - Gd - Gd - Pr -- Gd (young talent)
DC: Ben Tanner (10-6) Ex - Av - Vg - Vg -- Ex (young talent)
SC: Calvin Morton (13-19) Vg - Av - Ex - Gd - Av - Av - Av - Vg - Av
-----

Summer League/ Ticket Prices:

We lost 1% of our attendance last year despite going 10-6, so we decide to leave ticket prices where they are for the time being.

To the summer league, we send 31/56 CB Tyronne Drakeford, hoping to speed his development.

We use the Franchise tag on DE Danny Stubbs to ensure we keep him around. This also brings us the realization that we somehow managed to forget to ink SLB Alex Gordon to a long term deal last year. We will try and make sure he stays with us instead of heading elsewhere on the open market.
------------

Free Agency:

Cap Room: 36.19 million

UFA contracts expired:

13th year DT Tim Krumrie (42/42) - wants 1.41m over 2 years. Signed.
12th year DE(M) Blaise Winter (41/41) - wants 1.48m over 2 years. Signed.
9th year SLB Alex Gordon (57/57) - wants 6.59m over 3 years. Signed.
9th year SLB(M) Randy Kirk (39/39) - wants 430k over 1 year. Signed.
8th year CB Sheldon White (43/43) - wants 470k over 1 year. Signed.
7th year FB Eric Ball (37/37) - wants 350k over 1 year. Signed.
7th year G(M)(A) Ken Moyer (30/30) - wants 350k over 1 year. Signed.
7th year WR(M) Jeff Query (56/56) - wants 440k over 1 year. Turned down a deal worth 10k more from the Steelers to stay. Signed.
5th year WR Wesley Carroll (37/37) - wants 420k over 1 year. Signed.
5th year CB(A) Fernandus Vinson (20/31) - wants 350k over 1 year. Signed.
5th year SLB Alfred Williams (24/30) - wants 350k over 1 year. Signed.

RFA contracts expired:

RB Ostell Miles - (28/39) - Signed, 310k over 1 year.
WILB Eric Shaw - (16/34) - Signed, 230k over 1 year.
SE Milt Stegall - (34/42) - Signed, 340k over 1 year.
TE Craig Thompson - (28/40) - Signed, 300k over 1 year.
FS(C) Forey Duckett - unsigned.
SS Lance Gunn - (17/30) - Signed, 230k over 1 year.
MLB Trev Alberts - 22/43 - Signed, 260k over 1 year.
DT Lou Benfatti - (14/21) - Signed, 200k over 1 year.
TE John Davis - (17/24) - Signed, 200k over 1 year.
DE Eric England - (12/26) - Signed, 200k over 1 year.
LT George Hegamin - (10/19) - Signed, 300k over 1 year.
RB David Palmer - (18/21) - Signed, 200k over 1 year.
LG Vaughn Parker - (16/27) - Signed, 290k over 1 year.
SE Ryan Yarbrough - (14/25) - Signed, 200k over 1 year.
-----------------

DRAFT:

We pick 22nd in the draft, a big drop from last year. The talent we get access to will be a lot thinner, and it is even more imperitive we make good selections.

Terrell Davis goes number 1 to the Texans.

Somehow, a guy named Steve McNair falls to us. It is between him and Antonio Freeman at 1.22. We don't know for sure that we NEED a QB given the way Wilhelm played last season, which was good enough for us to win. Based on the numbers Carl Pickens put up, we could help ourselves more by going with Freeman. McNair is only 22% developed and has a conflict with one of our leaders. Freeman looks like a clone of Pickens.

1.22 - QB Steve McNair, Alcorn State. He will be the guy within a season, and as hard as it was to pass up on Freeman, how often does a QB of this caliber fall in your lap this late in round 1? It seems meant to be.

2.24 - G Ruben Brown, Pittsburgh. Brown helps fill our starting O-line out, and hopefully gives us a strong 10 years near pro bowl caliber.

3.23 - DT Jason Fisk, Stanford. Krumrie is old as hell, Fisk in the 3rd round seems like decent value.

4.22 - CB Tyrone Poole, Fort Valley State. Poole gives us a solid nickel corner who can hopefully evolve into a starter.

5.24 - TE Christian Fauria, Colorado. We nearly picked Fauria in round 3, so to get him here is big. He will compete with incumbent TE Tony McGee for snaps.

6.16 (from SDO) - RB Terrell Fletcher, Nebraska. Fletcher gives us a pair of hands out of the backfield and a change of pace back to take some of the load off Fenner.

6.23 - RG Jim Pyne, Virginia Tech. Pyne will help with depth inside.

7.22 - CB Jimmy Hitchcock, North Carolina. Hitchcock comes in to be our 4th CB and hopefully a nickel corner in the future.

We think we did really well with this draft. A (hopefully) franchise QB, a strong G, and solid depth through the remainder of the draft.

Holding out this year is DE Daniel Stubbs, who we re-sign for 4.9m over 3 years.

We go after QB Todd Collins, P Darren Bennett, FB Cory Schlesinger, C Dave Wohlabaugh and C Frank Garcia in PDFA.

Pre/Post Camp Ratings:

1.22 - QB Steve McNair 9/45 --> 13/50 (+4/+5) Woo!
2.24 - G Ruben Brown 23/47 --> 26/48 (+3/+1)
3.23 - DT Jason Fisk 15/44 --> 17/42 (+2/-2)

4.22 - CB Tyrone Poole --> 16/43 --> 18/41 (+2/-2)
5.24 - TE Christian Fauria 13/27 --> 17/30 (+4/+3)
6.16 - RB Terrell Fletcher 22/29 --> 24/30 (+2/+1)
6.23 - G Jim Pyne 16/30 --> 17/31 (+1/+1)
7.22 - CB Jimmy Hitchcock --> 10/12 --> 12/16 (+2/+4)

QB Todd Collins - 5/24 --> 7/24 (+2/+0)
FB Cory Schlesinger - 14/33 --> 16/33 (+2/+0)
P Darren Bennett - 36/36 --> 39/41 (+3/+5)
C Dave Wohlabaugh - 11/23 --> 14/27 (+3/+4)
G Frank Garcia - 14/40 --> 16/39 (+2/-1)

Not bad, but we're pissed about missing on Fisk and Poole in the 3rd and 4th. We could have gone RB/G there instead and probably done much better.

Pittsburgh drafted QB Kordell Stewart with pick 28 in the 6th.

Roster cuts:

QB David Klingler
QB Todd Collins
RG Ken Moyer
RT Dan Jones
DT Lou Benfatti
WILB Eric Shaw
CB Isaac Booth
CB Fernandus Vinson
FB Eric Ball
G Vaughn Parker
TE John Davis
DE Eric England

We struggled with who to realease for our last 3 cuts, which is a good sign. On we go to the 1995 season, hopes high.

Julio Riddols · 07-08-2011, 09:14 PM

We decide to leave the QB position in the capable hands of our vet Wilhelm, with McNair still raw as can be. The preseason ends with us undefeated, winning all our games fairly easily. We suffer one injury, a minor one to TE Tony McGee, who will miss 2 weeks with a seperated shoulder. Fauria will get some PT right away, it seems.

Our starting lineup (backups in parenthesis)

QB - Erik Wilhelm 35/35 (Steve McNair 13/50)
RB - Derrick Fenner 42/42 (Terrell Fletcher 24/30)
FB - Cory Schlesinger 17/33
TE - Tony McGee 41/45 (Craig Thompson 33/40)
WR - Carl Pickens 72/72 (Jeff Query 50/50)
WR - Milt Stegall 38/38 (Wesley Carroll 36/36)
C - Bruce Kozerski 63/63 (Dave Wohlabaugh 14/27)
G - Kevin Mawae 33/46 (Frank Garcia 16/39)
G - Ruben Brown 27/48 (Scott Brumfield 32/32)
T - Derrick Deese 55/62 (George Hegamin 13/19)
T - Kevin Sargent 23/29 (George Hegamin)

P - Lee Johnson 55/55
K - Doug Pelfrey 74/96

DE - Danny Stubbs 49/49 (John Copeland 26/37)
DT - Tim Krumrie (Jason Fisk 17/42)
DE - Blaise Winter 35/35 (John Copeland)
SLB - Alex Gordon 58/58 (Alfred Williams 27/27)
SILB - Ricardo McDonald 41/41 (Steve Tovar 28/35)
WILB - Trev Alberts 27/44 (Steve Tovar)
WLB - James Francis 67/67 (Randy Kirk 36/36)
CB - Sheldon White 43/43 (Tyrone Poole 17/42)
CB - Tyronne Drakeford 42/54 (Rod Jones 30/30)
SS - Robert Griffith 47/51 (Lance Gunn 21/30)
FS - Darryl Williams 63/63 (Mike Brim 40/43)

We have Pittsburgh at home in an early test to see if we have the stuff to make some noise in the playoffs this year in week 1. Nice to get your feet wet right off the bat.

Week 1: Man does it ever feel good to get off on the right foot, especially when the team you do it against has been beating you for 2 years. We played a great game on both sides of the ball, gaining 414 yards of offense and allowing only 250 on defense. It was still a close game, but those are really encouraging offensive numbers. The stars of the day were WR Carl Pickens who was 4/5 for 100 yards receiving, Derrick Fenner, with 89 yards and 2 scores on 25 carries, and James Francis, who went berserk totaling 4 sacks, 2 knockdowns, 2 forced fumbles and 9 tackles on only 32 plays. They had to give him a rest I guess, because he wore himself out being such a bad ass.

Final: Cincinnati 20 - Pittsburgh 17.

No injuries to speak of, and it looks like Tony McGee is ready to go again, so we throw him back in the lineup. We are headed to Seattle.

Week 2: (1-0) Ouch, blanked by the Seahawks in the rain. The good news is that Wilhelm was pulled about midway through and Steve McNair came in and played well, going 14/19 for 135 yards. Wilhelm wasn't bad, just wasn't effective enough, I guess. He was 7/14 for 160 yards but was sacked 3 times before being pulled. We outgained Seattle 374 to 365, but were only 2/12 on 3rd down.

Final: Seattle 19 - Cincinnati 0.

On to week 3, we will try to rebound on the road at Indy.

Week 3: (1-1) Ow, 5 interceptions. Wilhelm throws 4, and it looks like its officially time to give McNair a shot already. The colts were led by Don Majkowski and his 17/24 for 196, 2TD, 1 INT day. We again outgain our opponent 393 to 296, but get waxed.

Final: Indianapolis 27 - Cincinnati 7.

We decide to start McNair in week 4. He only knows 6 formations, so we're not too enthusiastic, but we'll se what transpires. We're not simplifying for the rook. He'll have to learn as he goes, starting with last years super bowl runners up, Miami at our place.

Week 4: (1-2) What does McNair do in is first start? Goes out there in front of the home crowd, completes 20/26 for 227 and 2 scores, guiding us to a win. Doug Pelfrey put the nail in the coffin on a 57 yarder with 11 seconds left. We barely contained Marino, who threw it all over the place for 313 yards and 3 scores on 23/37 passing. But a win is a win, especially over the defending AFC Champs. Its safe to say Steve earned himself some adulation this week.

4 weeks in, we're even at 2-2, but there has to be some hope after watching McNair against Miami. He was outstanding. We look forward to seeing how far he can take us as he asserts himself as our new leader.

After 4:

1995 1-4.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-08-2011, 10:10 PM

We go into week 5 optimistic, and we travel to meet the Jets. Esiason is still there, and we still want to beat them because of it. McNair is our man now, lets see how it plays out.

Week 5: (2-2) 4 turnovers (3 fumbles and a pick) doom us. McNair was good while he was in, but the coach was trying to spark the team and let Wilhelm finish the game. Both played quite well, but when you fumble the ball away like that, you can't do much but lose. McNair was 14/18 for 147 with a TD and an INT, Wilhelm redeemed himself from his recent troubles with a 7/10, 73 yard effort in relief. The defense, however, could not stop Boomer. He had a strong day - 18/26, 222 yards, 2 TDS. Tony McGee was our offensive MVP for the game, catching 8/10 for 80 yards.

Final: New York Jets 27 - Cincinnati 14.

We are still going to keep McNair on a short leash due to the lack of formations we have to work with when he is under center. Although he wasn't to blame for last weeks fumble trouble, we don't want the offense to bog down unnecessarily by getting too predictable. We head into a bye week hoping to stop turning the ball over so much, which should turn our fates toward the better going forward. New England comes to town next, in week 7.

Week 7: (2-3) Drew Bledsoe was good this week for the Pats, with 245 yards and 2 scores and an INT on 25/33 passing but McNair outplayed him significantly, posting an incredibly efficient 21/24, 208 yards and 1 TD day. He also ran the ball 10 times for 51 yards. McNair seems to have a favorite target in 3rd WR Jeff Query, who has been revitalized this year. He had a 5/5 day with 84 yards and a score. Backup runner Terrell Fletcher has also been a pretty solid addition and had 14 carries for 81 yards while Fenner struggled. Overall, it was a strong performance and a comfortable win.

Final: Cincinnati 27 - New England 14.

Week 8 will be at home against Baltimore, we expect to win this one.

Week 8: (3-3) An easy day at the office for pretty much everybody. I don;t know when Baltimore will get rid of Jim Chandler, but they need a guy that can throw the ball there desperately. We held them to 150 yards of offense, sacked their QBs 6 times, and ran up 347 efficient yards of our own. McNair seems to be in a groove so far, and hit 17/23 for 171 and a score while Terrell Fletcher busted out for 126 yards and a TD on 15 carries. He has really been coming into his own the past few weeks. 3 of our sacks went to James Francis, who continues to be a beast, maybe even more so than last year.

Final: Cincinnati 37 - Baltimore 3.

At 4-3 we travel to Buffalo for a tough contest against one of the better offensive teams in the league. This one will be a test.

Week 9: (4-3) We did play hard this week, and held Buffalo to 19 points, but couldn't muster enough points of our own to result in a win. Thurman Thomas had 74 yards and a TD on 14 carries, and Jim Kelly completed 21 of 33 for 270, although we did manage to pick him off twice.
McNair was solid yet again, and it seems we can count on him to consistently provide days like today: 19/27, 198 yards, 1 TD. Too bad it was in a loss.

Final: Buffalo 19 - Cincinnati 17.

We're still even at 4-4 midway through.. We are leading the division, however.

Half way home:

1995 5-8.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-08-2011, 10:43 PM

A trip to Pittsburgh to try and widen our division lead looms. McNair needs to step up and perform against the Pittsburgh D.

Week 10: (4-4) Down 20-13 with 2:16 left, with the ball at our own 5 yard line.. McNair guides us down the field coolly, hitting a huge pass to TE Tony McGee to put us close, then tying it up with a short toss to RB Terrell Fletcher coming out of the backfield. Fletcher had a big day, and carried the ball 27 times for 113 yards. McNair completed far from his customary 75%, hitting only 23 of 40, but threw for 333 yards and 2 TDs with no picks. We win in overtime with less than 40 seconds left on a Pelfrey field goal.

Final: Cincinnati 23 - Pittsburgh 20.

McNair was complaining of some knee soreness after the game, and it turns out he sprained his knee, but the x-rays were negative and he is listed as questionable.. We will let him play, crossing our fingers that no further harm comes to our new found star. With another division game coming up, we can widen our division lead even further. Cleveland is coming to town.

Week 11: (5-4) We put up 425 yards of offense and need every inch of it to overcome the 515 that Cleveland put up. It was a show with tons of fireworks, but you can't phase McNair. He was ice cold, 23/30 for 303 yards and 2 TDs. Testaverde would not be outdone on the stat sheet, he threw for an ungodly 481 yards in the loss on only 38 attempts. The key to the win was forcing 3 Cleveland turnovers while not turning it over ourselves.

Final: Cincinnati 40 - Cleveland 38.

Week 12 comes around the bend with us on a bit of a roll, and we have to travel to the desert for a showdown in the sun against 6-4 Arizona.

Week 12: (6-4) It looks like the heat or the Arizona defense melted McNair as his ice cold cool evaporated in the wake of 3 interceptions. Its not the way we wanted this week to go, obviously, but there will be bad days, and maybe we were getting a little too comfortable with his consistency. Good to know he is human. The game itself was a snoozer, very little offense for either side. We missed 3 FGs to go with the 3 picks and even though we held Arizona to 49 second half yards, they had already done their damage.

Final: Arizona 14 - Cincinnati 13.

We have been healthy this season, which has been nice. We will need everything we have for the stretch run to try and seal up the AFC North. San Diego comes to town next, and we're glad to get out of the desert.

Week 13: (6-5) We manage only 202 yards of offense, but held San Diego to 279, and made ours count more. James Francis had 2 sacks, 2 fumbles forced, 5 hurries, and 4 knockdowns while again registering 9 tackles. He can win us games by himself sometimes.

Final: Cincinnati 17 - San Diego 10

At 7-5 with 4 games left and a 3 game lead on Pittsburgh, we have all but sewn up the North and a playoff spot. It feels good.

Stats:

1995 9-12.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-09-2011, 01:42 PM

We have San Francisco coming to town as we begin to wind down the last quarter of the season, looking to get back on track offensively and score some points after struggling a little the past 2 weeks. We cant rely on James Francis to do it all all the time.

Week 14: (7-5) We topple San Fran by slowing their passing attack, limiting Steve Young to 22/37 for only 215 yards and only giving up 276 total yards to a potent O. On our side of things, the ground game woke up and played very well, Fenner leading the way with his best game of the year rushing for 118 yards and 2 scores on 24 carries. Fletcher chipped in with 60 more on 14 carries to help keep the San Fran offense off the field. McNair did only what we needed him to, throwing 14/21 for 146 yards without a turnover. We were 9/15 on 3rd down.

Final: Cincinnati 20 - San Francisco 10.

We have now officially wrapped up our division, and we are only a game out of securing a bye week at the moment. If we can manage to win out, that extra week off could be very beneficial. Up next is a short bus ride to Cleveland, to hopefully put us one game closer to sweeping the North.

Week 15: (8-5) We led this one comfortably, 27-3 early in the 4th, but the Browns wouldn't die and made a game of it before time ran out and we escaped with the W. We sacked Browns QB Earl Shea 6 times to help seal the victory, with 2.5 of those going to Daniel Stubbs, who is having his best year as a Bengal thus far. He has 7 sacks on the year now.

Final: Cincinnati 27 - Cleveland 21.

With 6-8 St. Louis and 1-13 Baltimore left on the schedule, we are chasing 10-4 Tennessee for the 2nd seed in the playoffs. They have 6-8 Tampa and 2-12 Houston left though, so its doubtful we can claim the bye as hoped. Thats why they play the games though, you never know.

Week 16: (9-5) McNair was back in the efficient mode this week, completing 19/25 for 222 and 3 scores with 1 INT, and we put away the Rams fairly convincingly. Pickens with 105 yards on 4/4 catches. SLB Alex Gordon had 2 INTs to lead the way defensively in an effort that saw the Rams held to 238 yards.

Final: Cincinnati 30 - St. Louis 10.

Tennessee won their game, so it appears our chances of a bye week are not good, but we look like we can finish strong at 11-5 and hopefully still win a game or two in the postseason.

Week 17: (10-5) I think we overlooked the Ravens, and they flat out beat us down. They intercepted a normally mistake free McNair 3 times and despite only managing 240 yards, they still won comfortably. We could not get anything going. They had a new QB this week, Terry Logan, who was 11/17 for 129 and a score in the win.

Final: Baltimore 23 - Cincinnati 10.

Well, it was a great regular season for us despite that final game debacle, and I'm hoping we got the bad game out of the way before the games that matter start. Of course we draw the New York jets in the first round, and Boomer wants nothing more than to knock us out. We're hoping McNair has something to say about that that doesn't involve lyrics from a certain Red Hot Chili Peppers hit. What we've got, we've got to put it in the end zone.

I think McNair may have had an OROY quality campaign, and James Francis should secure top defensive honors again. They are our team MVPs this year.

Offensive MVP: Steve McNair - 279/410 - 3042 yards - 15 TD - 11 INT
Defensive MVP: James Francis - 78 tk - 25 ast - 16.5 sk - 6 blk - 35 hur - 35 knk - 6 FF.

Most Valuable Rookie: We would have given this to McNair, but seeing how his contribution was totally unexpected, Terrell Fletcher takes this honor. He rushed 240 times for 1034 yards and a couple scores, and caught 46 passes for 300 yards and 3 more scores. Without him, our ground game was typically struggling. He earned our respect.

1995 Final Tallies:

1995 final.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-09-2011, 03:08 PM

Wild Card vs New York Jets: On a cold day in Cincinnati, with a blustery wind blowing around big, wet flakes and coating the Queen city with a blanket of white, the Bengals were preparing to take the field in a postseason game for the first time in 5 years. It had seemed like something that was so far off just 2 years ago, but good fortune has shone on the faces of the Bengals faithful and rewarded their unwavering support, showing them that their patience was not in vain. This team has something to be proud of, even if their journey ends today.. But the 53 men in the locker room have a different thought going through their heads. From the smallest role player to the biggest star, every single man who will take that field before the opening kickoff knows what is at stake with every snap of the ball, every step of the way. The gridiron is frozen in a slush, battered by harsh weather, and soon it will be home to 44 grinding feet, pushing and fighting for every precious yard. It is a welcoming sight. It is a great day for football.

We would receive the opening kickoff, and our 1995 postseason began with us in decent field position at our own 38. However, the weather would claim its first victim on the first play of the game, as Terrell Fletcher coughed up the ball and the Jets recovered. An early setback, to be sure.

We held the Jets to a field goal after a couple first downs, and tried to regroup offensively. We worked the ball to midfield, but stalled and were forced to punt. This continued for both teams for the remainder of the first quarter, as both teams settled into a defensive stalemate, neither team advancing beyond midfield. At the end of 1, it was the Jets, 3-0.

We finally manage to move the ball into Jets territory in the mid 2nd, but a 48 yard FG attempt fell short, leaving us still seeking our first points of the game, scratching our heads at what to do to get somewhere in this mess. The Jets got nothing going after our miss, then uncorked a brilliant 58 yard punt to pin us back at our own 1. We knew this was trouble if we weren't careful. We managed to move the ball to the 7 before being forced to punt it away. We're clearly playing conservative early, trying to keep within striking distance with our D playing well. They come out and hold the Jets out of scoring range, thankfully, and we have a little more luck this time, as Sean Landeta boots it into the end zone, giving us some room to work from the 20. With 2:27 left in the half, I am hoping we can make something happen and score before the half, or at least control the clock for the remainder and go into the locker room to regroup. We end up doing nothing with it, and the Jets get the ball back at their own 45 with 1:42 still remaining. Then, one of the most controversial calls I have ever seen happens. The Jets try and go deep, throwing in the direction of Tyronne Drakeford, who is called for pass interference when the receiver falls down. The penalty moves the ball all the way to our 9 yard line, giving the Jets a chance to go up 10 and get the ball back after the half. It is a 46 yard penalty. Our D holds for the first two plays, forcing incomplete passes. On 3rd and 9, Esiason finds a wide open Brent Arrington running underneath the coverage over the middle. He connects, but Arrington slips just enough turning up field to give Sheldon White and Mike Brim time to close in and stop him at the 1, inches aways from a TD. Jets 6, Bengals 0.

You'd think we would settle for kneeling down to kill the last 30 or so seconds, but McNair is sacked on an ill-advised pass attempt, and fumbles. We are incredibly lucky he fell on it himself and saved us from giving up even more. After that we do kneel down, and go into the locker room down 6-0.

In the 3rd, we trade punts for the first 7 minutes, but then another huge unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gives the Jets a chance to score 3 more, and Cary Blanchard is good from 42 yards out to make it 9-0. We need to get something going, fast.

..And get something going fast is exactly what we did. McNair finds Jeff Query out in the flat on a WR screen, and Query does the rest, going 80 yards for the score. After the extra point, it is 9-7, Jets with 5:26 remaining in the 3rd.. But, our D loses focus and gives up a quick 5 play drive for a score, capped by an 11 yard strike from Esiason to Rob Carpenter. we're right back to being down 9, 16-7.

After we get the ball back, we look like we're about to go 3 and out when McNair hits Carl Pickens down the sideline for 28 on 3rd and 11. We continue to move the ball, and we end the 3rd with a 1st down at the Jets 36. Its getting interesting with 15 minutes left to decide this one.

We convert another 3rd and 10 with a pass over the middle to Fletcher to keep the drive alive, and I am beginning to believe at this point that we can come back and win.. But the drive stalls at the Jets 23, leaving us to attempt a 40 yarder to bring it within 6. Pelfrey pulls it wide left. Tough to swallow.

We do manage to stop the Jets on 3 straight plays to get the ball back, but another outstanding punt leaves 84 yards between us and paydirt. Time is running out, and our backs are against the wall. We get a little something going, but are forced to punt with 7 minutes left. As the lights dim on our hopes, we begin to pray for a miracle. We stop the Jets and get the ball back on our own 46 with 4:23 remaining, needing 2 scores. Its now or never.

Tony McGee drops a pass on 1st down, Fenner gets 2 yards on a screen, then Milt Stegall drops another on 3rd down. We're called for a false start before we go for it, and on 4th and 13, McNair fires high, looking for Jeff Query. An unceremonious end to our 1995 journey.

We suffer a little salt in our wounds, as the Jets manage a safety on a holding call in our end zone to make the final score 18 - 7, Jets. McNair was 19/31 for 202 and a score, but that one defensive lapse in the middle of the 3rd, and a couple major mental mistakes wound up undoing us. We outgain the Jets 285-230, but suffer 81 yards in penalties and fail to force a turnover, even with the bad weather.

1996 will give us a chance to take another step forward though, so I tell the guys to hold their heads high and that we will be back. Its just the beginning of our ascension.

The Jets would go on to the title game, losing 24-8 to their in state rivals, the Giants. Their only points came on a TD pass from little known backup, Jeff Blake, who was 7/12 for 155 yards and a score in relief of the ineffective Esiason. Jesse Armstead would take home MVP honors with 2 sacks and a fumble forced.

Julio Riddols · 07-09-2011, 06:15 PM

Rod Jones, Tim Krumrie, and Blaise Winter all called it quits after our playoff loss, leaving us looking for defensive help going into 1996.

The league MVP was QB Randall Cunningham of the Eagles, who threw for 4006 yards with 27 tds and 8 interceptions. He ran for another 500 yards and 5 tds.

OPOY went to Cunningham as well.

DPOY was awarded for the second year in a row to our man James Francis. He was again a terror, and we thank him for it. He is the backbone of our defense.

OROY Did not go to McNair as I had hoped, but instead number 1 pick Terrell Davis. He ran for 1273 yards and 6 TDs for the Texans on 284 carries, while catching 60 balls for another 467 and 5 scores.

DROY was the 12th overall pick, Jacksonville DE Hugh Douglas, who had 6 sacks and a fumble forced.

This year Francis and Gordon both made 1st team All League, which both again deserved. They remain our only honorees thus far, however.

Our 1996 offseason outlook: Find one more piece on both sides of the ball that puts us over the top. We need to give McNair another target, and give the D another playmaker. If we can find a couple linemen on both sides of the ball in the mean time, that would be icing on the cake.

Coach Hiring Stage:

Having found a QB last season, we decide to cut ties with our scout, and make a lucrative 400k offer to 34 year old Carlos Bernard, who specializes in the skill positions, linebackers, and defensive backs. These are the bread and butter of our team, so picking good ones is key.

Bernard signs with us, and our staff is set:

HC: Ethan Watson (20-13) Gd - Ex - Ex - Fr - Gd
OC: Dave Lutz (10-7) Gd - Av - Gd - Gd - Pr -- Vg (young talent)
DC: Ben Tanner (20-13) Ex - Av - Vg - Ex -- Ex (young talent)
SC: Carlos Bernard (0-0) Av - Gd - Vg - Gd - Av - Av - Vg - Gd - Av
--------

Summer League/ Ticket Prices:

Attendance was up 6% last year, revenues up 9%, and profits up 87%. We had a lucrative year. We bump the prices up $2 a ticket for the Upper deck, End Zone and Mezzanine seats, $5 for sideline seats, and $10 for club seats. We also raise luxury box prices by $5,000.

The fans are paying for quality now, and we think this increase fits with the product we are putting on the field now.

We franchise S Darryl Williams, and send McNair overseas to hopefully learn some formations.

------------

Free Agency:

Cap room: 33.2 million.

UFA contracts expired:

13th year C Bruce Kozerski (62/62) - wants 1.73m/2 - Turns down more money from Carolina to stay in Cinci.
10th year WLB randy Kirk (36/36) - wants 450k/1 - Signed
9th year FS Mike Brim (42/42) - wants 490k/1 - Signed
9th year CB Sheldon White (41/41) - wants 490k/1 - Signed
8th year FL Jeff Query (50/50) - wants 510k/1 - Signed
6th year FL Wesley Carroll (35/35) - letting him walk
6th year SLB Alfred Williams (28/28) - wants 370k/1 - Signed
5th year RB Ostell Miles (31/39) - wants 370k/1 - Signed
5th year SE Milt Stegall (38/38) - wants 450k/1 - Signed
5th year TE Craig Thompson (37/40) - wants 370k/1 - Signed

RFA Contracts expired:

S Lance Gunn (23/31) wants 240k/1 - signed
MLB Trev Alberts (28/40) - unsigned
LT George Hegamin (16/21) - unsigned
RB David Palmer (20/22) wants 240k/1 - signed
SE Ryan Yarbrough (20/26) wants 240k/1 - signed
P Darren Bennett (42/44) wants 210k/1 - signed
RG Frank Garcia (18/40) wants 210k/1 - signed
FB Cory Schlesinger (19/33) wants 210k/1 - signed
C Dave Wohlabaugh (16/29) wants 210k/1 - signed
-----------------

1996 Draft:

We pick 24th this year, and the crop of players is deep at the WR and LB spots especially. We think we can come away with at least 3 starters, maybe as many as 5.

RB Richard Huntley goes number 1 to our division rival Ravens.

At 1.24, we are presented with a boatload of quality options. Our heads are spinning in the draft room as we try and come up with a consensus, and finally we decide on..

1.24 WR Keyshawn Johnson, USC - A big target to pair with Carl Pickens to give us a bit more offensive firepower. He has a bit of brashness about him, but we think he fits well with the locker room we are cultivating.

2.24 ILB Ray Lewis, Miami - Lewis is ferocious, and we are missing an ILB that can cause opponents to fear us. This guy is just what the doctor ordered.

3.24 CB Aaron Beasley, West Virginia - We are hoping Beasley can give us a tandem with Tyronne Drakeford and fill the one hole in our secondary that remains. He looks like he is the right guy, our scout likes him, and we're gonna give him a shot to start right away more than likely.

4.24 FB Mike Alstott, Purdue - Alstott is a power runner and a decent blocker with a hard nosed style we like. He'll fit right in.

5.24 T Willie Anderson, Auburn - This kind of T falling to round 5 is a godsend. Thats all there is to say.

6.24 WR Bobby Engram, Penn State - Engram helps us fill out our WR corps, and may develop into something nice down the road.

7.24 FB Stanley Pritchett, South Carolina - Pritchett is a special teams standout who might stick to give us depth at FB behind Alstott.

This draft looks like a home run. If it works out, its a franchise changing explosion of talent which helps us tremendously.

We go after undrafted DE James Roberson, DT Mark Campbell, SLB Jeff Gooch, CB Juran Bolden and RB Jerris McPhail.

Pre/Post Camp ratings:

1.24 WR Keyshawn Johnson 27/40 --> 31/45 (+4/+5)
2.24 MLB Ray Lewis 23/56 --> 29/59 (+6/+3)
3.24 CB Aaron Beasley 22/42 --> 25/42 (+3/+0)
4.24 FB Mike Alstott 16/31 --> 19/33 (+3/+2)
5.24 T Willie Anderson 18/28 --> 22/34 (+4/+6)
6.24 WR Bobby Engram 10/28 --> 11/28 (+1/+0)
7.24 FB Stanley Pritchett 22/32 --> 25/32 (+3/+0)
DE James Roberson 14/21 --> 15/21 (+1/+0)
DT Mark Campbell 14/24 --> 15/24 (+1/+0)
LB Jeff Gooch 8/20 --> 10/20 (+2/+0)
CB Juran Bolden 13/27 --> 15/30 (+2/+3)
RB Jerris McPhail 20/45 --> 21/39 (+1/-6)

*McNair came back from Europe at 39/53, still knowing only 6 formations. He was also hurt there, and will be out for 7 weeks with a strained adductor. Hopefully he will be ok in time for the regular season to start.

**Derrick Deese had an offseason automobile accident that broke both his legs. He is healthy in tme for the season, but looks like a shell of what he once was, dropping to a rating of 23/23. Looks like we will be hunting for O-line help again next year.

For the draft, we hit big on 3 out of our first 5 picks, which is a major score for us. Any time you can get 2 or more quality guys out of a class, youre in good shape. Lewis, Johnson and Anderson will be huge for us.

Roster Cuts:

RB Ostell Miles
FB Cory Schlesinger
CB Jimmy Hitchcock
SLB Jeff Gooch
RG Jim Pyne
RB Jerris McPhail

1996 looms and we have question marks we didn't think we would. Our RB situation is shaky, McNair is down and may miss a game or two, and LT Derrick Deese's offseason accident has cost us dearly. Defensively, the outlook is much better, though we could use a DE and a DT to shore things up in the middle. Our linebacking corps is the strongest it has ever been, and the secondary has unprecedented depth, although the corner spots are still lacking. We need a shut down guy. Can we repeat the success of 1995?

Julio Riddols · 07-09-2011, 07:35 PM

We had a rough preseason, lots of guys got banged up, including our starting RB Terrell Fletcher, who will miss 8 weeks with a broken tibia. everyone else with an injury is listed as probable, but McNairs injury is one you can't treat lightly, because the risk of reinjury is high. Glenn Foley will get the start for the first 2 weeks.

Our Starters (backups in parenthesis)

QB Steve McNair 39/53 (Glenn Foley 21/21)
RB Terrell Fletcher 28/30 (David Palmer 21/21)
FB Mike Alstott 19/33 (Stanley Pritchett 25/32)
TE Tony McGee 50/50 (Craig Thompson 39/39)
WR Carl Pickens 70/70 (Jeff Query 50/50)
WR Keyshawn Johnson 33/45 (Milt Stegall 38/38)
C Bruce Kozerski 56/56 (Kevin Mawae 45/48)
G Kevin Mawae 45/48 (Scott Brumfield 33/33)
G Ruben Brown 37/47 (Frank Garcia 20/40)
T Willie Anderson 24/34 (Kevin Sargent 24/24)
T Derrick Deese 23/23 (Joe Walter 21/21)

K Doug Pelfrey 92/92
P Lee Johnson 56/56

DE John Copeland 37/37 (James Roberson 15/21)
DT Jason Fisk 22/42 (Mark Campbell 15/24)
DE Danny Stubbs 48/48 (Roberson)
SLB Alex Gordon 58/58 (Alfred Williams 28/28)
SILB Ray Lewis 30/59 (Steve Tovar 33/35)
WILB Ricardo McDonald 43/43 (Tovar)
WLB James Francis 58/58 (Randy Kirk 23/23)
CB Sheldon White 42/42 (Aaron Beasley 26/42)
CB Tyronne Drakeford 44/44 (Tyrone Poole 26/38)
FS Robert Griffith 50/50 (Lance Gunn 26/31)
SS Darryl Williams 72/72 (Mike Brim 33/33)

We travel to Cleveland week 1 with Foley at the helm and old man Fenner and David Palmer at RB. Should be interesting.

Week 1: Well, Foley had to do most of the work himself, but it didn't matter, he responded by throwing for 319 yards on 31/48 passing, hitting 9 different receivers. He threw one INT to go with 2 TD passes, to TE Thompson and RB Palmer. We only managed 82 yards rushing on 32 carries, however. This will not work against stronger teams. Defensively, the debut of Ray Lewis went well. He had 10 tackles and 2 assists.

Final: Cincinnati 23 - Cleveland 17.

Keyshawn Johnson went down this week with a knee sprain, listed as questionable. We will let Query take his spot so he can heal, because we don't want him to tear that knee up. DT Mark Campbell is also down for 7 weeks with a broken fibula. Parten will take his place. We're hurting pretty bad.

We go home for week 2 to see Philly coming to town with MVP Randall Cunningham. Foley will start again after a solid week 1 performance. Hopefully we can squeeze some ground support out of Fenner and Palmer.

Week 2: (1-0) Cunningham needed only 18 attempts to torch us for 192 yards and 2 tds in a pretty easy Philadephia win. Foley struggled this week, predictably, but didn't turn the ball over. He just wasn't very effective. Fred Barnett caught 4 balls for 118 and 2 tds for the Eagles. Ray Lewis had a quiet game with only 3 tackles.

Final: Philadelphia 17 - Cincinnati 9

Bad news for us is McNair is healing slower than expected and will miss one more week. Fletcher has hardly healed at all, and there is fear he may miss the season if he doesn't start coming around soon. We're hoping we only have to deal with one more week without our leader as we welcome Denver to town.

Week 3: (1-1) We picked off Elway 2 times, and held the Broncos to only 308 yards in a close win. Foley was much better this week, his last start, but probably the beginning of a long tenure here as the backup to McNair. He completed 19/30 for 179 and a score with no interceptions. The ground game was respectable, but still not good.

Final: Cincinnati 10 - Denver 7.

McNair returns finally in week 4, as we take a trip to Jacksonville. Keyshawn Johnson is also back, so the offense is near full strength.

Week 4: (2-1) McNair eats turf 7 times, but manages to guide us to 20 first half points in a win. We were suffocating defensively, allowing only 214 yards. We harrassed Ken OBrien to a rating of 44.6 in order to get the win.

Final: Cincinnati 23 - Jacksonville 6.

3-1 after 4 is decent. We have won with defense, but now we're getting healthy and McNair is hopefully ready to show some improvement over last year. The ground game is struggling as expected, but defensively, its the best we have played so far.

After 4:

1996 1-4.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-20-2011, 11:55 AM

With a trip to Baltimore coming, we will try and settle into a groove and win a few to get into a lead in the division before the bye hits. We're pretty healthy now, and with McNair back under center, all the pieces except the running game are back in place. Winning the next 4 before the bye would give us an outstanding chance at securing a bye this year.

Week 5: (3-1) McNair was back to full strength this week and responded with a near flawless 15/18 day throwing for 170 yards and a score - He also ran 8 times for 58 more yards. Defensively, 4 interceptions and 2 sacks of Jim Chandler helped put us in the W column in a pretty easy contest.

Final: Cincinnati 23 - Baltimore 7.

With 4-1 Pittsburgh coming to town, a fight for first place is in the offing for week 6. We remain healthy, and despite our lack of running game, I think we can pull it off. We need to to take control in the North.

Week 6: (4-1) We struggled mightily this week, but managed 16 second half points after being shut out in the first. McNair hit Tony McGee for a 48 yard TD late in the 3rd to give us the boost we needed to pull this one out in a defensive standoff. Only 25 first downs in the game, split nearly evenly.

Final: Cincinnati 16 - Pittsburgh 10.

After that big win, we sit at 5-1, on top of the North. If we had a RB that could do some damage, we would be in the best shape possible.. I still worry that the lack of said running game will hurt us in the end. The struggling Colts come to town next, we expect a strong showing.

Week 7: (5-1) Closer in the final score than we like it, but overall a strong performance in our 5th straight win. 2 TD passes by McNair, Pickens with 5/5 - 88 yards. Derrick Fenner strains an adductor, leaving us without a 2nd RB. We place him on injured reserve and sign Jerris McPhail. Not the name we would like a player to have, but he's easily the best available rookie FA.

Final: Cincinnati 23 - Indianapolis 16.

Houston is next, we will travel into Texas for a warm sunny day of football against a surprising team led by Terrell Davis. We have a chance to go into the bye at 7-1, in great position for the home stretch.

Week 8: (6-1) The Texans were tough, but David Palmer went off, running for 144 yards on 22 carries. McPhail was a Phail with only 26 yards on his 10 attempts. Its a good thing Palmenr stepped up, because McNair struggled mightily, going 13/31 for only 157 and an INT. Defensively, we made Bubby Brister play like Bubby Brister, sacking him 4 times and holding him to 117 yards on 15/25 passing.

Final: Cincinnati 16 - Houston 13.

Through 8 games, we're still waiting on Terrell Fletcher, who has 3 more weeks left, according to the Doc. The injury just isn't healing as fast as hoped. We could use his consistency, however, so we're hoping for some miracle that will enable him to join us sooner rather than later. We have been a mess offensively, only producing enough to win thanks to our D, which has been incredible through the first half. We allow 275 yards and 11.6 points per game, which is enough to give even the worst offense a chance. With this kind of D, we should be beating the hell out of teams though, not just barely scraping by.

At the Midway point:

1996 5-8.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-20-2011, 12:25 PM

Fresh off our bye, Fletcher still has 2 weeks to go til he is fully back, so Jerris McPahil and David Palmer handle the load again this week. We have Tennessee at home, a 5-3 team that can score.

Week 10: (7-1) Wow, what a snoozer. Nothing good really hapened in this game, neither team could muster more than 253 yards of offense. We did manage to sack an inept Dan McGwire 6 times on our way to the W.

Final: Cincinnati 13 - Tennessee 10.

Fletcher will finally play his first game of the season for us in week 11, a division game against our other big rival, Cleveland. Pittsburgh remains hot on our tails, so a win here will be big, as it gives us a little more breathing room by helping our division record in case there is a tie breaker.

Week 11: (8-1) Fletcher goes for 104 on 16 carries in his first action of the year, which was exciting to see, but in the context of a loss, the numbers ring hollow. Vinny Testaverde sifted us for 301 and 2 scores and Doug Pelfrey misses 2 50 plus yarders that could have given us the win, but alas we suffer a narrow defeat and a big loss in our division.

Final: Cleveland 20 - Cincinnati 19.

With our backfield healthy, I still feel better than before despite our loss to Cleveland. A Washington squad who is sitting within 12 points of the bottom of the league in scoring defense visits as we look to rebound.

Week 12: (8-2) Well, that was a slap in the face. Former mate Ostell Miles scampers to 81 yards on 7 carries with a score, and Erik Kramer lights us up to the tune of 19/26 - 234 - 2 TD - 1 INT. Our offense, meanwhile, showed it does not matter how weak the defense we play is, we will still struggle. 2 straight losses really hurts us.

Final: Washington 24 - Cincinnati 13.

We need to suck it up and remember what we were doing this week to get back on the horse and continue riding toward that playoff sunset. Problem is, we're gonna be facing an offensive powerhouse, Buffalo, at their house. If we can keep up, it will be no small feat. We also lost David Palmer, so Jerris McPhail will come in and give us his signature 1.8 yards per carry as a change of pace back.

Week 13: (8-3) We found ourselves up 17-3 at one point in the 3rd, but Buffalo being Buffalo, they circled the wagons and brought us down. McNair has been very bad lately, and continued that trend with a 17/34 performance for only 136 yards. last 4 games for McNair: 72/115 - 740 - 2 TD - 5 INT.

Final: Buffalo 20 - Cincinnati 19.

We lose 3 straight after the return of Fletch, and drop 2 games back of Pittsburgh. We are also only one game up on Cleveland, so shit needs to start working for us. We make a switch to Glenn Foley to try and give the offense a spark. we have yet to score more than 23 points once this season.

After 12:

1996 9-12.JPG

Julio Riddols · 07-20-2011, 01:00 PM

Glenn Foley earned himself a shot by playing well earlier in the year in the absence of McNair, so we're gonna let McNair think about his recent struggles and try to light a fire under the team with a switch at QB. We travel to Dallas to face the Cowboys, and this one is a big one for us.

Week 14: (8-4) Panic levels are now very high. When you lose 4 straight and nothing seems to be working, you start questioning everything about your team. We have shown no offense, our defense is now losing their ability to win games for us, and there is nothing much we can do to try and fix it except just riding it out and hoping for the best. Foley clearly was not the answer, but I know our run game has really been a problem this year and we MUST fix it in the offseason. Dallas really had very little trouble dispatching us, thanks to us turning the ball over 3 times and allowing 4 sacks. Emmitt Smith was a major factor with 117 yards on 24 carries.

Final: Dallas 19 - Cincinnati 3.

McNair will be back under center this week against Baltimore, and he needs to step up big time. His knowledge of only 6 formations is hamstringing us in a major way, and the magic has worn off his rookie year with his recent struggles. This is a team with high expectations, and we're currently not meeting them.

Week 15: (8-5) McNair went down with a minor ankle issue at the beginning of this game, so Foley played pretty much the entirety.. And 1-12 Baltimore beat us thanks to Foleys 4 pick performance. Jim Chandler was scintillating for the Ravens, throwing for 60 yards on 15/26 passing while being sacked 3 times. The Ravens amassed a gargantuan sum of 162 total yards.. A sickening loss, given the circumstances. We've dropped 5 in a row, and I don't know if it can get much worse.

Final: Baltimore 20 - Cincinnati 17.

Week 16: (8-6) Doug Pelfrey has hit 62% of his kicks this year. There have been 4 games we have lost this year in which a missed kick would have at least forced a tie. This week was the 4th of those games, and the Giants put us down for a 6th straight loss. It is mind numbing. Our failures come from everywhere and anywhere. No one can seem to step up on either side of the ball. To make the playoffs, we will need help now. We were looking at a bye after starting 8-1, but now we are looking at going home. Is RB Fletcher cursed?

Final: New York Giants 16 - Cincinnati 13.

For our final game, we get to face our hated rivals, Pittsburgh. Just the team you want to see to really put your season to an end in the most painful way possible. There is talk we were a fluke last year, and that we're headed right back down to the basement. Its a return to the old Bungles. Things a Bengals fan deals with week in and week out in an average year. If we can just end with a win, maybe we can salvage some pride with a sweep of the Steelers.

Week 17: (8-7) Another loss to Pittsburgh officially puts a grotesque hat on this misreable season. How a team starts 8-1 and then misses the playoffs is beyond me. McNair played his best game of the year in the loss, but it was still not enough, and we lose yet another nail bitingly close game to fail our way out of the postseason in a year that we expected much more. It will be a long, trying offseason.

Final: Pittsburgh 20 - Cincinnati 17.

What a way for a season to go. We're suddenly unsure about McNair and what kind of a difference he will make for us if he doesn't learn more formations. We're kind of hoping someone offers an arm and a leg in trade for him, but the chances of that are likely very slim. What appeared to be a franchise on the uptake is now a fractured hull of a ship, splintered on the shores of discontent.

Our Offensive MVP: Terrell Fletcher. While there may be talk of a curse involving him, he was our most accomplished offensive player after his return, averaging nearly a yard more per carry than our next best runner. There was not much to write home about for this offense.

Defensive MVP: At this point, it is no surprise, as James Francis again claims this award. He produced big sack numbers yet again, and did as much as he could to make a difference.

Most valuable rookie: Ray Lewis wound up 2nd on the team in tackles and registered 9 pass defenses. If we can turn things around next year, we expect him to be a major player in that.

Final Stats for 1996:

1996 final.JPG

Julio Riddols · 08-05-2011, 07:23 PM

Randy Kirk and Joe Walter retired for us after 'The Fletcher Curse' killed our '96 playoff hopes. We will not really miss either guy.

Clevelands Vinny Testaverde had a brilliant year in securing the MVP award.. He had struggled through 3 straight mediocre years with a rating of no higher than 81.2, then unleashed a 4119 yard campaign with 27 tds against only 4 interceptions for a rating of 101.0.

Testaverde was also OPOY.

DPOY went to James Francis for a 3rd straight year although his overall performance dropped off a little bit from his first 2 MVP seasons. He is on the down side of his career, but we hope he can remain a force for at least 3 more seasons for us.

OROY goes to RB Stephen Davis ,who went to Oakland with the 16th pick in the 1st round. He wound up with 1248 yards on 4.13 per attempt with 9 tds while also catching 54 balls out of the backfield for another 254 yards and 2 scores.

DROY went to our own Ray Lewis, who had a pretty strong year in pass coverage with 9 PD and 2 INT, but didn't really do much else that could be considered groundbreaking or anything.

Francis was our only all league honoree, which makes sense. The rest of the team lagged way behind his performance.

1997 outlook: We have the passing game basically in place, now we need to shore up the secondary and get a running game, as well as clearing up the remaining issues on the offensive line that have plagued us.

Coach Hiring Stage:

Our staff remains intact after last season. We believe we have a good group of coaches and scouts in place and it makes sense to stay that way for now.

The Staff:

HC: Ethan Watson - Gd - Ex - Ex - Fr - Gd
OC: Dave Lutz - Gd - Av - Gd - Gd - Pr - Vg
DC: Ben Tanner - Ex - Gd - Vg - Ex - Ex
SC: Carlos Bernard - AV -Gd - Vg - Gd - Av - Av - Vg - Gd - Av
------------

Summer League:

Our ticket prices will remain the same as last year after we failed to deliver on the field.

We realize we never extended FS Darryl Williams last season, but rather than franchise him again, we will try and get him back on the open market. That should be fun. We franchise nobody.

Sent to the summer league is WR Keyshawn Johnson, who we need to step it up this year after an average rookie campaign.
------------

Free Agency:

Cap room: 39.8 million

UFA Contracts expired:

10th year CB Sheldon White (41/41) - 520k/1 - Signed
10th year S Mike Brim (33/33) - 490k/1 - Signed
9th year FL Jeff Query (50/50) - 570k/1 - Signed
9th year QB Erik Wilhelm (33/33) - 490k/1 - Signed
7th year SLB Alfred Williams (28/28) - 410k/1 - Signed
6th year SE Milt Stegall (38/38) - 470k/1 - Signed
6th year TE Craig Thompson (40/40) - 460k/1 - Signed
6th year FS Darryl Williams (74/74) - 15.66M/5 - OUCH - Took 19.07M/5 to sign with K.C.
5th year RG Scott Brumfield (34/34) - 1.77M/2 - Signed
5th year SS Lance Gunn (29/32) - 410k/1 - Signed
5th year DT Ty Parten (21/27) - 410k/1 - Signed

RFA:

CB Tyronne Drakeford (43/43) - 380k/1 - Signed
QB Glenn Foley (24/24) - 3.10M/3 - Signed
SS Robert Griffith (50/50) - 400k/1 - Signed
QB Steve Matthews (24/34) - 260k/1 - Signed
C Kevin Mawae (49/49) - 480k/1 - Signed
RB David Palmer - let go
SE Ryan Yarbrough (23/23) - 260k/1 - Signed
P Darren Bennett (46/47) - 260k/1 - Signed
RG Frank Garcia (23/40) - 260k/1 - Signed
C Dave Wohlabaugh (21/31) - 260k.1 - Signed
CB Juran Bolden (15/30) - 220k/1 - Signed
DT Mark Campbell (16/24) - 220k/1 - Signed
RB Jerris McPhail - let go
DE James Roberson (18/22) - 220k/1 - Signed
-------------------

1997 Draft:

Having lost Darryl Williams in FA, we're hurting even worse than we were. We need a RB, a T, all kinds of defensive line help, a FS and a CB. Its likely we try and get all of them, but given the depth of this draft, I only expect to reasonably fill 3 of those spots. We do pick 14th, so maybe we will get a guy or two we may not have if we had made the playoffs last year.

Jon Kitna goes number 1 to Pittsburgh.

At the 14th spot, there are several excellent T and DT guys available, but then again there is also RB Priest Holmes. We drool over him for a minute, then pick him up, hoping to get some defensive help and offensive linemen later.

1.14 - RB Priest Holmes, Texas - Finally a stud RB we can feed the rock. If he pans out, he is gonna be running his ass off for us.. Now we just need to get him some blockers.

2.13 - CB Shawn Springs, Ohio State - Excited to land Springs in round 2. Hopefully we finally have a shutdown quality guy when he develops.

3.17 - DT Travis Kirschke, UCLA - Kirschke might be our best bet at NT, we just hope he makes his potential.

4.16 - S Mike Minter, Nebraska - Minter is not Darryl Williams, but may end up filling his shoes.

5.15 - OLB Jamie Sharper, Virginia - Too good to pass up in the 5th round. We will likely just throw darts at the draft board in rounds 6 and 7 looking for a T.

6.14 - T Spencer Folau, Idaho - Stab in the dark, but might start anyway given our situation.

7.13 - G Raleigh Roundtree, S.C. State - a G we might try and move to T. Who knows.

We go after T Jerry Wunsch, C Casey Wiegmann, WR Ike Hilliard, and FS Duane Butler in PDFA.

PRE/POST CAMP:

1.14 - RB Priest Holmes - (58/64) --> 61/64

2.13 - CB Shawn Springs - (25/39) --> 28/42

3.17 - DT Travis Kirschke - (26/43) --> 27/41

4.16 - S Mike Minter - (14/42) --> 18/43
5.15 - OLB Jamie Sharper - (15/30) --> 20/35

6.14 - T Spencer Folau - (16/32) --> 18/31
7.13 - G (Moved to T) Raleigh Roundtree - (11/15) --> 14/25

T Jerry Wunsch - (13/25) --> 14/21
C Casey Wiegmann - (14/31) --> 18/35

WR Ike Hilliard - (11/25) --> 14/28

S Duane Butler - (14/35) --> 16/30 (91 ST)

Well, we ended up doing pretty well here. Holmes is going to be a godsend for the offense, Roundtree looks like a natural at T, hopefully he keeps improving. Sharper was a nice add, and will play at SLB pretty early. Minter and Springs look solid, and both will start. Kirschke is a bit of a disappointment, but is still our number 2 DT. Wiegmann was a nice find in PDFA, along with Hilliard. Wunsch is a piece of shit. Butler is going to be our special teams ace.

Keyshawn comes back at 46/46, so he looks ok, but not what we were hoping for.

Cuts:

WR Ryan Yarbrough
C Dave Wohlabaugh
T Jerry Wunsch
T Derrick Deese
CB Tyrone Poole
DT Mark Campbell
TE Christian Fauria

We go into 1997 feeling better except for the loss of Darryl Williams.. Thats gonna bite us I would be willing to bet. Other than that, we have a guy we are comfortable with everywhere except RT, RG, LE, RCB, and FS. Not too bad. We expect to bounce back.

Julio Riddols · 08-05-2011, 09:45 PM

Well, we had an interesting email come to us in the week after training camp ended. St. Louis wanted to talk trade. The player they wanted: Steve McNair. The offer? a 1st rounder. This is a team that went 6-10 last year, and they don't look like they have a lot of talent.. If we give them McNair, they obviously have a shot at doing a good bit better for themselves, but there is also the outside chance we get a shot at this young QB from Tennessee that everyone seems to be really high on named Peyton Manning. We mull it over for a while, and consider that McNair still only knows 6 formations. Its the beginning of his 3rd season, and he has shown us nothing from a learning standpoint. A 1st round pick.. We take the deal and decide to hand the reigns to whoever performs best in the preseason out of Glenn Foley, Steve Matthews and Erik Wilhelm.

So, after that deal, we have the following lineups:

QB Glenn Foley 27/27 (Steve Matthews 27/27)
RB Priest Holmes 61/64 (Terrell Fletcher 31/31)
FB Mike Alstott 26/35
TE Tony McGee 51/51 (Craig Thompson 40/40)
WR Carl Pickens 70/70 (Jeff Query 49/49)
WR Keyshawn Johnson 46/46 (Milt Stegall 38/38)
C Kevin Mawae 49/49 (Casey Wiegmann 18/35)
G Bruce Kozerski 50/50 (Scott Brumfield 35/35)
G Ruben Brown 45/45 (Frank Garcia 25/39)
T Willie Anderson 36/37 (Spencer Folau 18/31)
T Raleigh Roundtree 14/25 (Folau)

K Doug Pelfrey 90/90
P Lee Johnson 56/56

DE Danny Stubbs 44/44 (James Roberson 19/22)
DE John Copeland 38/38 (Roberson)
DT Jason Fisk 28/40 (Travis Kirschke 27/41)
SLB Alex Gordon 47/47 (Jamie Sharper 20/35)
SILB Ray Lewis 44/61 (Steve Tovar 37/37)
WILB Ricardo McDonald 44/44 (Tovar)
WLB James Francis 51/51 (Alfred Williams 28/28)
LCB Shawn Springs 28/42 (Sheldon White 37/37)
RCB Tyronne Drakeford 44/44 (Aaron Beasley 33/43)
SS Robert Griffith 50/50 (Lance Gunn 31/31)
FS Mike Minter 18/43 (Duane Butler 16/30)

We go into week 1 fully healthy with Baltimore coming to town. Glenn Foley looks to be our best bet at QB with Steve Matthews impressing us enough to step in as the number 2 for now. Whoever the starter is this year, they will always have a short leash. We'll also be keeping an eye on the Rams this season, hoping they fail miserably.

More to come..

Tasan · 10-12-2011, 09:35 PM

Any more on this, or are you done? I was enjoying it.

07-07-2011, 03:22 PM	#2
cougarfreak College Starter Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Out of Grad School Hell :)	Jesus........as someone who lives close to Cincy, all I can say is good luck. __________________ “I don’t like the Cubs,” Joey Votto said. “And I’m not going to pat anybody with a Cubs uniform on the back."

07-07-2011, 03:54 PM	#3
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1993 Season Results After an uneventful preseason in which the team stayed pretty healthy, only losing LB James Francis to a strained abdominal muscle for 4 weeks during our second game, the team started its 1993 season fully healthy, at home with Denver in town. Week 1: Denver jumps out early to a 17 point lead, but we make a game of it in the second half before succumbing. Our second half defense was inspired, allowing just over 100 yards and no points to the Broncos talented offense. Final: Denver 17 - Cincinnati 10. Klingler: 26/42 for only 185 yards with a TD and a pick. He was sacked 2 times. Next up is Green Bay at Lambeau with a young Brett Favre at the helm. Week 2: (0-1) By the end of the 3rd Quarter, it was Green Bay by the score of 24 -7. We score two garbage TDs to make it respectable. We won the turnover battle 4-2, but our offense was dismal until the game was out of reach when backup QB Erik Wilhelm had taken over. Final: Green Bay 33 - Cincinnati 21. Kiingler: 13/24 for 102 yards, sacked 2 more times. Wilhelm: 13/24 for 140 yards, 2 TDs, without a sack. We have fallen quickly to 0-2 with a home tilt against hated rival Pittsburgh looming. Week 3: (0-2) The offense explodes in week 3. We put up 424 yards of offense, but in classic Bungles fashion a couple bad plays doom us to our 3rd defeat in as many weeks. Pittsburgh benefitted from 2 defensive touchdowns on turnovers deep in our own territory and beat us in the turnover battle 2-1. Final: Pittsburgh 38 - Cincinnati 35 Klingler shows some promise, with 5 tds, but his overall stat line shows he still is not really producing. He was 32/48, but for only 244 yards and 1 sack. He is averaging 4.66 yards per attempt after 3 games. Week 4 features the first battle of Ohio of 1993, against the 2-1 Browns. Week 4: (0-3) We put up only 229 yards and fall yet again, to 0-4. Cleveland wasn't much better offensively on a wet day, but they sacked Klingler 5 times and allowed us only one drive over 43 yards, late in the 3rd when we scored our only points. We're winless after 4, and while it is hard to blame Klingler alone, we will make a change at QB and see if (35/35)Erik Wilhelm can fare any better. Final: Cleveland 16 - Cincinnati 7 At the Quarter Pole, we have no time lost due to injuries but we also have no wins. WR Jeff Query has been decent, and our run game has produced, but we have played from behind too much, resulting in a very high number of pass attempts and a lack of reliance on said run game. The defense hasn't been total crap, but they also haven't made any difference, giving up 26 points a game. there are no standouts on that side of the ball. __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-07-2011 at 03:57 PM.

07-07-2011, 04:35 PM	#4
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1993 continued.. Week 5 sees us against an expansion team, the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore has fared even worse than us, and we feel like we have a shot to get our first win this week. Week 5: (0-4) The debut of Erik Wilhelm as starter goes well, notching us our first W. RB Derrick Fenner was the real story, with 24 carries for 176 yards and a couple scores. We easily bested the expansion Ravens, but then again we SHOULD win against a team like that, although we are not much better off. Final: Cincinnati 35 - Baltimore 6 With one win under our belts, We are fortunate to welcome another expansion team into town in the Houston Texans. Wilhelm is getting off easy avoiding any real evaluatable playing time so far, and that will not change this week. Week 6: (1-4) We again taste victory, this time with a more balanced attack, but Fenner again puts up MVP numbers, producing 109 yards on 27 carries with a score and 75 more yards on 5 receptions. Wilhelm puts up 232 yards and 2 scores on 21/31 passing but was picked twice and sacked once. We also suffer our first major injury of the season, with starting CB Sheldon White going down for 8 weeks with a broken Clavicle. Mike Brim (42/42) will take over the starting LCB spot in his absence. We decide not to place White on IR in case we need him for a playoff push late in the year snicker Final: Cincinnati 27 - Houston 3 We sit at 2-4 now, with wins over a couple cupcakes. Not anything to be proud of yet. Next up we host a struggling Chicago Bears team, against whom we hope to achieve our first measure of real success. Week 7: (2-4) Chicago ended their struggles this week. Nothing good occurred for us, aside from forcing 3 turnovers. We nullified that by turning it over 3 times ourselves. We give up 385 yards to a team quarterbacked by Peter Tom Willis. Klingler played in mop up duty for us and was impressive, going 4/16 for 44 yards and a pick while being sacked 2 times. Final: Chicago 26 - Cincinnati 6 Guh, what a week. Neither QB produced at all, and it appears the loss of CBWhite left a major hole in the secondary if Peter Tom Willis could do what he did. We nonetheless pick up the pieces and move on to our bye week, then to face the expansion Ravens for a 2nd time. We might be 3-1 for this 4 game stretch after this week, but there is hardly room for optimism. That would be like punching a dead animal and calling it a knockout. Week 9: (2-5) Well, well, well. We couldn't even get that right. Baltimore wins their first game in franchise history by riding the efficient arm of the incomparable Jim Chandler (who sifted us for 160 yards on 16/21 passing with a score) and sacking Wilhelm 5 times. Backup WR Milt Stegall goes down for the season with a dislocated shoulder. WR Pat Robinson takes his place on the roster. Our lone bright spot was the sun peeking through an overcast sky briefly. Final: Baltimore 24 - Cincinnati 13. So, at the halfway point, we're 2-6. Its been ugly. Its been very ugly. We will have a LOT of work to do in 94. At the 8 game mark: 1993 5-8.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-07-2011, 05:08 PM	#5
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1993 Continued... We come into week 10 making another change at QB to give (35/35) Jay Schroeder a shot at the reins. He has been inactive to this point, and has a bit of rust to shake off, which he will attempt to do against the hated Steelers in Pittsburgh. Week 10: (2-6) We again outplay the Steelers but turn it over 5 times and allow a kick return TD to WR Jeff Graham in yet another loss. Schroeder shook off the rust by going 24/37 for 246 and 3 picks while being sacked 4 times. He did throw for a score, but who cares. Final: Pittsburgh 20 - Cincinnati 14. 2-7 now, we know we're looking at a possible high draft pick, which is encouraging. We wouldn't mind. We have no more cupcakes on the schedule, and we're headed to Oakland to hopefully get our asses beat again and continue this nightmare. What I'm finding out is that we do not have much at all to build from. Week 11: (2-7) In a rather unexpected turn of events, Jay Schroeder beats his former team on a late TD pass to backup WR Reggie Rembert with 2:13 left on the clock. We get our first legit win, even if it was only by 3 and we didn't look too good doing it. We had to pick off Jeff Hostetler 3 times to do it, as well as forcing a fumble by Bobby Joe Edmonds. Final: Cincinnati 20 - Oakland 17. We move to 3-7 now, which would place us 9th in the draft order if the season ended now. Moving on, we will let Schroeder start one more at least, although he has been about as effective overall as Klingler was. Cleveland comes to town for week 12. Week 12: (3-7) Cleveland puts us away in the snow, sealing it with a pick-6 by Terry Taylor with 1:23 remaining. Schroeder is clearly not the answer, as he tosses another 3 picks in a weak effort. Overall, we again played fairly well in places, but the overall package just isn;t anywhere near as cohesive as it needs to be. One or more phases let us down every game. Final: Cleveland 16 - Cincinnati 6. We welcome 8-2 Detroit next in what should be a fun one, as we at least get to watch Barry Sanders in action. Week 13: (3-8) We decided to let Schroeder have one more go at it, so we could compare all 3 starters on an even number of starts to see who we might keep next season. It ended badly, Schroeder throwing 2 more picks on 19/30 passing for 200 yards. The run game didn't help him much, but the point is moot. Schroeder is not near careful enough with the ball that we could rely on him to win a game in the future when we have put together a better squad. We held Sanders under 100 yards (27-98) but got beat worse than any analogy could serve to explain. Final: Detroit 31 - Cincinnati 7. With 4 games left, we stand at 3-9, currently good enough for the 7th pick. We have even been fortunate enough to only lose two players to significant injury this season, but it has not mattered. Its been ugly and we can't wait for it to be over. 12 games in: 1993 9-12.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-07-2011, 05:49 PM	#6
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1993 Final Results/Outlook for 1994.. We go into our week 14 matchup against Minnesota sitting at 3-9, with Wilhelm behind center for the remainder of the season. Wilhelm hasn't been the most efficient of our QBs rating wise, but we think he gives us the best chance to win a couple and get some momentum for next year. Week 14: (3-9) Minnesotas D made us look bad, or we made us look bad, or something to that effect. We didn't get trounced, but thats the best we can hope for, it seems. Double digit losses is not fun to look at as the GM of a team. The balanced running of Terry Allen and Robert Smith (34 carries for 123 yards combined) along with the efficiency of Brad Johnson (19/24 for 178 and 2 scores) carried the day for Minnesota. Wilhelm wound up 17/31 for 245 with a TD and 2 picks. Final: Minnesota 17 - Cincinnati 10. We lost 3 players to injury in the Minnesota game: C Bruce Kozerski (3 weeks, strained foot ligament) Replaced by converted T Chuck Bradley (6/28) WLB James Francis (1 week, strained deltoid) Replaced by Randy Kirk (39/39) Backup FB Eric Ball (2 weeks, strained achilles) Week 15 sees us hobble to San Diego, home of the 4-9 Chargers. Although they are giving up nearly 25 points a game, I don;t see us scoring much with pretty much nothing in the way of blocking. Week 15: (3-10) Wilhelm almost eclipses the 300 yards mark with a 295 yard day but was picked 2 times and sacked 5 more as we found the loss column once again. Stan Humphries is 17/25 for 176 yards and a score in victory. Our starting FB Harold Green is lost for the remainder of the year to a concussion, and will be replaced by the nearly healed but still probable Eric Ball. Final: San Diego 19 - Cincinnati 7. 2 weeks left, we sit at 3-11 with KC and the Jets (With Esiason) in the final 2 games. We're looking at the 6th pick at the moment, but we have an outside shot at 4th overall if we lose out and the two teams behind us win once each. Week 16: (3-11) With all we have wrong with us, we nearly take K.C. down. Although we sacked him 6 times, Dave Krieg killed us with 333 yards and 2 scores on 25/35 passing, but we kept up as Wilhelm threw for 291 and a score as well. Ultimately it wasn't enough, K.C. took it from us with 8 seconds remaining on a 31 yard FG by Nick Lowery. K.C. scored 10 points in the final 2 minutes to win. Final: Kansas City 24 - Cincinnati 23. We got through the week unscathed, and now we get to see our former QB in his new digs for the season finale. We'll be glad when its over. Week 17: (3-12) - And we go down to our worst loss of the season in a lopsided drubbing. It was clear we just gave up on ourselves this week, amassing only 104 net yards while giving up 413. Esiason had 264 and a couple scores and wasn't touched by our D, while we were sacked 6 times and mercilessly beat to a pulp. What a way to end the year. At least no one else got hurt. Final: New York Jets 30 - Cincinnati 0. We end the year 3-13, ugly in every sense of the word. It should be a tumultuous offseason from a roster turnover standpoint, we shall see what the new year brings. We pick 6th in the draft. Our team MVPs: Offense: RB Derrick Fenner Defense: S Darryl Williams Most Valuable Rookie: MLB Steve Tovar (Our compensation for Esiason) Final Summary: 1993 final.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-07-2011, 09:14 PM	#7
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	I don't remember if this was the year I chose for my Bengals dynasty or not. Looking forward to seeing how you're doing. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)

07-07-2011, 09:20 PM	#8
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1994 begins!!! The 1993 playoffs ended with game MVP Dan Marino winning his first ring as Miami defeated Philly 27-24. Steve Young of S.F. wrapped up MVP honors with a bonkers year, going 350/496 for 4265 and 36 tds with only 8 picks. He averaged 8.6 yards per throw. Garrison Hearst was offensive ROY after posting 261-1104-3td as well as catching 73 passes for another 457 yards and 4 more scores. DROY honors went to Gaptooth Strahan, who posted 8.5 sacks to go with 34 tackles and 12 assists. His PR% was 5.7 and TK% was 7.3. Whip It Out Haley won DPOY honors in a 15.5 sack year, with PR% of 9.2 and TK% of 10.7 And while Young won MVP honors, OPOY went to Barry Sanders after he ran for 1677 yards and 15 tds for a Lions team that came within a game of the super bowl. Our 1994 offseason outlook: We need to look into a new coaching staff, then assess the draft class before we dive into who we will keep and who we will let go. Coach hiring stage: Our scout Calvin Morton is decent, but his contract has expired. After a brief search, we do not see a young Scout we like, and Morton is VG with QBs, so we offer him 300k for 5 years to stick and help us turn this thing around. Head Coach Marty Conrath is not very good, and I convince the owner that we need to spend big to get a name in here that players will look up to and believe in. He says I can spend up to 3.3 million on a guy, so I go for 53 year old Hugh Welch, fresh off a conference final appearance with the Titans. Offensive Coordinator Jim Hancock is middle of the road, but he is still signed, and fairly cheaply, so we decide to stick with him for at least one more year. Defensive Coordinator Ty Zimmerman's contract has expired, and he was no good to begin with, so we look to replace him with 51 year old Benjamin Tanner. We are only allowed to offer 1.78 million to him, so we throw it all in a box and mail it in his direction hoping he will sign. ------ In the first signing period, DC Tanner and SC Morton sign immediately, but HC candidate Hugh Welch signs back with Tennessee. Our Head Coach search continues. ------ Our search leads us to 52 year old Ethan Watson, who is a disciplinarian and an offensive guru. He is new to the league, but has the rep we're looking for, and is the next best thing to Welch. We offer him the same deal we offered Welch, and cross our fingers. He signs, and we have our staff. HC: Ethan Watson (0-0) Av - Ex - Ex - Fr - Gd OC: Jim Hancock (3-13) Gd - Av - Fr - Vg - Vg -- Gd (young talent) DC: Ben Tanner (0-0) Ex - Av - Vg - Vg -- Ex (young talent) SC: Calvin Morton (3-13) Vg - Av - Ex - Gd - Av - Av - Av - Vg - Av ------ Summer League/ Ticket Prices: I convince the owner to lower some ticket prices if he wants to fill the seats, and we jack up luxury boxes a bit to counteract that. I send K Doug Pelfrey to the summer league, as there was no other player worth developing out of last years draft. We additionally place the franchise tag on OLB Alex Gordon. ----- FREE AGENCY Cap room: 32.75 million UFA Contracts Expired: 11th year QB Jay Schroeder - Letting him walk. 8th year WLB Randy Kirk - (39/39) - Wants 400k over 1 year. signed. 7th year LDE George Hinkle - (37/37) - Wants 340k over 1 year. signed. 7th year LCB Sheldon White - (43/43) - Wants 380k over 1 year. signed. 6th year RCB R.J. Kors - Letting him walk. 5th year LCB Alan Grant - Letting him walk. 5th year RG Thomas Rayam - Letting him walk. 5th year SE Reggie Rembert - Letting him walk. RFA Contracts Expired: FL Wesley Carroll - (33/41) - signed, 220k over one year. LDT Mike Frier - unsigned. NT Gary Howe - unsigned. RB Ostell Miles - (24/39) - signed, 220k over 1 year. RDE Roosevelt Nix - unsigned. TE Craig Thompson - signed, 220k over 1 year. C Chuck Bradley - unsigned. FS Forey Duckett - (15/38) - signed, 180k over 1 year. SS Lance Gunn - (13/28) (92 PDiag) - signed, 180k over 1 year. OLB Karmeeleyah McGill - unsigned. FL Pat Robinson - unsigned. LT Tom Scott - unsigned. ------ DRAFT We pick 1.6, so we should wind up with a difference maker if our scouting pays off. Mark Brunell goes number 1 overall to the Carolina Panthers, and Trent Dilfer also goes before our pick. We try to choose between DT Sam Adams and LT Derrick Deese, eventually choosing to go with Deese, as our O-line literally is just a hole for opposing defenses to run through. 1.6 - LT Derrick Deese, USC. 2.6 - SS Robert Griffith, San Diego State 3.6 - CB Tyronne Drakeford, Virginia Tech 4.6 - C Kevin Mawae, Louisiana State 5.6 - LCB Isaac Booth, California 6.6 - QB Steve Matthews, Memphis 7.6 - QB Glenn Foley, Boston College We decide to try and fill a couple holes up front offensively along with a couple in the secondary and come out pleased with our selections overall. Griffith and Drakeford should team with FS Darryl Williams and make the secondary a lot better. On the offensive line, Deese and Mawae should help stop a lot of the sacking thats been going on while also opening some holes for RB Derrick Fenner. Mawae will likely get some time at G while Kozerski continues to be our C. Late in the draft, we took a couple shots at helping the QB situation. We had intended on trying to get Gus Frerotte in round 4, but he was snatched in round 3 just a few picks ahead of us. Instead we end up with Steve Matthews and Glenn Foley, two projects, but at least they'll provide some competition behind center. We had to deal with a holdout in Derrick Fenner, he was asking for a 4 year deal worth 6.52 million, and we agreed to meet his demands, since he is pretty much all we have at the RB spot at the moment. He will again be our bell cow this year. We go after MLB Trev Alberts, SE Ryan Yarbrough, LCB Nathaniel Covert, DT Lou Benfatti, LT Vaughn Parker, LT George Hegamin, TE John Davis and DE Eric England in PDFA. Pre/Post Camp ratings: Deese: 35/59 --> 39/60 +4/+1 Griffith: 23/49 --> 28/50 +5/+1 Drakeford: 25/59 --> 28/56 +3/-3 Mawae: 19/41 --> 23/44 +4/+3 Booth: 15/46 --> 17/39 +2/-7 Matthews: 13/34 --> 15/34 +2/+0 Foley: 7/8 --> 10/13 +3/+5 Alberts: 20/49 +3/-6 Yarbrough: 13/20 +1/+0 Covert: 12/31 +1/-4 Benfatti: 16/24 +2/+0 Parker: 12/26 +2/+0 Hegamin: 8/18 +1/+2 Davis: 12/25 +3/+3 England: 14/25 +2/-1 Overall, we're pleased. We missed a bit on Drakeford, but he is still gonna play a major role for us for a good while. Mawae, Griffith and Deese were solid selections and will provide a big boost. With the improvement Foley showed, he will get a shot to start if others fail. He will definitely be our 3rd QB. Trades: We get a trade offer for FB Harold Green, a 6th round pick and 41/41 DE Blaise Winter, a run stuffer who we could use to convert to a 3-4. Add to that the conflict between Green and Fenner, and we decide to take the deal. Eric Ball will be our FB this year. Roster cuts: DE George Hinkle LCB Nathaniel Covert With those final cuts, we're ready to get on with the 1994 season. Up next, we'll see if the moves we were able to make changed our fate or if we're still the same old Bungles for another year. __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-07-2011, 10:14 PM	#9
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1994 Begins... We installed a new Offense in the offseason, as well as a new Defense, and we will see if we can make them pay off. Klingler was slightly improved in the offseason, so he will get another shot to be the guy, this time with a better offensive line. We get through the preseason mostly unscathed, escept for a major blow at RB, where we will be without Fenner for 5 weeks with a hyperextended knee. Ostell Miles is the only other RB on the roster, so we have to go get another guy. We sign David Palmer and let go of FB David Frisch. Week 1 depth chart (backup in parenthesis): QB: David Klingler 29/44 (Glenn Foley 10/13) RB: Derrick Fenner 45/51 (Ostell Miles 27/39) FB: Eric Ball 37/37 TE: Tony McGee 26/41 (Craig Thompson 26/40) WR: Jeff Query 56/56 (Wesley Carroll 36/41) WR: Carl Pickens 65/68 (Milt Stegall 31/43) C: Bruce Kozerski 66/66 (Kevin Mawae 24/44) G: Kevin Mawae 24/44 (Vaughn Parker 12/25) G: Scott Brumfield 21/31 (Ken Moyer 30/30) T: Derrick Deese 40/60 (Kevin Sargent (21/29) T: Joe Walter 27/27 (Dan Jones 14/26) DE: Danny Stubbs 48/48 (John Copeland 19/37) DT: Tim Krumrie 42/42 (Ty Parten 14/35) DE: Blaise Winter 41/41 (John Copeland 19/37) SLB: Alex Gordon 59/59 (Alfred Williams 24/30) SILB: Ricardo McDonald 30/41 (Steve Tovar 24/35) WILB: Trev Alberts 22/49 (Steve Tovar 24/35) WLB: James Francis 67/67 (Randy Kirk 39/39) LCB: Sheldon White 43/43 (Mike Brim 42/42) RCB: Tyronne Drakeford 29/56 (Rod Jones 37/37) FS: Darryl Williams 48/66 (Forey Duckett 20/38) SS: Robert Griffith 29/50 (Lance Gunn 15/29) K: Doug Pelfrey 63/96 P: Lee Johnson 55/55 Our opponent for week 1 is Baltimore, and theyre at our place. It would be nice to give the fans something to cheer about this year, starting right now. Week 1: We play a solid offensive game, putting up 375 total yards and only turning the ball over once while limiting the Ravens to 229 total yards. Klingler was outstanding in his first game out, 22/31 for 274 with 2 TDs and 1 INT for a rating of 106.1. That is the best we have seen from him so far, even better than the 5 TD game he had last season. Carl Pickens was outstanding as well, with 5 catches on 6 targets for 98 yards and a score. If we get our run game going when Fenner returns, we might be able to achieve something offensively this year. Final: Cincinnati 20 - Baltimore 13. We move into week 2 to face Carolina, and the team is dealing with a flu outbreak, so we're in bad health overall, coming in. Week 2: (1-0) We made Carolina look bad and won convincingly in our best performance since the takeover. Our defense was outstanding, holding the Panthers and Jim Everett under 200 total yards. Top pick Brunell got into the game late and was 3/5 for 17 yards. Klingler was again solid, and looks like a different man so far in this offense. He was 25/41 for 204 yards and 2 more scores. Ostell Miles was better this week as well, but still nothing spectacular, with 70 yards and a score on 19 carries. Final: Cincinnati 40 - Carolina 16. The fans are happy after this kind of start. Jacksonville is next, so we may start the year 3-0 as improbable as that seems. We should get Fenner back within a week or two too, so if we can win 75-100% of the games he misses, I like our chances of pushing for a playoff spot. Week 3: (2-0) We polish off a 3-0 start with an easy win over Jacksonville. Darryl Williams and Robert Griffith both have interceptions and Klingler again plays well, 29/39 for 211 yards. He has only been sacked 2 times this season so far. James Francis also has his first impact game from the WLB spot, with 2 sacks, 3 hurries and 4 knockdowns. Final: Cincinnati 29 - Jacksonville 7. Well, we have played 3 expansion teams to start the year. I doubt it can get much easier. Next up we have Oakland, 2-1 on the year. We will have Derrick Fenner back in week 5, so to win this one would be a big help. Week 4: (3-0) Alas, it is not to be. Perhaps this is a vision of how far off we are, as Oakland sends us to the locker room crying from being beat so damned bad. With Joe Montana behind center, we just couldn't compete offensively. Klingler took a step back with a 15/31 performance for only 146 yards and a score with 3 picks, while Montana produced 307 yards on 21/29 passing with 2 scores, although we did manage to pick him off 2 times. Final: Oakland 33 - Cincinnati 10. Heading into the quarter point of the season, our next game is against our hated rivals in Pittsburgh. We lost heartbreakers to them last year, and would love some revenge this year. Fenner will be back for that game. For now, here's a look at the stats so far for the 3-1 Bengals. 1994 1-4.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-08-2011 at 02:20 PM.

07-08-2011, 03:13 PM	#10
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	Week 5: (3-1) After this weeks performance, we have to re-think our current direction a bit. Pittsburgh cruised by us, allowing us only 201 yards and opening up a 21-0 lead at the half. We regained a little momentum and dignity afterwards, but that Pitt D was stout. We're tempted to give Glenn Foley a shot behind center just to see if he can do anything for us yet. We did manage to keep Pitt under 300 yards, as well, so the defense was fairly strong given that they didn't get much help from the O. Final: Pittsburgh 21 - Cincinnati 6. We move into week 6 and a trip to K.C. also down a man because WR Jeff Query was lost for 7 weeks to a pulled quad. He may not be the guy we should be starting there anyway, given that he doesn't do much with the ball once we get it in his hands and averages a paltry 4.8 yards per target. We give both Erik Wilhelm and Wesley Carroll starting jobs this week, and hope for better fortune. Week 6: (3-2) Wow. Kansas City racks up a ridiculous 505 yards of offense on us, with Dave Krieg going 30/46 for 400 yards and 4 scores. We went into the 4th quarter down 31-20, but Erik Wilhelm hulked up in the 4th quarter and threw 2 of his 4 TD passes on the day while Derrick Fenner ran for another score, and we pull off the wild win. James Francis had 2 more sacks to go with 3 hurries and 3 knockdowns, and we forced 3 turnovers to help negate the offensive outburst by the Chiefs. Final: Cincinnati 42 - Kansas City 31 Given Wilhelms performance against K.C., he will again start in 2 weeks when we come off our bye. We did see two more significant injuries against K.C., with RT Joe Walter going down for 8 weeks with a broken clavicle and TE Craig Thompson being lost for 5 weeks with a torn knee cartilage. They will be replaced by George Hegamin and John Davis, respectively. After the bye, it will be a home game against Baltimore, which could put us at 5-2. Week 8: (4-2) We take down the Ravens on the strength of a strong ground game, with Derrick Fenner rushing for 127 yards on 28 carries. Doug Pelfrey hits 4/5 FGs, 3 of them being over 45 yards. James Francis also notches 2 more sacks. He leads the league with 9 on the year, and has posted a PR% of 14.5, which is incredible. The switch to the 3-4 has been a good call so far. Final: Cincinnati 20 - Baltimore 6. We move into our 8th game of the season with Denver coming to town, and if we can get to 6-2, I think we can have a winning season at the very least. Week 9: (5-2) Denver and John Elway led this one all the way to the end, but Doug Pelfrey was good from 18 yards as time expired to give us another win despite a terrible offensive performance. The D carried us this game, holding Elway to a rating of 67.3 while sacking him twice and picking him off twice as well. Fenner and his knee problems continue to be an issue, he will be on light duty for a few weeks, this time with a minor sprain. Final: Cincinnati 13 - Denver 10. We're 6-2 at the midway point, and our D is ranked 10th in yardage and points allowed. We have a potential DPOY in James Francis, and while the offense struggles at times, I think with Wilhelm we may have enough firepower to win at least 2 or 3 more games. Our turnover margin is also a major reason why we have won a couple legitimate games so far, along with the 4 wins over expansion teams. Half way through: 1994 5-8.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-08-2011 at 03:13 PM.

07-08-2011, 03:50 PM	#11
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1994 part 3.. Week 10: (6-2) A bad coaching move cost us the game this week, as we turned the ball over on downs in the 3rd quarter from the 2 yard line trying to punch it in for 6. We still managed to tie the game with 42 seconds left, but the Chargers managed to go 27 yards on 4 plays from their own 42 for a game winning FG. We will be making a switch at WR, moving undrafted Ryan Yarbrough into a starting spot to take over for Wesley Carroll, who has struggled. Yarbrough has caught 10/17 for 148 yards in limited action, so we'll give him a shot to see if he can make some plays with extended PT. Final: San Diego 20 - Cincinnati 17. Week 11 will see us in Cleveland to face Vinny Testaverde's Browns. Week 11: (6-3) Ugh, another narrow defeat in a tight, low scoring game. We only had 7 possessions for the entire game, which requires a high efficiency rate to convert into points, but our only TD came courtesy of a Forey Duckett Int return. the offense was stifled and managed only 192 yards in the loss, while Cleveland racked up 364 of their own. Final: Cleveland 16 - Cincinnati 10. Two losses in a row leaves us at 6-4, stumbling into week 12 with a winnable home game against a Tampa Bay team that sits at 3-7, having only scored 106 points on the year. We place Milt Stegall in the starting role opposite Carl Pickens, still trying to find that number 2 receiver to compliment our lone offensive star. Week 12: (6-4) We made hay against Tampa, as expected, with 405 yards of offense to their 283. Ostell Miles came off the bench to score 2 times, once on a 71 yarder, and ended up with 5 carries for 82 yards on the day. Wilhelm was an efficient 19/25 for 264 yards and an INT to out duel Billy Joe Tolliver, and the defense was strong all around. A good week for us. Final: Cincinnati 28 - Tampa Bay 3. Minor injury to a key player in James Francis, who will be playing with a broken toe for 3 weeks, while we lose 3rd string TE John Davis for 5 weeks with a pulled quad. Next we travel to meet Boomer and the Jets again. They killed us last year, so it would be nice to get some revenge for that. Week 13: (7-4) Well it was a close one where both teams had to earn every yard they got, as we split a total of 470 yards of offense almost evenly. Boomer and the Jets were able to punch it in for 6 while we settled for field goals, and that was the difference in a close loss. Final: New York Jets 17 - Cincinnati 12. Overall a disappointing 4 week stretch. We need one more win to reach 8-8, which would be a nice improvement over last season. Our remaining games are against Atlanta, Pittsburgh, New Orleans and Cleveland, 3 of which we can win, in my opinion. At 10-6, we might make the playoffs. After 12 games: 1994 9-12.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-08-2011, 04:38 PM	#12
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1994 Final Results... Week 14: (7-5) Derrick Fenner had a 74 yard run for a score, signaling his knee troubles may be behind him, and Erik Wilhelm was pretty good as well, with a 16/24 effort for 176 yards and 2 scores of his own. On the defensive side of things, we sacked Bobby Hebert 7 times, which pretty much killed the Atlanta offense. We held them under 300 yards and got ourselves another win to move to 8-5 with 3 games left. Final: Cincinnati 21 - Atlanta 10. The fans optimism is high going into our final 3 games, which will all be at home. Our defense has been special this year, and we will need them to play a really good game next week against Pittsburgh, who we have not beaten in 3 tries so far. We are also fully healthy for the first time all season, with all our starters available to play. This is a huge game for us. Week 15: (8-5) Well, damn. We manage 13 points on our first 3 drives, and lead most of the game, then with 9:52 left in the 4th, Deon Figures returns a punt to the house to tie it up, after which Gary Anderson sealed it with a 44 yarder from which we could not recover. That Pittsburgh defense was stout once again, and although our D was equal to the task, that one punt return managed to make the difference. We HATE these guys. Also, Derrick Fenner once again finds himself on the injury report, this time with a hyperextended elbow. He is Mr. Glass all of a sudden. Ostell Miles is pushed back into action. Final: Pittsburgh 16 - Cincinnati 13. 8-6 heading into 2 winnable games, with an outside shot at the playoffs still looming. First comes 6-8 New Orleans, who somehow leads the NFC South by 2 games. Week 16: (8-6) New Orleans' Warren Moon was solid, 22/31 for 271 yards and New Orleans managed to move the ball fairly well against us, but Morten Andersen missed 2 of his 6 field goal attempts, resulting in a win for us. Our ability to halt their ground game helped us kill their drives while we snuck in a score via David Palmer on a 4 yard run. Palmer produced with 19 carries for 80 yards, and has been our best runner overall in my opinion. Not bad for an undrafted guy who we only signed due to injury. Wilhelm was solid, and James Francis had 2 sacks in his best game since the toe injury. Final: Cincinnati 13 - New Orleans 12. We have moved to 9-6, a winning season is guaranteed. While we are still outside looking in at the playoffs, this has been an unexpectedly strong season and gives us something to build off of. We'll see what the 95 draft brings us in terms of added talent and maye next year we can win the division and knock Pittsburgh off for a change. We finish the year at home against Cleveland, looking to go to 10-6, and astonish the home crowd with our competence. If the Jets lose to Miami and we win, we WILL secure the final playoff spot, amazingly, thanks to the Jets 6-6 tie against Detroit this past week. Week 17: (9-6) Well, the Jets managed to beat 14-1 Miami to make it into the playoffs, which killed our playoff chances, but not our morale. We get revenge on Cleveland with a hard fought win, and finish at 10-6, which we totally did not expect. I would consider 5 of our wins legitimate wins over quality teams, which is a huge improvement over 0 last season. Final: Cincinnati 16 - Cleveland 7. Despite missing the playoffs, we did a damn fine job defensively this year, getting better as the season wore on. We're not sure where we will pick in the next draft, as we had a better record than several playoff teams, but our team MVPs are as follows: Offensive MVP: Carl Pickens Defensive MVP: James Francis Team ROY: Derrick Deese (23/59 KRB, 3 sacks allowed) Some observations: Our offensive line play was MUCH improved this year, and was actually 3rd best in Opp PR% at 15.6%. Last season we were at 21.3%. We gave up only 17 sacks this year as opposed to 47 in '93. James Francis wasn't the only defensive star to emerge, as SLB Alex Gordon produced 8 sacks of his own, ILB Ricardo McDonald had 6 interceptions in his first year as a starter, and FS Darryl Willams had 9 passes defensed and 3 picks. Offensively, Carl Pickens nearly eclipsed 100 yards receiving with a 62 catch, 914 yard effort. He caught 63.9% of the balls thrown his way and averaged 9.42 yards per target, 12th best in the league. He is only entering his 4th year, so there is more to come from him, I am sure. Final tallies: 1994 final.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-08-2011 at 04:39 PM.

07-08-2011, 08:22 PM	#13
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1995 is alive! Miami returned to the title game and took on Green Bay, with Green Bay edging them 28-25 in a close one. Favre wraps up game MVP honors. League MVP was Thurman Thomas, who ran 416 times for 1815 yards and 13 scores while catching 106 more balls for another 717 yards and 6 more scores. 522 touches for 2532 yards, goodness. I'd say he earned it. OPOY goes to Thomas as well. DPOY went to our own James Francis who we fell in love with as a 3-4 WLB last year. He had 74 tackles, 12 assists, 16 sacks, 5 blocks, 29 hurries and 46 knockdowns with 4 forced fumbles. OROY was RB Jamal Anderson of the Bears. He was picked 1-15 last year, and we looked at him, but passed given our O-line situation. HYe produced a fine year, 257 carries for 1023 yards and 3 scores with 28 catches for 227 yards. He did fumble 8 times, however. DROY went to Winfred Tubbs, MLB from Jacksonville. He went 5th overall, right in front of us and played well, registering 93 tackles and 35 assists with half a sack, 5 passes defensed, and 2 ints. We had 2 guys win all league honors for us, Francis was 1st team, and SLB Alex Gordon made 2nd team. Our 1995 offseason outlook: given the difference our new D coordinator seemed to make last year, we have decided to try and find an offensive coordinator that can make a difference and give us a little more firepower. Coach Hiring Stage: We find a young 36 year old Dave Lutz available on the market, who rates good across the board, except for kickers and punters, on which he rates poor. We offer him 2.05 million, which is what he is asking for. He holds off until stage 3, then signs with us, giving us what we see as a very strong staff, as well as a bit of an increased heart rate. Our staff will be as follows: HC: Ethan Watson (10-6) Av - Ex - Ex - Fr - Gd OC: Dave Lutz (0-0) Gd -Gd - Gd - Gd - Pr -- Gd (young talent) DC: Ben Tanner (10-6) Ex - Av - Vg - Vg -- Ex (young talent) SC: Calvin Morton (13-19) Vg - Av - Ex - Gd - Av - Av - Av - Vg - Av ----- Summer League/ Ticket Prices: We lost 1% of our attendance last year despite going 10-6, so we decide to leave ticket prices where they are for the time being. To the summer league, we send 31/56 CB Tyronne Drakeford, hoping to speed his development. We use the Franchise tag on DE Danny Stubbs to ensure we keep him around. This also brings us the realization that we somehow managed to forget to ink SLB Alex Gordon to a long term deal last year. We will try and make sure he stays with us instead of heading elsewhere on the open market. ------------ Free Agency: Cap Room: 36.19 million UFA contracts expired: 13th year DT Tim Krumrie (42/42) - wants 1.41m over 2 years. Signed. 12th year DE(M) Blaise Winter (41/41) - wants 1.48m over 2 years. Signed. 9th year SLB Alex Gordon (57/57) - wants 6.59m over 3 years. Signed. 9th year SLB(M) Randy Kirk (39/39) - wants 430k over 1 year. Signed. 8th year CB Sheldon White (43/43) - wants 470k over 1 year. Signed. 7th year FB Eric Ball (37/37) - wants 350k over 1 year. Signed. 7th year G(M)(A) Ken Moyer (30/30) - wants 350k over 1 year. Signed. 7th year WR(M) Jeff Query (56/56) - wants 440k over 1 year. Turned down a deal worth 10k more from the Steelers to stay. Signed. 5th year WR Wesley Carroll (37/37) - wants 420k over 1 year. Signed. 5th year CB(A) Fernandus Vinson (20/31) - wants 350k over 1 year. Signed. 5th year SLB Alfred Williams (24/30) - wants 350k over 1 year. Signed. RFA contracts expired: RB Ostell Miles - (28/39) - Signed, 310k over 1 year. WILB Eric Shaw - (16/34) - Signed, 230k over 1 year. SE Milt Stegall - (34/42) - Signed, 340k over 1 year. TE Craig Thompson - (28/40) - Signed, 300k over 1 year. FS(C) Forey Duckett - unsigned. SS Lance Gunn - (17/30) - Signed, 230k over 1 year. MLB Trev Alberts - 22/43 - Signed, 260k over 1 year. DT Lou Benfatti - (14/21) - Signed, 200k over 1 year. TE John Davis - (17/24) - Signed, 200k over 1 year. DE Eric England - (12/26) - Signed, 200k over 1 year. LT George Hegamin - (10/19) - Signed, 300k over 1 year. RB David Palmer - (18/21) - Signed, 200k over 1 year. LG Vaughn Parker - (16/27) - Signed, 290k over 1 year. SE Ryan Yarbrough - (14/25) - Signed, 200k over 1 year. ----------------- DRAFT: We pick 22nd in the draft, a big drop from last year. The talent we get access to will be a lot thinner, and it is even more imperitive we make good selections. Terrell Davis goes number 1 to the Texans. Somehow, a guy named Steve McNair falls to us. It is between him and Antonio Freeman at 1.22. We don't know for sure that we NEED a QB given the way Wilhelm played last season, which was good enough for us to win. Based on the numbers Carl Pickens put up, we could help ourselves more by going with Freeman. McNair is only 22% developed and has a conflict with one of our leaders. Freeman looks like a clone of Pickens. 1.22 - QB Steve McNair, Alcorn State. He will be the guy within a season, and as hard as it was to pass up on Freeman, how often does a QB of this caliber fall in your lap this late in round 1? It seems meant to be. 2.24 - G Ruben Brown, Pittsburgh. Brown helps fill our starting O-line out, and hopefully gives us a strong 10 years near pro bowl caliber. 3.23 - DT Jason Fisk, Stanford. Krumrie is old as hell, Fisk in the 3rd round seems like decent value. 4.22 - CB Tyrone Poole, Fort Valley State. Poole gives us a solid nickel corner who can hopefully evolve into a starter. 5.24 - TE Christian Fauria, Colorado. We nearly picked Fauria in round 3, so to get him here is big. He will compete with incumbent TE Tony McGee for snaps. 6.16 (from SDO) - RB Terrell Fletcher, Nebraska. Fletcher gives us a pair of hands out of the backfield and a change of pace back to take some of the load off Fenner. 6.23 - RG Jim Pyne, Virginia Tech. Pyne will help with depth inside. 7.22 - CB Jimmy Hitchcock, North Carolina. Hitchcock comes in to be our 4th CB and hopefully a nickel corner in the future. We think we did really well with this draft. A (hopefully) franchise QB, a strong G, and solid depth through the remainder of the draft. Holding out this year is DE Daniel Stubbs, who we re-sign for 4.9m over 3 years. We go after QB Todd Collins, P Darren Bennett, FB Cory Schlesinger, C Dave Wohlabaugh and C Frank Garcia in PDFA. Pre/Post Camp Ratings: 1.22 - QB Steve McNair 9/45 --> 13/50 (+4/+5) Woo! 2.24 - G Ruben Brown 23/47 --> 26/48 (+3/+1) 3.23 - DT Jason Fisk 15/44 --> 17/42 (+2/-2) 4.22 - CB Tyrone Poole --> 16/43 --> 18/41 (+2/-2) 5.24 - TE Christian Fauria 13/27 --> 17/30 (+4/+3) 6.16 - RB Terrell Fletcher 22/29 --> 24/30 (+2/+1) 6.23 - G Jim Pyne 16/30 --> 17/31 (+1/+1) 7.22 - CB Jimmy Hitchcock --> 10/12 --> 12/16 (+2/+4) QB Todd Collins - 5/24 --> 7/24 (+2/+0) FB Cory Schlesinger - 14/33 --> 16/33 (+2/+0) P Darren Bennett - 36/36 --> 39/41 (+3/+5) C Dave Wohlabaugh - 11/23 --> 14/27 (+3/+4) G Frank Garcia - 14/40 --> 16/39 (+2/-1) Not bad, but we're pissed about missing on Fisk and Poole in the 3rd and 4th. We could have gone RB/G there instead and probably done much better. Pittsburgh drafted QB Kordell Stewart with pick 28 in the 6th. Roster cuts: QB David Klingler QB Todd Collins RG Ken Moyer RT Dan Jones DT Lou Benfatti WILB Eric Shaw CB Isaac Booth CB Fernandus Vinson FB Eric Ball G Vaughn Parker TE John Davis DE Eric England We struggled with who to realease for our last 3 cuts, which is a good sign. On we go to the 1995 season, hopes high. __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-08-2011 at 08:23 PM.

07-08-2011, 09:14 PM	#14
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1995 Weeks 1-4.. We decide to leave the QB position in the capable hands of our vet Wilhelm, with McNair still raw as can be. The preseason ends with us undefeated, winning all our games fairly easily. We suffer one injury, a minor one to TE Tony McGee, who will miss 2 weeks with a seperated shoulder. Fauria will get some PT right away, it seems. Our starting lineup (backups in parenthesis) QB - Erik Wilhelm 35/35 (Steve McNair 13/50) RB - Derrick Fenner 42/42 (Terrell Fletcher 24/30) FB - Cory Schlesinger 17/33 TE - Tony McGee 41/45 (Craig Thompson 33/40) WR - Carl Pickens 72/72 (Jeff Query 50/50) WR - Milt Stegall 38/38 (Wesley Carroll 36/36) C - Bruce Kozerski 63/63 (Dave Wohlabaugh 14/27) G - Kevin Mawae 33/46 (Frank Garcia 16/39) G - Ruben Brown 27/48 (Scott Brumfield 32/32) T - Derrick Deese 55/62 (George Hegamin 13/19) T - Kevin Sargent 23/29 (George Hegamin) P - Lee Johnson 55/55 K - Doug Pelfrey 74/96 DE - Danny Stubbs 49/49 (John Copeland 26/37) DT - Tim Krumrie (Jason Fisk 17/42) DE - Blaise Winter 35/35 (John Copeland) SLB - Alex Gordon 58/58 (Alfred Williams 27/27) SILB - Ricardo McDonald 41/41 (Steve Tovar 28/35) WILB - Trev Alberts 27/44 (Steve Tovar) WLB - James Francis 67/67 (Randy Kirk 36/36) CB - Sheldon White 43/43 (Tyrone Poole 17/42) CB - Tyronne Drakeford 42/54 (Rod Jones 30/30) SS - Robert Griffith 47/51 (Lance Gunn 21/30) FS - Darryl Williams 63/63 (Mike Brim 40/43) We have Pittsburgh at home in an early test to see if we have the stuff to make some noise in the playoffs this year in week 1. Nice to get your feet wet right off the bat. Week 1: Man does it ever feel good to get off on the right foot, especially when the team you do it against has been beating you for 2 years. We played a great game on both sides of the ball, gaining 414 yards of offense and allowing only 250 on defense. It was still a close game, but those are really encouraging offensive numbers. The stars of the day were WR Carl Pickens who was 4/5 for 100 yards receiving, Derrick Fenner, with 89 yards and 2 scores on 25 carries, and James Francis, who went berserk totaling 4 sacks, 2 knockdowns, 2 forced fumbles and 9 tackles on only 32 plays. They had to give him a rest I guess, because he wore himself out being such a bad ass. Final: Cincinnati 20 - Pittsburgh 17. No injuries to speak of, and it looks like Tony McGee is ready to go again, so we throw him back in the lineup. We are headed to Seattle. Week 2: (1-0) Ouch, blanked by the Seahawks in the rain. The good news is that Wilhelm was pulled about midway through and Steve McNair came in and played well, going 14/19 for 135 yards. Wilhelm wasn't bad, just wasn't effective enough, I guess. He was 7/14 for 160 yards but was sacked 3 times before being pulled. We outgained Seattle 374 to 365, but were only 2/12 on 3rd down. Final: Seattle 19 - Cincinnati 0. On to week 3, we will try to rebound on the road at Indy. Week 3: (1-1) Ow, 5 interceptions. Wilhelm throws 4, and it looks like its officially time to give McNair a shot already. The colts were led by Don Majkowski and his 17/24 for 196, 2TD, 1 INT day. We again outgain our opponent 393 to 296, but get waxed. Final: Indianapolis 27 - Cincinnati 7. We decide to start McNair in week 4. He only knows 6 formations, so we're not too enthusiastic, but we'll se what transpires. We're not simplifying for the rook. He'll have to learn as he goes, starting with last years super bowl runners up, Miami at our place. Week 4: (1-2) What does McNair do in is first start? Goes out there in front of the home crowd, completes 20/26 for 227 and 2 scores, guiding us to a win. Doug Pelfrey put the nail in the coffin on a 57 yarder with 11 seconds left. We barely contained Marino, who threw it all over the place for 313 yards and 3 scores on 23/37 passing. But a win is a win, especially over the defending AFC Champs. Its safe to say Steve earned himself some adulation this week. 4 weeks in, we're even at 2-2, but there has to be some hope after watching McNair against Miami. He was outstanding. We look forward to seeing how far he can take us as he asserts himself as our new leader. After 4: 1995 1-4.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-08-2011, 10:10 PM	#15
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1995 5-8... We go into week 5 optimistic, and we travel to meet the Jets. Esiason is still there, and we still want to beat them because of it. McNair is our man now, lets see how it plays out. Week 5: (2-2) 4 turnovers (3 fumbles and a pick) doom us. McNair was good while he was in, but the coach was trying to spark the team and let Wilhelm finish the game. Both played quite well, but when you fumble the ball away like that, you can't do much but lose. McNair was 14/18 for 147 with a TD and an INT, Wilhelm redeemed himself from his recent troubles with a 7/10, 73 yard effort in relief. The defense, however, could not stop Boomer. He had a strong day - 18/26, 222 yards, 2 TDS. Tony McGee was our offensive MVP for the game, catching 8/10 for 80 yards. Final: New York Jets 27 - Cincinnati 14. We are still going to keep McNair on a short leash due to the lack of formations we have to work with when he is under center. Although he wasn't to blame for last weeks fumble trouble, we don't want the offense to bog down unnecessarily by getting too predictable. We head into a bye week hoping to stop turning the ball over so much, which should turn our fates toward the better going forward. New England comes to town next, in week 7. Week 7: (2-3) Drew Bledsoe was good this week for the Pats, with 245 yards and 2 scores and an INT on 25/33 passing but McNair outplayed him significantly, posting an incredibly efficient 21/24, 208 yards and 1 TD day. He also ran the ball 10 times for 51 yards. McNair seems to have a favorite target in 3rd WR Jeff Query, who has been revitalized this year. He had a 5/5 day with 84 yards and a score. Backup runner Terrell Fletcher has also been a pretty solid addition and had 14 carries for 81 yards while Fenner struggled. Overall, it was a strong performance and a comfortable win. Final: Cincinnati 27 - New England 14. Week 8 will be at home against Baltimore, we expect to win this one. Week 8: (3-3) An easy day at the office for pretty much everybody. I don;t know when Baltimore will get rid of Jim Chandler, but they need a guy that can throw the ball there desperately. We held them to 150 yards of offense, sacked their QBs 6 times, and ran up 347 efficient yards of our own. McNair seems to be in a groove so far, and hit 17/23 for 171 and a score while Terrell Fletcher busted out for 126 yards and a TD on 15 carries. He has really been coming into his own the past few weeks. 3 of our sacks went to James Francis, who continues to be a beast, maybe even more so than last year. Final: Cincinnati 37 - Baltimore 3. At 4-3 we travel to Buffalo for a tough contest against one of the better offensive teams in the league. This one will be a test. Week 9: (4-3) We did play hard this week, and held Buffalo to 19 points, but couldn't muster enough points of our own to result in a win. Thurman Thomas had 74 yards and a TD on 14 carries, and Jim Kelly completed 21 of 33 for 270, although we did manage to pick him off twice. McNair was solid yet again, and it seems we can count on him to consistently provide days like today: 19/27, 198 yards, 1 TD. Too bad it was in a loss. Final: Buffalo 19 - Cincinnati 17. We're still even at 4-4 midway through.. We are leading the division, however. Half way home: 1995 5-8.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-08-2011 at 10:11 PM.

07-08-2011, 10:43 PM	#16
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1995 Weeks 10-13.. A trip to Pittsburgh to try and widen our division lead looms. McNair needs to step up and perform against the Pittsburgh D. Week 10: (4-4) Down 20-13 with 2:16 left, with the ball at our own 5 yard line.. McNair guides us down the field coolly, hitting a huge pass to TE Tony McGee to put us close, then tying it up with a short toss to RB Terrell Fletcher coming out of the backfield. Fletcher had a big day, and carried the ball 27 times for 113 yards. McNair completed far from his customary 75%, hitting only 23 of 40, but threw for 333 yards and 2 TDs with no picks. We win in overtime with less than 40 seconds left on a Pelfrey field goal. Final: Cincinnati 23 - Pittsburgh 20. McNair was complaining of some knee soreness after the game, and it turns out he sprained his knee, but the x-rays were negative and he is listed as questionable.. We will let him play, crossing our fingers that no further harm comes to our new found star. With another division game coming up, we can widen our division lead even further. Cleveland is coming to town. Week 11: (5-4) We put up 425 yards of offense and need every inch of it to overcome the 515 that Cleveland put up. It was a show with tons of fireworks, but you can't phase McNair. He was ice cold, 23/30 for 303 yards and 2 TDs. Testaverde would not be outdone on the stat sheet, he threw for an ungodly 481 yards in the loss on only 38 attempts. The key to the win was forcing 3 Cleveland turnovers while not turning it over ourselves. Final: Cincinnati 40 - Cleveland 38. Week 12 comes around the bend with us on a bit of a roll, and we have to travel to the desert for a showdown in the sun against 6-4 Arizona. Week 12: (6-4) It looks like the heat or the Arizona defense melted McNair as his ice cold cool evaporated in the wake of 3 interceptions. Its not the way we wanted this week to go, obviously, but there will be bad days, and maybe we were getting a little too comfortable with his consistency. Good to know he is human. The game itself was a snoozer, very little offense for either side. We missed 3 FGs to go with the 3 picks and even though we held Arizona to 49 second half yards, they had already done their damage. Final: Arizona 14 - Cincinnati 13. We have been healthy this season, which has been nice. We will need everything we have for the stretch run to try and seal up the AFC North. San Diego comes to town next, and we're glad to get out of the desert. Week 13: (6-5) We manage only 202 yards of offense, but held San Diego to 279, and made ours count more. James Francis had 2 sacks, 2 fumbles forced, 5 hurries, and 4 knockdowns while again registering 9 tackles. He can win us games by himself sometimes. Final: Cincinnati 17 - San Diego 10 At 7-5 with 4 games left and a 3 game lead on Pittsburgh, we have all but sewn up the North and a playoff spot. It feels good. Stats: 1995 9-12.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-09-2011, 01:42 PM	#17
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1995 weeks 14-17.. Playoffs? PLAYOFFS?? We have San Francisco coming to town as we begin to wind down the last quarter of the season, looking to get back on track offensively and score some points after struggling a little the past 2 weeks. We cant rely on James Francis to do it all all the time. Week 14: (7-5) We topple San Fran by slowing their passing attack, limiting Steve Young to 22/37 for only 215 yards and only giving up 276 total yards to a potent O. On our side of things, the ground game woke up and played very well, Fenner leading the way with his best game of the year rushing for 118 yards and 2 scores on 24 carries. Fletcher chipped in with 60 more on 14 carries to help keep the San Fran offense off the field. McNair did only what we needed him to, throwing 14/21 for 146 yards without a turnover. We were 9/15 on 3rd down. Final: Cincinnati 20 - San Francisco 10. We have now officially wrapped up our division, and we are only a game out of securing a bye week at the moment. If we can manage to win out, that extra week off could be very beneficial. Up next is a short bus ride to Cleveland, to hopefully put us one game closer to sweeping the North. Week 15: (8-5) We led this one comfortably, 27-3 early in the 4th, but the Browns wouldn't die and made a game of it before time ran out and we escaped with the W. We sacked Browns QB Earl Shea 6 times to help seal the victory, with 2.5 of those going to Daniel Stubbs, who is having his best year as a Bengal thus far. He has 7 sacks on the year now. Final: Cincinnati 27 - Cleveland 21. With 6-8 St. Louis and 1-13 Baltimore left on the schedule, we are chasing 10-4 Tennessee for the 2nd seed in the playoffs. They have 6-8 Tampa and 2-12 Houston left though, so its doubtful we can claim the bye as hoped. Thats why they play the games though, you never know. Week 16: (9-5) McNair was back in the efficient mode this week, completing 19/25 for 222 and 3 scores with 1 INT, and we put away the Rams fairly convincingly. Pickens with 105 yards on 4/4 catches. SLB Alex Gordon had 2 INTs to lead the way defensively in an effort that saw the Rams held to 238 yards. Final: Cincinnati 30 - St. Louis 10. Tennessee won their game, so it appears our chances of a bye week are not good, but we look like we can finish strong at 11-5 and hopefully still win a game or two in the postseason. Week 17: (10-5) I think we overlooked the Ravens, and they flat out beat us down. They intercepted a normally mistake free McNair 3 times and despite only managing 240 yards, they still won comfortably. We could not get anything going. They had a new QB this week, Terry Logan, who was 11/17 for 129 and a score in the win. Final: Baltimore 23 - Cincinnati 10. Well, it was a great regular season for us despite that final game debacle, and I'm hoping we got the bad game out of the way before the games that matter start. Of course we draw the New York jets in the first round, and Boomer wants nothing more than to knock us out. We're hoping McNair has something to say about that that doesn't involve lyrics from a certain Red Hot Chili Peppers hit. What we've got, we've got to put it in the end zone. I think McNair may have had an OROY quality campaign, and James Francis should secure top defensive honors again. They are our team MVPs this year. Offensive MVP: Steve McNair - 279/410 - 3042 yards - 15 TD - 11 INT Defensive MVP: James Francis - 78 tk - 25 ast - 16.5 sk - 6 blk - 35 hur - 35 knk - 6 FF. Most Valuable Rookie: We would have given this to McNair, but seeing how his contribution was totally unexpected, Terrell Fletcher takes this honor. He rushed 240 times for 1034 yards and a couple scores, and caught 46 passes for 300 yards and 3 more scores. Without him, our ground game was typically struggling. He earned our respect. 1995 Final Tallies: 1995 final.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-09-2011, 03:08 PM	#18
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1995 Playoffs Wild Card vs New York Jets: On a cold day in Cincinnati, with a blustery wind blowing around big, wet flakes and coating the Queen city with a blanket of white, the Bengals were preparing to take the field in a postseason game for the first time in 5 years. It had seemed like something that was so far off just 2 years ago, but good fortune has shone on the faces of the Bengals faithful and rewarded their unwavering support, showing them that their patience was not in vain. This team has something to be proud of, even if their journey ends today.. But the 53 men in the locker room have a different thought going through their heads. From the smallest role player to the biggest star, every single man who will take that field before the opening kickoff knows what is at stake with every snap of the ball, every step of the way. The gridiron is frozen in a slush, battered by harsh weather, and soon it will be home to 44 grinding feet, pushing and fighting for every precious yard. It is a welcoming sight. It is a great day for football. We would receive the opening kickoff, and our 1995 postseason began with us in decent field position at our own 38. However, the weather would claim its first victim on the first play of the game, as Terrell Fletcher coughed up the ball and the Jets recovered. An early setback, to be sure. We held the Jets to a field goal after a couple first downs, and tried to regroup offensively. We worked the ball to midfield, but stalled and were forced to punt. This continued for both teams for the remainder of the first quarter, as both teams settled into a defensive stalemate, neither team advancing beyond midfield. At the end of 1, it was the Jets, 3-0. We finally manage to move the ball into Jets territory in the mid 2nd, but a 48 yard FG attempt fell short, leaving us still seeking our first points of the game, scratching our heads at what to do to get somewhere in this mess. The Jets got nothing going after our miss, then uncorked a brilliant 58 yard punt to pin us back at our own 1. We knew this was trouble if we weren't careful. We managed to move the ball to the 7 before being forced to punt it away. We're clearly playing conservative early, trying to keep within striking distance with our D playing well. They come out and hold the Jets out of scoring range, thankfully, and we have a little more luck this time, as Sean Landeta boots it into the end zone, giving us some room to work from the 20. With 2:27 left in the half, I am hoping we can make something happen and score before the half, or at least control the clock for the remainder and go into the locker room to regroup. We end up doing nothing with it, and the Jets get the ball back at their own 45 with 1:42 still remaining. Then, one of the most controversial calls I have ever seen happens. The Jets try and go deep, throwing in the direction of Tyronne Drakeford, who is called for pass interference when the receiver falls down. The penalty moves the ball all the way to our 9 yard line, giving the Jets a chance to go up 10 and get the ball back after the half. It is a 46 yard penalty. Our D holds for the first two plays, forcing incomplete passes. On 3rd and 9, Esiason finds a wide open Brent Arrington running underneath the coverage over the middle. He connects, but Arrington slips just enough turning up field to give Sheldon White and Mike Brim time to close in and stop him at the 1, inches aways from a TD. Jets 6, Bengals 0. You'd think we would settle for kneeling down to kill the last 30 or so seconds, but McNair is sacked on an ill-advised pass attempt, and fumbles. We are incredibly lucky he fell on it himself and saved us from giving up even more. After that we do kneel down, and go into the locker room down 6-0. In the 3rd, we trade punts for the first 7 minutes, but then another huge unsportsmanlike conduct penalty gives the Jets a chance to score 3 more, and Cary Blanchard is good from 42 yards out to make it 9-0. We need to get something going, fast. ..And get something going fast is exactly what we did. McNair finds Jeff Query out in the flat on a WR screen, and Query does the rest, going 80 yards for the score. After the extra point, it is 9-7, Jets with 5:26 remaining in the 3rd.. But, our D loses focus and gives up a quick 5 play drive for a score, capped by an 11 yard strike from Esiason to Rob Carpenter. we're right back to being down 9, 16-7. After we get the ball back, we look like we're about to go 3 and out when McNair hits Carl Pickens down the sideline for 28 on 3rd and 11. We continue to move the ball, and we end the 3rd with a 1st down at the Jets 36. Its getting interesting with 15 minutes left to decide this one. We convert another 3rd and 10 with a pass over the middle to Fletcher to keep the drive alive, and I am beginning to believe at this point that we can come back and win.. But the drive stalls at the Jets 23, leaving us to attempt a 40 yarder to bring it within 6. Pelfrey pulls it wide left. Tough to swallow. We do manage to stop the Jets on 3 straight plays to get the ball back, but another outstanding punt leaves 84 yards between us and paydirt. Time is running out, and our backs are against the wall. We get a little something going, but are forced to punt with 7 minutes left. As the lights dim on our hopes, we begin to pray for a miracle. We stop the Jets and get the ball back on our own 46 with 4:23 remaining, needing 2 scores. Its now or never. Tony McGee drops a pass on 1st down, Fenner gets 2 yards on a screen, then Milt Stegall drops another on 3rd down. We're called for a false start before we go for it, and on 4th and 13, McNair fires high, looking for Jeff Query. An unceremonious end to our 1995 journey. We suffer a little salt in our wounds, as the Jets manage a safety on a holding call in our end zone to make the final score 18 - 7, Jets. McNair was 19/31 for 202 and a score, but that one defensive lapse in the middle of the 3rd, and a couple major mental mistakes wound up undoing us. We outgain the Jets 285-230, but suffer 81 yards in penalties and fail to force a turnover, even with the bad weather. 1996 will give us a chance to take another step forward though, so I tell the guys to hold their heads high and that we will be back. Its just the beginning of our ascension. The Jets would go on to the title game, losing 24-8 to their in state rivals, the Giants. Their only points came on a TD pass from little known backup, Jeff Blake, who was 7/12 for 155 yards and a score in relief of the ineffective Esiason. Jesse Armstead would take home MVP honors with 2 sacks and a fumble forced. __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-09-2011, 06:15 PM	#19
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	Pick up the sticks, its 96!! Rod Jones, Tim Krumrie, and Blaise Winter all called it quits after our playoff loss, leaving us looking for defensive help going into 1996. The league MVP was QB Randall Cunningham of the Eagles, who threw for 4006 yards with 27 tds and 8 interceptions. He ran for another 500 yards and 5 tds. OPOY went to Cunningham as well. DPOY was awarded for the second year in a row to our man James Francis. He was again a terror, and we thank him for it. He is the backbone of our defense. OROY Did not go to McNair as I had hoped, but instead number 1 pick Terrell Davis. He ran for 1273 yards and 6 TDs for the Texans on 284 carries, while catching 60 balls for another 467 and 5 scores. DROY was the 12th overall pick, Jacksonville DE Hugh Douglas, who had 6 sacks and a fumble forced. This year Francis and Gordon both made 1st team All League, which both again deserved. They remain our only honorees thus far, however. Our 1996 offseason outlook: Find one more piece on both sides of the ball that puts us over the top. We need to give McNair another target, and give the D another playmaker. If we can find a couple linemen on both sides of the ball in the mean time, that would be icing on the cake. Coach Hiring Stage: Having found a QB last season, we decide to cut ties with our scout, and make a lucrative 400k offer to 34 year old Carlos Bernard, who specializes in the skill positions, linebackers, and defensive backs. These are the bread and butter of our team, so picking good ones is key. Bernard signs with us, and our staff is set: HC: Ethan Watson (20-13) Gd - Ex - Ex - Fr - Gd OC: Dave Lutz (10-7) Gd - Av - Gd - Gd - Pr -- Vg (young talent) DC: Ben Tanner (20-13) Ex - Av - Vg - Ex -- Ex (young talent) SC: Carlos Bernard (0-0) Av - Gd - Vg - Gd - Av - Av - Vg - Gd - Av -------- Summer League/ Ticket Prices: Attendance was up 6% last year, revenues up 9%, and profits up 87%. We had a lucrative year. We bump the prices up $2 a ticket for the Upper deck, End Zone and Mezzanine seats, $5 for sideline seats, and $10 for club seats. We also raise luxury box prices by $5,000. The fans are paying for quality now, and we think this increase fits with the product we are putting on the field now. We franchise S Darryl Williams, and send McNair overseas to hopefully learn some formations. ------------ Free Agency: Cap room: 33.2 million. UFA contracts expired: 13th year C Bruce Kozerski (62/62) - wants 1.73m/2 - Turns down more money from Carolina to stay in Cinci. 10th year WLB randy Kirk (36/36) - wants 450k/1 - Signed 9th year FS Mike Brim (42/42) - wants 490k/1 - Signed 9th year CB Sheldon White (41/41) - wants 490k/1 - Signed 8th year FL Jeff Query (50/50) - wants 510k/1 - Signed 6th year FL Wesley Carroll (35/35) - letting him walk 6th year SLB Alfred Williams (28/28) - wants 370k/1 - Signed 5th year RB Ostell Miles (31/39) - wants 370k/1 - Signed 5th year SE Milt Stegall (38/38) - wants 450k/1 - Signed 5th year TE Craig Thompson (37/40) - wants 370k/1 - Signed RFA Contracts expired: S Lance Gunn (23/31) wants 240k/1 - signed MLB Trev Alberts (28/40) - unsigned LT George Hegamin (16/21) - unsigned RB David Palmer (20/22) wants 240k/1 - signed SE Ryan Yarbrough (20/26) wants 240k/1 - signed P Darren Bennett (42/44) wants 210k/1 - signed RG Frank Garcia (18/40) wants 210k/1 - signed FB Cory Schlesinger (19/33) wants 210k/1 - signed C Dave Wohlabaugh (16/29) wants 210k/1 - signed ----------------- 1996 Draft: We pick 24th this year, and the crop of players is deep at the WR and LB spots especially. We think we can come away with at least 3 starters, maybe as many as 5. RB Richard Huntley goes number 1 to our division rival Ravens. At 1.24, we are presented with a boatload of quality options. Our heads are spinning in the draft room as we try and come up with a consensus, and finally we decide on.. 1.24 WR Keyshawn Johnson, USC - A big target to pair with Carl Pickens to give us a bit more offensive firepower. He has a bit of brashness about him, but we think he fits well with the locker room we are cultivating. 2.24 ILB Ray Lewis, Miami - Lewis is ferocious, and we are missing an ILB that can cause opponents to fear us. This guy is just what the doctor ordered. 3.24 CB Aaron Beasley, West Virginia - We are hoping Beasley can give us a tandem with Tyronne Drakeford and fill the one hole in our secondary that remains. He looks like he is the right guy, our scout likes him, and we're gonna give him a shot to start right away more than likely. 4.24 FB Mike Alstott, Purdue - Alstott is a power runner and a decent blocker with a hard nosed style we like. He'll fit right in. 5.24 T Willie Anderson, Auburn - This kind of T falling to round 5 is a godsend. Thats all there is to say. 6.24 WR Bobby Engram, Penn State - Engram helps us fill out our WR corps, and may develop into something nice down the road. 7.24 FB Stanley Pritchett, South Carolina - Pritchett is a special teams standout who might stick to give us depth at FB behind Alstott. This draft looks like a home run. If it works out, its a franchise changing explosion of talent which helps us tremendously. We go after undrafted DE James Roberson, DT Mark Campbell, SLB Jeff Gooch, CB Juran Bolden and RB Jerris McPhail. Pre/Post Camp ratings: 1.24 WR Keyshawn Johnson 27/40 --> 31/45 (+4/+5) 2.24 MLB Ray Lewis 23/56 --> 29/59 (+6/+3) 3.24 CB Aaron Beasley 22/42 --> 25/42 (+3/+0) 4.24 FB Mike Alstott 16/31 --> 19/33 (+3/+2) 5.24 T Willie Anderson 18/28 --> 22/34 (+4/+6) 6.24 WR Bobby Engram 10/28 --> 11/28 (+1/+0) 7.24 FB Stanley Pritchett 22/32 --> 25/32 (+3/+0) DE James Roberson 14/21 --> 15/21 (+1/+0) DT Mark Campbell 14/24 --> 15/24 (+1/+0) LB Jeff Gooch 8/20 --> 10/20 (+2/+0) CB Juran Bolden 13/27 --> 15/30 (+2/+3) RB Jerris McPhail 20/45 --> 21/39 (+1/-6) *McNair came back from Europe at 39/53, still knowing only 6 formations. He was also hurt there, and will be out for 7 weeks with a strained adductor. Hopefully he will be ok in time for the regular season to start. **Derrick Deese had an offseason automobile accident that broke both his legs. He is healthy in tme for the season, but looks like a shell of what he once was, dropping to a rating of 23/23. Looks like we will be hunting for O-line help again next year. For the draft, we hit big on 3 out of our first 5 picks, which is a major score for us. Any time you can get 2 or more quality guys out of a class, youre in good shape. Lewis, Johnson and Anderson will be huge for us. Roster Cuts: RB Ostell Miles FB Cory Schlesinger CB Jimmy Hitchcock SLB Jeff Gooch RG Jim Pyne RB Jerris McPhail 1996 looms and we have question marks we didn't think we would. Our RB situation is shaky, McNair is down and may miss a game or two, and LT Derrick Deese's offseason accident has cost us dearly. Defensively, the outlook is much better, though we could use a DE and a DT to shore things up in the middle. Our linebacking corps is the strongest it has ever been, and the secondary has unprecedented depth, although the corner spots are still lacking. We need a shut down guy. Can we repeat the success of 1995? __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-09-2011 at 06:18 PM.

07-09-2011, 07:35 PM	#20
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1996 weeks 1-4 We had a rough preseason, lots of guys got banged up, including our starting RB Terrell Fletcher, who will miss 8 weeks with a broken tibia. everyone else with an injury is listed as probable, but McNairs injury is one you can't treat lightly, because the risk of reinjury is high. Glenn Foley will get the start for the first 2 weeks. Our Starters (backups in parenthesis) QB Steve McNair 39/53 (Glenn Foley 21/21) RB Terrell Fletcher 28/30 (David Palmer 21/21) FB Mike Alstott 19/33 (Stanley Pritchett 25/32) TE Tony McGee 50/50 (Craig Thompson 39/39) WR Carl Pickens 70/70 (Jeff Query 50/50) WR Keyshawn Johnson 33/45 (Milt Stegall 38/38) C Bruce Kozerski 56/56 (Kevin Mawae 45/48) G Kevin Mawae 45/48 (Scott Brumfield 33/33) G Ruben Brown 37/47 (Frank Garcia 20/40) T Willie Anderson 24/34 (Kevin Sargent 24/24) T Derrick Deese 23/23 (Joe Walter 21/21) K Doug Pelfrey 92/92 P Lee Johnson 56/56 DE John Copeland 37/37 (James Roberson 15/21) DT Jason Fisk 22/42 (Mark Campbell 15/24) DE Danny Stubbs 48/48 (Roberson) SLB Alex Gordon 58/58 (Alfred Williams 28/28) SILB Ray Lewis 30/59 (Steve Tovar 33/35) WILB Ricardo McDonald 43/43 (Tovar) WLB James Francis 58/58 (Randy Kirk 23/23) CB Sheldon White 42/42 (Aaron Beasley 26/42) CB Tyronne Drakeford 44/44 (Tyrone Poole 26/38) FS Robert Griffith 50/50 (Lance Gunn 26/31) SS Darryl Williams 72/72 (Mike Brim 33/33) We travel to Cleveland week 1 with Foley at the helm and old man Fenner and David Palmer at RB. Should be interesting. Week 1: Well, Foley had to do most of the work himself, but it didn't matter, he responded by throwing for 319 yards on 31/48 passing, hitting 9 different receivers. He threw one INT to go with 2 TD passes, to TE Thompson and RB Palmer. We only managed 82 yards rushing on 32 carries, however. This will not work against stronger teams. Defensively, the debut of Ray Lewis went well. He had 10 tackles and 2 assists. Final: Cincinnati 23 - Cleveland 17. Keyshawn Johnson went down this week with a knee sprain, listed as questionable. We will let Query take his spot so he can heal, because we don't want him to tear that knee up. DT Mark Campbell is also down for 7 weeks with a broken fibula. Parten will take his place. We're hurting pretty bad. We go home for week 2 to see Philly coming to town with MVP Randall Cunningham. Foley will start again after a solid week 1 performance. Hopefully we can squeeze some ground support out of Fenner and Palmer. Week 2: (1-0) Cunningham needed only 18 attempts to torch us for 192 yards and 2 tds in a pretty easy Philadephia win. Foley struggled this week, predictably, but didn't turn the ball over. He just wasn't very effective. Fred Barnett caught 4 balls for 118 and 2 tds for the Eagles. Ray Lewis had a quiet game with only 3 tackles. Final: Philadelphia 17 - Cincinnati 9 Bad news for us is McNair is healing slower than expected and will miss one more week. Fletcher has hardly healed at all, and there is fear he may miss the season if he doesn't start coming around soon. We're hoping we only have to deal with one more week without our leader as we welcome Denver to town. Week 3: (1-1) We picked off Elway 2 times, and held the Broncos to only 308 yards in a close win. Foley was much better this week, his last start, but probably the beginning of a long tenure here as the backup to McNair. He completed 19/30 for 179 and a score with no interceptions. The ground game was respectable, but still not good. Final: Cincinnati 10 - Denver 7. McNair returns finally in week 4, as we take a trip to Jacksonville. Keyshawn Johnson is also back, so the offense is near full strength. Week 4: (2-1) McNair eats turf 7 times, but manages to guide us to 20 first half points in a win. We were suffocating defensively, allowing only 214 yards. We harrassed Ken OBrien to a rating of 44.6 in order to get the win. Final: Cincinnati 23 - Jacksonville 6. 3-1 after 4 is decent. We have won with defense, but now we're getting healthy and McNair is hopefully ready to show some improvement over last year. The ground game is struggling as expected, but defensively, its the best we have played so far. After 4: 1996 1-4.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-09-2011 at 07:36 PM.

07-20-2011, 11:55 AM	#21
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1996 week 5-8 With a trip to Baltimore coming, we will try and settle into a groove and win a few to get into a lead in the division before the bye hits. We're pretty healthy now, and with McNair back under center, all the pieces except the running game are back in place. Winning the next 4 before the bye would give us an outstanding chance at securing a bye this year. Week 5: (3-1) McNair was back to full strength this week and responded with a near flawless 15/18 day throwing for 170 yards and a score - He also ran 8 times for 58 more yards. Defensively, 4 interceptions and 2 sacks of Jim Chandler helped put us in the W column in a pretty easy contest. Final: Cincinnati 23 - Baltimore 7. With 4-1 Pittsburgh coming to town, a fight for first place is in the offing for week 6. We remain healthy, and despite our lack of running game, I think we can pull it off. We need to to take control in the North. Week 6: (4-1) We struggled mightily this week, but managed 16 second half points after being shut out in the first. McNair hit Tony McGee for a 48 yard TD late in the 3rd to give us the boost we needed to pull this one out in a defensive standoff. Only 25 first downs in the game, split nearly evenly. Final: Cincinnati 16 - Pittsburgh 10. After that big win, we sit at 5-1, on top of the North. If we had a RB that could do some damage, we would be in the best shape possible.. I still worry that the lack of said running game will hurt us in the end. The struggling Colts come to town next, we expect a strong showing. Week 7: (5-1) Closer in the final score than we like it, but overall a strong performance in our 5th straight win. 2 TD passes by McNair, Pickens with 5/5 - 88 yards. Derrick Fenner strains an adductor, leaving us without a 2nd RB. We place him on injured reserve and sign Jerris McPhail. Not the name we would like a player to have, but he's easily the best available rookie FA. Final: Cincinnati 23 - Indianapolis 16. Houston is next, we will travel into Texas for a warm sunny day of football against a surprising team led by Terrell Davis. We have a chance to go into the bye at 7-1, in great position for the home stretch. Week 8: (6-1) The Texans were tough, but David Palmer went off, running for 144 yards on 22 carries. McPhail was a Phail with only 26 yards on his 10 attempts. Its a good thing Palmenr stepped up, because McNair struggled mightily, going 13/31 for only 157 and an INT. Defensively, we made Bubby Brister play like Bubby Brister, sacking him 4 times and holding him to 117 yards on 15/25 passing. Final: Cincinnati 16 - Houston 13. Through 8 games, we're still waiting on Terrell Fletcher, who has 3 more weeks left, according to the Doc. The injury just isn't healing as fast as hoped. We could use his consistency, however, so we're hoping for some miracle that will enable him to join us sooner rather than later. We have been a mess offensively, only producing enough to win thanks to our D, which has been incredible through the first half. We allow 275 yards and 11.6 points per game, which is enough to give even the worst offense a chance. With this kind of D, we should be beating the hell out of teams though, not just barely scraping by. At the Midway point: 1996 5-8.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA Last edited by Julio Riddols : 07-20-2011 at 11:58 AM.

07-20-2011, 12:25 PM	#22
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1996 Week 10-13 Fresh off our bye, Fletcher still has 2 weeks to go til he is fully back, so Jerris McPahil and David Palmer handle the load again this week. We have Tennessee at home, a 5-3 team that can score. Week 10: (7-1) Wow, what a snoozer. Nothing good really hapened in this game, neither team could muster more than 253 yards of offense. We did manage to sack an inept Dan McGwire 6 times on our way to the W. Final: Cincinnati 13 - Tennessee 10. Fletcher will finally play his first game of the season for us in week 11, a division game against our other big rival, Cleveland. Pittsburgh remains hot on our tails, so a win here will be big, as it gives us a little more breathing room by helping our division record in case there is a tie breaker. Week 11: (8-1) Fletcher goes for 104 on 16 carries in his first action of the year, which was exciting to see, but in the context of a loss, the numbers ring hollow. Vinny Testaverde sifted us for 301 and 2 scores and Doug Pelfrey misses 2 50 plus yarders that could have given us the win, but alas we suffer a narrow defeat and a big loss in our division. Final: Cleveland 20 - Cincinnati 19. With our backfield healthy, I still feel better than before despite our loss to Cleveland. A Washington squad who is sitting within 12 points of the bottom of the league in scoring defense visits as we look to rebound. Week 12: (8-2) Well, that was a slap in the face. Former mate Ostell Miles scampers to 81 yards on 7 carries with a score, and Erik Kramer lights us up to the tune of 19/26 - 234 - 2 TD - 1 INT. Our offense, meanwhile, showed it does not matter how weak the defense we play is, we will still struggle. 2 straight losses really hurts us. Final: Washington 24 - Cincinnati 13. We need to suck it up and remember what we were doing this week to get back on the horse and continue riding toward that playoff sunset. Problem is, we're gonna be facing an offensive powerhouse, Buffalo, at their house. If we can keep up, it will be no small feat. We also lost David Palmer, so Jerris McPhail will come in and give us his signature 1.8 yards per carry as a change of pace back. Week 13: (8-3) We found ourselves up 17-3 at one point in the 3rd, but Buffalo being Buffalo, they circled the wagons and brought us down. McNair has been very bad lately, and continued that trend with a 17/34 performance for only 136 yards. last 4 games for McNair: 72/115 - 740 - 2 TD - 5 INT. Final: Buffalo 20 - Cincinnati 19. We lose 3 straight after the return of Fletch, and drop 2 games back of Pittsburgh. We are also only one game up on Cleveland, so shit needs to start working for us. We make a switch to Glenn Foley to try and give the offense a spark. we have yet to score more than 23 points once this season. After 12: 1996 9-12.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

07-20-2011, 01:00 PM	#23
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1996 - Down to the wire. Glenn Foley earned himself a shot by playing well earlier in the year in the absence of McNair, so we're gonna let McNair think about his recent struggles and try to light a fire under the team with a switch at QB. We travel to Dallas to face the Cowboys, and this one is a big one for us. Week 14: (8-4) Panic levels are now very high. When you lose 4 straight and nothing seems to be working, you start questioning everything about your team. We have shown no offense, our defense is now losing their ability to win games for us, and there is nothing much we can do to try and fix it except just riding it out and hoping for the best. Foley clearly was not the answer, but I know our run game has really been a problem this year and we MUST fix it in the offseason. Dallas really had very little trouble dispatching us, thanks to us turning the ball over 3 times and allowing 4 sacks. Emmitt Smith was a major factor with 117 yards on 24 carries. Final: Dallas 19 - Cincinnati 3. McNair will be back under center this week against Baltimore, and he needs to step up big time. His knowledge of only 6 formations is hamstringing us in a major way, and the magic has worn off his rookie year with his recent struggles. This is a team with high expectations, and we're currently not meeting them. Week 15: (8-5) McNair went down with a minor ankle issue at the beginning of this game, so Foley played pretty much the entirety.. And 1-12 Baltimore beat us thanks to Foleys 4 pick performance. Jim Chandler was scintillating for the Ravens, throwing for 60 yards on 15/26 passing while being sacked 3 times. The Ravens amassed a gargantuan sum of 162 total yards.. A sickening loss, given the circumstances. We've dropped 5 in a row, and I don't know if it can get much worse. Final: Baltimore 20 - Cincinnati 17. Week 16: (8-6) Doug Pelfrey has hit 62% of his kicks this year. There have been 4 games we have lost this year in which a missed kick would have at least forced a tie. This week was the 4th of those games, and the Giants put us down for a 6th straight loss. It is mind numbing. Our failures come from everywhere and anywhere. No one can seem to step up on either side of the ball. To make the playoffs, we will need help now. We were looking at a bye after starting 8-1, but now we are looking at going home. Is RB Fletcher cursed? Final: New York Giants 16 - Cincinnati 13. For our final game, we get to face our hated rivals, Pittsburgh. Just the team you want to see to really put your season to an end in the most painful way possible. There is talk we were a fluke last year, and that we're headed right back down to the basement. Its a return to the old Bungles. Things a Bengals fan deals with week in and week out in an average year. If we can just end with a win, maybe we can salvage some pride with a sweep of the Steelers. Week 17: (8-7) Another loss to Pittsburgh officially puts a grotesque hat on this misreable season. How a team starts 8-1 and then misses the playoffs is beyond me. McNair played his best game of the year in the loss, but it was still not enough, and we lose yet another nail bitingly close game to fail our way out of the postseason in a year that we expected much more. It will be a long, trying offseason. Final: Pittsburgh 20 - Cincinnati 17. What a way for a season to go. We're suddenly unsure about McNair and what kind of a difference he will make for us if he doesn't learn more formations. We're kind of hoping someone offers an arm and a leg in trade for him, but the chances of that are likely very slim. What appeared to be a franchise on the uptake is now a fractured hull of a ship, splintered on the shores of discontent. Our Offensive MVP: Terrell Fletcher. While there may be talk of a curse involving him, he was our most accomplished offensive player after his return, averaging nearly a yard more per carry than our next best runner. There was not much to write home about for this offense. Defensive MVP: At this point, it is no surprise, as James Francis again claims this award. He produced big sack numbers yet again, and did as much as he could to make a difference. Most valuable rookie: Ray Lewis wound up 2nd on the team in tackles and registered 9 pass defenses. If we can turn things around next year, we expect him to be a major player in that. Final Stats for 1996: 1996 final.JPG __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

08-05-2011, 07:23 PM	#24
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1997: The Rebound? Randy Kirk and Joe Walter retired for us after 'The Fletcher Curse' killed our '96 playoff hopes. We will not really miss either guy. Clevelands Vinny Testaverde had a brilliant year in securing the MVP award.. He had struggled through 3 straight mediocre years with a rating of no higher than 81.2, then unleashed a 4119 yard campaign with 27 tds against only 4 interceptions for a rating of 101.0. Testaverde was also OPOY. DPOY went to James Francis for a 3rd straight year although his overall performance dropped off a little bit from his first 2 MVP seasons. He is on the down side of his career, but we hope he can remain a force for at least 3 more seasons for us. OROY goes to RB Stephen Davis ,who went to Oakland with the 16th pick in the 1st round. He wound up with 1248 yards on 4.13 per attempt with 9 tds while also catching 54 balls out of the backfield for another 254 yards and 2 scores. DROY went to our own Ray Lewis, who had a pretty strong year in pass coverage with 9 PD and 2 INT, but didn't really do much else that could be considered groundbreaking or anything. Francis was our only all league honoree, which makes sense. The rest of the team lagged way behind his performance. 1997 outlook: We have the passing game basically in place, now we need to shore up the secondary and get a running game, as well as clearing up the remaining issues on the offensive line that have plagued us. Coach Hiring Stage: Our staff remains intact after last season. We believe we have a good group of coaches and scouts in place and it makes sense to stay that way for now. The Staff: HC: Ethan Watson - Gd - Ex - Ex - Fr - Gd OC: Dave Lutz - Gd - Av - Gd - Gd - Pr - Vg DC: Ben Tanner - Ex - Gd - Vg - Ex - Ex SC: Carlos Bernard - AV -Gd - Vg - Gd - Av - Av - Vg - Gd - Av ------------ Summer League: Our ticket prices will remain the same as last year after we failed to deliver on the field. We realize we never extended FS Darryl Williams last season, but rather than franchise him again, we will try and get him back on the open market. That should be fun. We franchise nobody. Sent to the summer league is WR Keyshawn Johnson, who we need to step it up this year after an average rookie campaign. ------------ Free Agency: Cap room: 39.8 million UFA Contracts expired: 10th year CB Sheldon White (41/41) - 520k/1 - Signed 10th year S Mike Brim (33/33) - 490k/1 - Signed 9th year FL Jeff Query (50/50) - 570k/1 - Signed 9th year QB Erik Wilhelm (33/33) - 490k/1 - Signed 7th year SLB Alfred Williams (28/28) - 410k/1 - Signed 6th year SE Milt Stegall (38/38) - 470k/1 - Signed 6th year TE Craig Thompson (40/40) - 460k/1 - Signed 6th year FS Darryl Williams (74/74) - 15.66M/5 - OUCH - Took 19.07M/5 to sign with K.C. 5th year RG Scott Brumfield (34/34) - 1.77M/2 - Signed 5th year SS Lance Gunn (29/32) - 410k/1 - Signed 5th year DT Ty Parten (21/27) - 410k/1 - Signed RFA: CB Tyronne Drakeford (43/43) - 380k/1 - Signed QB Glenn Foley (24/24) - 3.10M/3 - Signed SS Robert Griffith (50/50) - 400k/1 - Signed QB Steve Matthews (24/34) - 260k/1 - Signed C Kevin Mawae (49/49) - 480k/1 - Signed RB David Palmer - let go SE Ryan Yarbrough (23/23) - 260k/1 - Signed P Darren Bennett (46/47) - 260k/1 - Signed RG Frank Garcia (23/40) - 260k/1 - Signed C Dave Wohlabaugh (21/31) - 260k.1 - Signed CB Juran Bolden (15/30) - 220k/1 - Signed DT Mark Campbell (16/24) - 220k/1 - Signed RB Jerris McPhail - let go DE James Roberson (18/22) - 220k/1 - Signed ------------------- 1997 Draft: Having lost Darryl Williams in FA, we're hurting even worse than we were. We need a RB, a T, all kinds of defensive line help, a FS and a CB. Its likely we try and get all of them, but given the depth of this draft, I only expect to reasonably fill 3 of those spots. We do pick 14th, so maybe we will get a guy or two we may not have if we had made the playoffs last year. Jon Kitna goes number 1 to Pittsburgh. At the 14th spot, there are several excellent T and DT guys available, but then again there is also RB Priest Holmes. We drool over him for a minute, then pick him up, hoping to get some defensive help and offensive linemen later. 1.14 - RB Priest Holmes, Texas - Finally a stud RB we can feed the rock. If he pans out, he is gonna be running his ass off for us.. Now we just need to get him some blockers. 2.13 - CB Shawn Springs, Ohio State - Excited to land Springs in round 2. Hopefully we finally have a shutdown quality guy when he develops. 3.17 - DT Travis Kirschke, UCLA - Kirschke might be our best bet at NT, we just hope he makes his potential. 4.16 - S Mike Minter, Nebraska - Minter is not Darryl Williams, but may end up filling his shoes. 5.15 - OLB Jamie Sharper, Virginia - Too good to pass up in the 5th round. We will likely just throw darts at the draft board in rounds 6 and 7 looking for a T. 6.14 - T Spencer Folau, Idaho - Stab in the dark, but might start anyway given our situation. 7.13 - G Raleigh Roundtree, S.C. State - a G we might try and move to T. Who knows. We go after T Jerry Wunsch, C Casey Wiegmann, WR Ike Hilliard, and FS Duane Butler in PDFA. PRE/POST CAMP: 1.14 - RB Priest Holmes - (58/64) --> 61/64 2.13 - CB Shawn Springs - (25/39) --> 28/42 3.17 - DT Travis Kirschke - (26/43) --> 27/41 4.16 - S Mike Minter - (14/42) --> 18/43 5.15 - OLB Jamie Sharper - (15/30) --> 20/35 6.14 - T Spencer Folau - (16/32) --> 18/31 7.13 - G (Moved to T) Raleigh Roundtree - (11/15) --> 14/25 T Jerry Wunsch - (13/25) --> 14/21 C Casey Wiegmann - (14/31) --> 18/35 WR Ike Hilliard - (11/25) --> 14/28 S Duane Butler - (14/35) --> 16/30 (91 ST) Well, we ended up doing pretty well here. Holmes is going to be a godsend for the offense, Roundtree looks like a natural at T, hopefully he keeps improving. Sharper was a nice add, and will play at SLB pretty early. Minter and Springs look solid, and both will start. Kirschke is a bit of a disappointment, but is still our number 2 DT. Wiegmann was a nice find in PDFA, along with Hilliard. Wunsch is a piece of shit. Butler is going to be our special teams ace. Keyshawn comes back at 46/46, so he looks ok, but not what we were hoping for. Cuts: WR Ryan Yarbrough C Dave Wohlabaugh T Jerry Wunsch T Derrick Deese CB Tyrone Poole DT Mark Campbell TE Christian Fauria We go into 1997 feeling better except for the loss of Darryl Williams.. Thats gonna bite us I would be willing to bet. Other than that, we have a guy we are comfortable with everywhere except RT, RG, LE, RCB, and FS. Not too bad. We expect to bounce back. __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

08-05-2011, 09:45 PM	#25
Julio Riddols College Prospect Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Bryson Shitty, NC	1997 weeks 1-4 Well, we had an interesting email come to us in the week after training camp ended. St. Louis wanted to talk trade. The player they wanted: Steve McNair. The offer? a 1st rounder. This is a team that went 6-10 last year, and they don't look like they have a lot of talent.. If we give them McNair, they obviously have a shot at doing a good bit better for themselves, but there is also the outside chance we get a shot at this young QB from Tennessee that everyone seems to be really high on named Peyton Manning. We mull it over for a while, and consider that McNair still only knows 6 formations. Its the beginning of his 3rd season, and he has shown us nothing from a learning standpoint. A 1st round pick.. We take the deal and decide to hand the reigns to whoever performs best in the preseason out of Glenn Foley, Steve Matthews and Erik Wilhelm. So, after that deal, we have the following lineups: QB Glenn Foley 27/27 (Steve Matthews 27/27) RB Priest Holmes 61/64 (Terrell Fletcher 31/31) FB Mike Alstott 26/35 TE Tony McGee 51/51 (Craig Thompson 40/40) WR Carl Pickens 70/70 (Jeff Query 49/49) WR Keyshawn Johnson 46/46 (Milt Stegall 38/38) C Kevin Mawae 49/49 (Casey Wiegmann 18/35) G Bruce Kozerski 50/50 (Scott Brumfield 35/35) G Ruben Brown 45/45 (Frank Garcia 25/39) T Willie Anderson 36/37 (Spencer Folau 18/31) T Raleigh Roundtree 14/25 (Folau) K Doug Pelfrey 90/90 P Lee Johnson 56/56 DE Danny Stubbs 44/44 (James Roberson 19/22) DE John Copeland 38/38 (Roberson) DT Jason Fisk 28/40 (Travis Kirschke 27/41) SLB Alex Gordon 47/47 (Jamie Sharper 20/35) SILB Ray Lewis 44/61 (Steve Tovar 37/37) WILB Ricardo McDonald 44/44 (Tovar) WLB James Francis 51/51 (Alfred Williams 28/28) LCB Shawn Springs 28/42 (Sheldon White 37/37) RCB Tyronne Drakeford 44/44 (Aaron Beasley 33/43) SS Robert Griffith 50/50 (Lance Gunn 31/31) FS Mike Minter 18/43 (Duane Butler 16/30) We go into week 1 fully healthy with Baltimore coming to town. Glenn Foley looks to be our best bet at QB with Steve Matthews impressing us enough to step in as the number 2 for now. Whoever the starter is this year, they will always have a short leash. We'll also be keeping an eye on the Rams this season, hoping they fail miserably. More to come.. __________________ Recklessly enthused, stubbornly amused. FUCK EA

10-12-2011, 09:35 PM	#26
Tasan College Starter Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Houston, or there about	Any more on this, or are you done? I was enjoying it. __________________ 2011 Golden Scribes winner for best Interactive Dynasty

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