(02-19-2022, 05:36 PM)TheO-LineMatters Wrote:

(02-18-2022, 10:14 PM)Jagsfan4life9/28/82 Wrote: I was speaking in general, in the sense of history of the league having 4 win teams from one year play in the Superbowl in the next. It doesn't happen often. And your post greatly benefits from hindsight, I doubt you had them as your pick to win the AFC before the season started.

And all of this roster disparity between these two clubs was quite difficult to see when they faced off against each other. The Bengals didn't win that game, they survived it. They probably don't even manage that if their opposition didn’t have a hopeless moron as a head coach.

I thought they would be good. I had them winning the AFC North, but I did not have them going far in the playoffs due to the state of the O-Line. I live in the Cincy area and all my friends are Bengals fans. I watch the Bengals play every week, due to where I live. Even though I'm not a Bengals fan, I could see the talent they had accumulated before the 2021 season. I believed Joe Burrow is the next great QB in the NFL from the minute he was drafted. He might not be Tom Brady, but I believe he will be close. They have the best trio of WR's in the NFL and even though I despise him, Joe Mixon is a good RB. For that offense alone and a stable defense, I thought they could win a weakened AFC North. The Steelers O-Line was weak and their QB was old, Baker Mayfield seemed to be regressing and teams are starting to figure out that if you keep a spy near the line of scrimmage and keep Lamar Jackson from taking off and running, he's not a very good passer. Cincinnati has the benefit of having an elite QB in a division where there is no other elite QB's. It wasn't hard to figure out that the Bengals were gonna be good before the 2021 season, I just underestimated how good they were gonna be. The only thing hindsight had to do with it was that I didn't think their offense would be as good as it was, considering the makeup of the O-Line.

With our team, it's much different. We don't have a single good receiver on the roster. Our O-Line is so-so at best. Three of our starting O-linemen are UFA's and so is our swing Tackle and our Center may be a cap casualty due to the fact that he's in the final year of his deal where he's due $10 million and he seems to always be injured. Our RB's are coming off of serious injuries, the only decent TE we had is coming off of injury and our franchise QB is a giant ? at this point. We also have major issues rushing the passer, both at DE and OLB and we can't cover opposing TE's with ILB's or Safeties. We have a ton of issues that need to be addressed before we can even think about reaching .500, much less making the playoffs.

Well, that was my point about odds being against them ending up where they did. Nobody would have put them in the Superbowl before the season started. After they did, story crafters are quick to look for comparisons and they found one quickly in the Jags. We both agree the comparison isn't very direct, because for one, the Jags' roster is not as talented as the Bengals, though we differ on the gap. But really, it was long odds for the Bengals as it will be for the Jags. The odds are even worse for it to happen back to back.

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