Sport

I feel like ESPN grossly misread how their audience feels about Ben Roethlisberger. That was a slobberfest not owed to one of the worst people in the history of professional sports. The only people who like him are the Worst People Alive and even then most Steelers fans I know are so tired of his whole deal that they are thrilled to move on.

It did sort of feel to me like the Chiefs started to coast in the second half, which I get for a team with a two touchdown lead trying to save themselves for the playoffs. Also they were running the ball really well. But for the end of game sequence, in hindsight Andy Reid should've let them score before the 2 minute warning. The decision not to almost worked, but the penalties on the 4th down plays (which, by the way, insane for Taylor to go for it there instead of taking 3 points) accidentally helping the Bengals so perfectly is one of the most fortunate accidents I've ever seen in football. As a Bengals fan who's seen every horror possible I was beside myself on that sequence. I was certain there'd be a fumbled snap or injury or botched handoff. It was torture. Even when they lined up for the dinky field goal I didn't feel good until I saw the arms go up and couldn't find a flag on the field. Yeah very exciting times because they have the hardest piece to get. If you have a top ten QB you have a shot and they haven't had one since Palmer in 2005. Maybe it's just recency bias, but this feels more real and sustainable than the Palmer Era teams (because the defense was paper) and definitely the accidentally good teams of the Andy Dalton/AJ Green days. I won't feel good until they actually do it, but beating the Chiefs kind of felt like winning a playoff game so now it's not something they have to imagine anymore. I'm also excited to watch the Bengals in a playoff game under a coach who is not Marvin Lewis for the first time in my life.

Thanks! As far as calls goes, I can point out a couple that helped the Chiefs in the first half, weak holding call on a Mixon screen, and the calls at the end were by the book penalties that would’ve horrible no calls had they not thrown the flag. I’ve just thought that was hilarious all day to read salty people saying that the NFL was helping the Bengals. That would mark the first time in franchise history that’s happened. Also the Chiefs played Chase on single coverage and gave up 30 yards on a key third and 27. My personal rule is don’t :censored: about the refs if you couldn’t stop something like that.

I do appreciate that and I feel the same way about the Browns. I was a diehard Browns fan in the playoff game against Pittsburgh last year and I would like them to win tonight and officially eliminate the Steelers and send Roethlisberger out of Pittsburgh with an L. Though, I hope one day we're as annoying to you as the Steelers and Ravens are because it means we've won something.

I haven't been the same since they lost to the Steelers in the playoffs in 2015. That changed the way I follow sports and I've been emotionally distant with every team, every sport I follow ever since (I was also pretty thrilled by Verstappen, though). I've felt nothing win or lose all season, but yesterday I allowed myself a little elation when the field goal went through the uprights. For me that emotion was mostly about all the other times I've been there when they blow that game and I walk out in a quiet crowd of angry people. Also I felt tremendous relief that we don't have to spend a week thinking about a win and in game at Cleveland.

Can confirm I am happier than a mug. Went to the game with my wife and parents* It was quite thrilling and it's easily the biggest win in the history of that stadium. I don't think any long time Bengals fan in that building thought they'd win, especially not down two touchdowns throughout the first half. Historically, the Bengals never win that game. The Bengals lay an egg in that game and then make us wait a week, make us sweat through a rivalry game in Cleveland, and then lose that too. But these new kids are special and different than Bengals teams of the past. They were supposed to finish last, go 0-6 in the AFC North, and they just won one of the toughest divisions. They're a year early. I'd like to end the playoff win drought, obviously, but I feel good about the future even if they don't. It was really great sharing that with my family. My wife is a bit of a crier and unquestionably a bigger Bengals fan than I am and she was sobbing. I lost my voice and my back is sore and I probably have omicron thanks to hugging the random college bros next to me that I made friends with during the game. All worth it. *funny enough the first Bengals game that my dad and I went to at Paul Brown Stadium was against the 9-0 Priest Holmes, Dante Hall, Trent Green Chiefs in 2003 and the Bengals upset them then too so I had a weird feeling about this one walking in.

It's laughable because the Patriots got red carpets to the Divisional Round if not the AFC Championship game at home for almost two decades in large part because their six division games every year were against the mostly bad Dolphins, Bills, and Jets. The difference was an extra win or two every year that teams in more competitive divisions didn't get. Pats fans should have to STFU and eat all complaints for like 15 more years and the rest of us should be allowed to throw a tomato at anyone wearing Patriots apparel in public without any legal repercussions. Sorry, but that's the price for getting to enjoy the best run in NFL history.

It's if any one of the Steelers, Ravens, or Browns go 2-0 in their last two and they go 0-2. They can get in without winning another game if the Ravens, Browns, and Steelers all lose at least one more time, but I'm most worried about the Browns. I don't think they'll lose to the Steelers because the Steelers are not good and I don't think the Bengals will beat the Chiefs so like I said it will probably come down to the last game in Cleveland and it's frightening as hell because the Browns strengths line up with all of the Bengals weaknesses. I would not be very confident about winning that game in that environment.

The Bengals can clinch the division with a win in one of their last two games, but their last two games are the Chiefs and at Cleveland (and there's a good chance that's the division championship game). So they basically need to win a playoff game to make the playoffs and the Bengals very famously don't win playoff games. I'm so nervous. Couldn't just hang onto an 11 point lead with 5 minutes left against the Jets and Mike White and make this easy for us?

I appreciate that, but my statement was intended with less sportsmanship. Prior to the last two games the Ravens had spent the previous two and a half seasons mercilessly slaughtering less than 100% Bengals teams and we didn’t get the pity treatment spin the Ravens got today. The NFL still shows Lamar Jackson’s spin move touchdown against the Bengals all-time worst defense two years ago in highlight spots. Last season Martindale was grouchy that the Bengals kicked a late field goal to avoid a shutout to lose 27-3*. Last season week 17 the Ravens smoked our backup QB with half the defense on IR. Nobody cared. If John Harbaugh is actually pissed that they threw a fifty yard pass so Burrow could hit 500 yards then he’s a bigger baby than I thought because it’s not like he’s never been on the good end of one of those games. The Bengals have owed him a couple ass-kickings. *and that score was closer than the actual game would indicate. The Ravens hammered Burrow all day and it was one of the only times he looked like a bad rookie. I would argue the Bengals kicked the field goal because Martindale kept blitzing when up 27-0 like a total prick. I said at the time the Bengals are so far away from the Ravens. I didn’t think this season they’d win one of the games with the Ravens let alone both.

I don’t feel bad about torching the JV Ravens. Not even a little bit. Bengals already creamed them at full strength in their house earlier this season so it’s not even a given that the true Ravens would’ve won today.

I do feel bad for the Browns because that COVID situation is crappy and with the new testing policies is likely the last time a team will be effected by it in that way. But the Cincinnati Bengals will be in first place on Christmas Day. Regardless of what happens in the next 3 super scary games, that's pretty cool for a team that Vegas had at 6.5 wins before the season. Going to enjoy it for now because they probably need 2 out of 3 against the Ravens, Chiefs, and at Cleveland to get in, but it's nice to have games to care about this late in the season.

If something doesn't work it doesn't mean the analytics were wrong. It means the outcome fell in the unfavorable percentage, which is how probability works. We've seen teams lose when win probability had them with a greater than 95% chance of winning. That doesn't mean the win probability was wrong. And the analytics in this case actually leaned towards kicking the extra point, but I guess Harbaugh liked his chances converting against a tired defense over playing Rodgers in overtime. And whether you kick or convert the 2 then you still give Rodgers the ball with 42 seconds left and I'd rather have a one point lead in that situation than be tied. Also, why are we griping about coaches going for the win on two pointers instead of going to tie? That's one of the most exciting plays that can happen in football. It's great theater.

They won't shutdown again because we have vaccines now and nobody has the stomach to do a shutdown again. What is more likely to happen is we accept that living with covid is just a part of life now and a risk we live with and we should redefine how we handle positive cases if a person is vaccinated and asymptomatic. What I mean by that is if you test positive and you feel normal and you're vaccinated then ****ing move about the cabin and try to, I guess, wear a mask when close to people. Numbers with Omicron are popping off because it's more contagious, but it looks less severe if you're vaccinated (not going to talk about what I think of unvaccinated people, but if you're still unvaccinated right now COME THE :censored: ON) because the virus has mutated to a point where it doesn't kill its host (unless again, you're unvaccinated). It's possible that a lot of us vaccinated people are walking around with omicron right now and don't know it and the only way we would know is if we were on an NFL/NHL/NBA team that tests us weekly. I get the idea that we don't want to overrun hospitals with unvaccinated people who steal beds from people who need knee surgeries and such, but I do think that eventually in order to move on we can't treat every positive asymptomatic case like it's passing the bubonic plague because at this point we're only passing the bubonic plague to people who couldn't do the bare dang ass minimum. I'm tired.

Petrino left because Arkansas wanted to pay him more money and he took the Falcons job with the idea that Michael Vick would be his QB and then Michael Vick had uhh....legal issues. A Falcons fan can correct me here, but I don't remember anything during Petrino's 13 games that was as outrageous as Meyer tripping over his own butt on a weekly basis. We didn't get to see what Urban would've done if Notre Dame or USC had come calling, but I feel like he's such a dickhead he's not even leaving a note to the players. Who else would even be in the discussion? I remembered Mike Ditka with the Saints being pretty bad, but then I looked it up and he managed to stick there for 3 whole seasons, which is one season longer than I would've guessed.

It was like weekly, if not daily, comedy for about 5 months. Is this the most disastrous tenure any NFL head coach has ever had start to finish? The Barry Melrose 16 game stint with the Lightning in 2008 comes to mind where it was instantly obvious to everyone that the guy wasn't going to work. I can't believe Urban lasted 14 games.

Man I love a good flameout. I know people who know Urban Meyer through connections with Ohio State and he's widely considered to be a complete a$$hole so I laughed when the Jaguars hired him because he's exactly the kind of egomaniac college coach who can't handle the additional constraints and loss of control that comes with the position in the NFL. I thought he'd be a disaster in the NFL for that reason, but I thought he'd be a boring, run-of-the-mill disaster. Like an unremarkable 6-11 season followed by a forgettable 5-12 season and then he leaves before year 3 because of his "health". I did not expect him to be such a psycho and so so very stupid. The expectations for him sucking were high and he still exceeded them. I cannot believe he was worse than we all thought he would be. Let's look at some of his greatest hits with the Jags: - Hired a known racist as strength coach. - Tried out 34 year old Tim Tebow at a position he's never played. - Said vaccine status would be a factor in personnel decisions, which IMO is the right call, but this was his first run-in with having to deal with a player's association and not being able to just do or say whatever whenever anymore. - Blew a 14 point lead to the Bengals on TNF, didn't travel back with the team, went to his restaurant in Columbus, had a sad night out with the boys, got photographed with a young woman who is not his wife. - Weird treatment of James Robinson who Trevor Lawrence stuck up for in a press conference. - Jags players repeatedly told players on other teams how he didn't treat them like adults. - Telling his staff they were losers and he had a better staff at Bowling Green. - Challenged each coach individually to explain when they've ever won and forcing them to defend their resumes. - Publicly fighting with several players. - Kicking the kicker and telling him "I'm the head ball coach I can kick you whenever the I want". - Wasted a year of Trevor Lawrence's development and a year of his rookie contract. What a jackass.

That's why I'm not saying they should build a new arena in Tempe, but to declare that the arena location isn't a factor at all is just silly.

There's a lot of hockey fans in Cleveland and no doubt in my mind it would be better than Phoenix, but Cleveland has a few things working against them for the NHL: 1. They're already overextended for their 3 major professional teams as it is and they would be one of the smallest cities, if not the smallest, to have a team in all of the Old 4 leagues. 2. If a hockey fan in Cleveland wants to see an NHL game they're a couple hours from Columbus, Pittsburgh, and Detroit and they have a team in the AHL. It's in a weird spot on the map that isn't a priority for the league to fill. "BUT NY HAS 3 TEAMS" Yeah, New York is different and the way they wound up with 3 teams was a series of funny circumstances that the league would've never intentionally pursued nor would they try to replicate anywhere else. Also the Devils and Islanders have both had long periods where they weren't what I would call "healthy" franchises. 3. The way Cleveland would get an NHL team is through Dan Gilbert because he owns the arena and I don't see anyone else buying a team and moving them there to take up second banana status in Quicken Loans Arena nor do I see that guy building a second arena in Cleveland. Would Gilbert care enough to upgrade his Cleveland AHL team to an NHL team? I don't know, but he's the guy to ask. In summary, Cleveland isn't in the conversation.

Phoenix is a case of two things being true at the same time - it's a bad market for hockey and they made it much harder on themselves by building the arena where they did. I don't see anybody claiming arena location is the only reason the Coyotes are unsuccessful, just that it's one of many problems that have created this mess. Let me preface this first by saying that building a new arena in Tempe will not suddenly turn Phoenix into a thriving hockey market and I think for the health of the league they should move the franchise to QC. But just from a purely basic math standpoint, if the arena is closer to more people then more people will go to the games. I don't understand why that very basic concept gets so much pushback. There are a lot of asks for a person to attend a professional sporting event, yes, but there's vast differences between the headaches needed to endure for my family from Northwest Columbus to attend a Blue Jackets game versus what my family in southeast Phoenix goes through in order to attend a Coyotes game. Those additional inconveniences add up to people choosing not going to games and it's got nothing to do with dedication or any of that horses***. I don't agree that the majority of stadiums/arenas are difficult to get to and neither would literal maps.

There's 30+ teams in every league so the vast majority of the time you're not going to watch your teams win it all. The best sports day of my life is a first round playoff win. Take your victories when they come.

You're right. The Bengals should've won in regulation. 17 points off two muffed punts and a taunting penalty after a third down stop not to mention the dropped pick six in the final minute. Bengals gift wrapped that one with a bow. Giving up a touchdown drive with a 3 point lead to lose against the 49ers - seen that movie somewhere before but I can't place *KILLS SELF*

The correct answer is the Red Wings and I'm gonna tell everyone why. Outside of some loose O6 connections the Red Wings have no real rivalry with the Canadiens or Bruins, if we're being honest. You could argue the Leafs are a rival dating back to the Norris, but that fizzled when Toronto went to the Eastern Conference in the 90's and I don't think it's heated up since being together in the Atlantic. The Blue Jackets have no real rivalries with anybody (and they never will if they go back west), but putting the Red Wings in the East means you've lost actual rivalries with Chicago, St. Louis, Colorado, and Minnesota. They did damage in the West and a lot of the Western Teams punched back over the years too. The Ducks, Flames, Sharks, Canucks, and Kings all have history with them as well. They haven't had any impact in the East. I still don't even really consider them an Eastern Conference team and culturally Detroit is more similar to those cities than any on the East Coast too. The Jackets, on the other hand, never made any noise in the West so there's no benefit to going back. They have done some things since being in the East, though, including being the last team to beat Tampa in a playoff series and they eliminated Toronto in the bubble. Those rivalries are budding and it'd be a shame to cut them short now.

Claypool is proving to be a real sh**head so he fits with the Steelers perfectly. He was just fined 8 grand for trying to rip the helmet off of a Bengals cornerback when the Steelers were down 30 something in the fourth quarter a couple weeks ago. When the team was 7-0 last year he tweeted "Losing? Never heard of her." and they're 11-11-1 since including 3 straight losses to our Beautiful Boys in Stripes. Earlier this season he followed up that with "I was the first one in my family to go and finish college. I graduated from one of the most prestigious universities in the world. I bought both my parents brand new cars at the age of 21. At the age of 22 I bought my family and I a house. Losing? Still never heard of her." Okay, cool for you, bud, but the first tweet was specifically talking about football and everyone knows that so cope away, I guess. I like to listen to the Locked On Steelers podcast after they lose because I think it's fun to hear people grapple with losing for the first time ever. After the Bengals game the host was going on and on about how Claypool's behavior wasn't befitting of the class expected of a Steeler. I had to relisten to that section because I couldn't believe it. The "class" of the Steelers??? LOL only the Raiders are less classy, but at least they have the decency to own and celebrate the title. They don't pretend to be something they're not. Almost every safety rule in the NFL rulebook can be traced back to a Steeler's dirty hit. GTFOH with class. The Towel-Wavers really live in a different reality. I can't believe they're 6-6-1. They're the crappiest 6-6 team I've ever seen.

It was 23-0 at halftime and my Steelers friend texted me and said "we look like ass. This is over". I said "I'm going to bed because it's not over and I don't want to watch the Steelers come back and win and be pissed off or watch the Steelers come back and sweat through them almost winning and be pissed off." I watched half an episode of Star Trek Discovery and fell asleep instead. Looks like I was right and I'm very pleased with my decision.