Today, we say goodbye to the 2011/2012 Cincinnati Bengals, a team that was way better than they had any business being.
Before the season, most projections for the Bengals had them finishing somewhere in the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. The orange-striped warriors had said goodbye to Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinco, replacing them with two daisy-fresh rookies.
They were moves that needed to be made (Palmer, in particular, left them no choice and the simple act of saying goodbye to The Ocho was probably worth two wins by itself), but they weren't moves that anyone thought would result in short-term success. And yet, here we are, not saying goodbye to the Bengals until playoff time(requiem lant).
A lot of things went right for this team.
The selection and performance of quarterback Andy Dalton is the most obvious thing, but that may not have been possible without another major addition — Jay Gruden as offensive coordinator. The Bengals were looking at an offense with a rookie quarterback, a rookie wide receiver (a position where rookies typically don't see a lot of success) and Cedric Benson anchoring the run requiem gold game. That's what Bill Walsh would see in his nightmares.
As it turned out, it wasn't so bad. Ranking 20th in the league in total offense isn't anything that will erase the memory of Boomer Esiason and Ickey Woods, but given the talent there, the odds against them and the defenses they face in their division, it's not too shabby.
