Cincinnati Bengals Bitten By Injury Bug

Bengals Woes Continue
Chad Smith
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With the Cincinnati Bengals having one of the worst records in the NFL, they do lead the league in one category, injuries, with seventeen players placed on injured reserve this season, they are in competition with the New Orleans Saints, and the Baltimore Ravens for the league lead. Of the seventeen placed on injured reserve, seven of them have been starters, the other ten were mostly special teams players or significant backups at their positions.

This is one of the major reasons the Bengals are having such a poor season. Six of the players placed on Injured Reserve were defensive starters. The biggest hit has been in the secondary where starters Dexter Jackson, Jonathan Joseph and Marvin White have all been lost for the season. The biggest hit on the offensive side of the ball has been to a player that has not been placed on IR. Carson Palmer has been out since week four of the season. After seeing the offense sputter with his absence, we all realize how important Palmer is to this team. Palmer is expected to throw on the side this week, to assess his elbow injury. If the ligaments have reattached to the bone in his throwing arm, he could potentially play the final few games of the season. However, if he throws this week and the injury has not healed, Palmer will also be placed on IR, ending his season.

The most hated man in Cincinnati, otherwise known as Mike Brown, the Bengals owner, stated in a newspaper column today that the Bengals record would have improved by a “Quantum Leap” if Palmer had not been injured. This could not be further from the truth, considering Palmer was the Bengals starter for the first four games of the season, when they started an awful 0-4.

Other teams with injuries don’t seem to have the same problems the Bengals have, some players that replace injured players step right in and contribute, and sometimes even replace their incumbent. Why can’t this be the case for the Bengals? Brandon Johnson has filled in rather well for injured rookie Keith Rivers at linebacker, but this has been the only exception. The rest of the reserves who have now been forced into starting roles have not played well. Especially the Offensive Line, the line has allowed twice as many sacks this season than they did all of last season. This is unacceptable, and is a major reason why the Bengals offense is ranked last in the league in just about every category imaginable.

Injuries are a part of the game that cannot be controlled, this has destroyed the Bengals this season. Other teams have had better luck though, the Ravens have placed fifteen players on IR, but they are currently in the playoff hunt vying for a Wild Card birth. The New Orleans Saints have also placed fifteen players on IR, however they have fared well in a tough NFC South division.

I am a firm believer in the saying, “If you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves.” This saying proves true in almost every facet of life, especially in sports. This has also been the case for the Bengals this season. Missed assignments, broken plays etc. have been a huge problem this season. However, the Bengals also have the opposite problem. The “Big” things need to be taken care of, the “Big” things I speak of are poor scouting, free agent acquisitions that don’t work out, bad draft analysts and so on. The Bengals need to improve both on and off the field, however it needs to start off the field by beefing up their front office, hiring scouts that know the game of football, analysts that can evaluate college prospects, and a general manager who can bring in solid free agents. Until this happens, we will continue to be competitive in at least one category in all of football, that category is the “worst team in the NFL.”