ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?

 Well, the 'goat' did it again.  In case you're rusty, goat stands for 'greatest of all time' and what he did was lead his team to a winning score in the last second of a football game for the umpteenth time.  He, of course, is Thomas Brady and his team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who defeated the Dallas Cowboys last night 31-29 to start off the new season.  

This Sunday and Monday the rest of the league will get going.  Our Bengals will be playing at home against the Minnesota Vikings - 1pm Sunday.   The Vikes are coached by our ex-defensive coordinator, Mike Zimmer, and are a 3-1/2 point favorite.  

The preseason games tell us very little about the teams except that we have lost some players due to injury again.  The Bengals lost two top line edge rushers (we used to call them defensive ends) and our top cornerback (the guy who defends the pass on the outside).  Hopefully, we're a little deeper than last year and have some good guys to replace them.  Keep your eye on Eli Apple on the corner and Trey Hendrickson or rookie Darius Hodge on the edge.

Of course, the Bengals offense centers around Joe Burrow, his knee and the offensive line's ability to protect him.  We have all the pieces to be very good on offense if the line holds up.  We brought in a new line coach, Frank Pollack, which we are banking on to make a big difference.  

The new bright star we plucked from the draft, Ja'marr chase, has had his troubles, of all things, catching the ball in preseason.  That's not unusual for rookies but we need him to turn that around quickly.

Joe Mixon will handle all the running tasks and catching passes out of the backfield.  A big game from  him and things would look rosy for the home team. 

Head coach Zac Taylor might need a few wins to keep his job.  His best chance for help is a little skinny kid wearing number 2 on his jersey.  He is a rookie from the University of Florida named Evan McPherson who can kick a football through the goal posts from Covington, KY if he needs to.  A decent kicker last year would have brought home two or three more wins - minimum.  

I'm all in.  Who Dey?