Irony, you fickle bitch.

It would seem only natural that the one time I start to believe in this team, the one time I allow my hope to start to come out of hiding, the moment I declare that an 8-0 start to the year is a distinct possibility, the Bengals would then proceed to play 11 15 quarters of some of the worst football I’ve ever seen. I suppose I have only myself to blame. You would think I would have figured it out by now, after a decade of dashed hopes and downtrodden devotion, but alas I still have the same lesson to learn, just in a different way.

This would be the point in my posts of the past where I would trot out the rushing board and point out how our opponents running backs are racking up yards as if the defense wasn’t there. That was certainly the case against the “I-don’t-think-you-can-make-the-case-they-are-among-the-elite-of-the-league” Patriots where Laurence Maroney had an average of 8.3 yards per rush, netting himself 125 yards on just 15 attempts. For once however, it isn’t the defense that needs to be ragged upon. Now it is not the defense that is failing alone, but the offense has grown sick as well.

Most notably is the poor pass protection of the offensive line. Palmer is being haggled and harassed almost every time he drops back it seems, and that is affecting the entire offense. I think this is the primary cause for Chad Johnson’s disappearance from the scoreboard and stat sheet. C.J. doesn’t have time to run deep routes when Palmer has to get the ball out quickly because the QB has defensive linemen in his face.

Now, rather than Chad being the first read on passing situations, it seems to me that T.J. Houshmandzadeh is now Palmer’s #1 receiver. Whereas Chad has more total yards for the year (451 vs. 422), both he and T.J. have an equal number of receptions (36), but T.J. has twice as many touchdowns (4 vs. 2). I think the tide has shifted toward Housh, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

For seven weeks, the Bengals had no swagger. There was no Chad Johnson on the microphone explaining how many touchdowns he planned to get that week, or which corner back he was calling out. Last week that all changed, finally, but it didn’t matter as the o-line couldn’t give Palmer time, and the defense was unable to stop a now deadly passing Michael Vick.

The Bengals are in real trouble. The defense is still having problems stopping opponents, and now the offense is starting to sputter. We’re 4-3 right now, and there are four other teams in the AFC at 4-4 or better who aren’t leading (or tied in) their division. That’s five teams competing for only two Wild Cards.

I am worried.