This Weekend

First, I'm clearly back. Two posts in a week.

Second, I've never loved Joe Paterno, but I'm sad to see him go out like this. It is most certainly unfair for such a great coach to get run out of town by the board of trustees at a school which has gained so much from him.

But, if I'm on the Board of Trustees at PSU, my thought is either (1) Paterno knew more than he's letting on or (2) he should have known more than he does. I really do think that it's answer #2, but either way, he's gotta go. I think that it's fair to say that the first qualification (if an unspoken one) of being a college football coach (with regular access, in a position of power, to thousands of young boys and men) is that you have to be able to keep pedophiles off your staff.

And that's all I have to say about that.

As for this weekend's football game, I think it's definitely possible the Bengals could win this game. You do have to respect a 6-2 team. Even though they lost to the Broncos while being -2 in the T/O column. I've really not seen anything from them. They've played a lot of bad teams, save the 49ers, and haven't really beaten any of them badly (accept the Seahawks, who a respected friend of mine called the worst team he has seen play in person in years - and he's had Notre Dame season tickets for a long time).

Cincy's been winning with defense all year. Their run defense is stout (top 3). Their pass defense isn't bad (10th). And I don't want to be the guy to say "oh, it's all their schedule", but I think it's worth looking at.

So, their schedule has been: Cleveland, Denver, San Fran, Buffalo, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Seattle and Tennessee.

Those teams are ranked: 31st, 20th, 27th, 12th, 32nd, 21st, 30th and 28th, respectively, in yards per game.

In passing yards per game: 25th, 31st, 30th, 15th, 32nd, 28th, 23rd, 13th.

The Steelers are top 10 in both measures.

So, what I'm saying is that the Bengals are completely untested. The most dangerous passing combo they've seen is Ryan Fitzpatrick to Stevie Johnson. They've also managed to handle Colt McCoy, Kyle Orton, Alex Smith, Blaine Gabbert, Curtis Painter, Tavaris Jackson and Matt Hasselbeck. Tavaris Jackson threw for 330 yards.

So, the Bengals may win, but, I think, the deciding aspect of the game will be how the Bengals handle Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and Heath Miller. And who am I kidding? I don't buy that they're up to task.

Steelers 27, Bengals 14.