I know a lot of you will not give a darn about this, either because you do not like football as much as me or you do not care about the Bengals. No matter…I know it is only April, but I am ready for some football, let’s get it kick started! The NFL released the 2009 Bengals Regular Season Schedule today which is as follows:
1 Sun, Sept. 13 vs. Denver Broncos 1 p.m.
2 Sun, Sept. 20 at Green Bay Packers 1 p.m.
3 Sun, Sept. 27 vs. Pittsburgh Steelers 1 p.m.
4 Sun, Oct. 4 at Cleveland Browns 1 p.m.
5 Sun, Oct. 11 at Baltimore Ravens 1 p.m.
6 Sun, Oct. 18 vs. Houston Texans 1 p.m.
7 Sun, Oct. 25 vs. Chicago Bears 1 p.m.
8 Bye
9 Sun, Nov. 8 vs. Baltimore Ravens 1 p.m.
10 Sun, Nov. 15 at Pittsburgh Steelers 1 p.m.
11 Sun, Nov. 22 at Oakland Raiders 4:15 p.m.
12 Sun, Nov. 29 vs. Cleveland Browns 1 p.m.
13 Sun, Dec. 6 vs. Detroit Lions 1 p.m.
14 Sun, Dec. 13 at Minnesota Vikings 1 p.m.
15 Sun, Dec. 20 at San Diego Chargers 4:05 p.m.
16 Sun, Dec. 27 vs. Kansas City Chiefs 1 p.m.
17 Sun, Jan. 3 at New York Jets 1 p.m.
My main reason for being excited for this upcoming NFL season is because it is a new season. Bengals fans have at least one reason to be excited for a new season and that is because they start out with a record of 0-0. A clean slate. A level playing field. They are undefeated! We can say that for at least four more months.
Other reasons for Bengals fans to be excited include: 1) Carson Palmer is healthy once again, 2) Defense, yes the Bengals defense showed improvement last year (12th ranked in the NFL) and they will get several key players back to full health (Keith Rivers, Johnathan Joseph) and they have added DT Tank Johnson and re-signed S Chris Crocker, all good moves in my opinion. If the offense can get back on track, I think we will surprise a lot of people this year. 3.) IF the Bengals are able to trade Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson before or after the draft I will be excited. The guy doesn’t want to be in Cincy and moving him out of town will improve the atmosphere in the locker room. I doubt this will happen though.
Games I am looking forward to:
9/27 vs. Pittsburgh – I hate the Steelers more than any other professional sports franchise, for more on that click here. The Bengals have never beaten Pittsburgh at home since Marvin Lewis has been head coach.
10/25 vs Chicago – The Bears are my second favorite team. I love that they picked up Jay Cutler in the offseason and even though I hope the Bengals come away with the win I always look forward to watching my favorite teams play against each other.
11/15 at Pittsburgh – Another chance to embarrass the hated Super Bowl champs in their house.
12/6 vs Detroit – The Lions were 0-16 last year, I don’t see them being much better this year and hopefully this game is a late season blow out for Cincy.
12/13 at Minnesota – I’m an Adrian Peterson fan, I think he may be the most exciting RB in the league to watch. I look forward to seeing if we can stop him and if we don’t I hope we can squeak by with a win. I doubt it.
The Bengals play back-to-back road games three times during the season and they do not have any prime time games on the schedule this year, which I am glad to see because they don’t deserve it.
That’s all I have to say about that.