Cincy Jungle
Normally, I’d say “bye-week blues,” because watching pro football without the Cincinnati Bengals is obviously not nearly as much fun. But these aren’t normal times. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two consecutive losses as painful as the last two. Sure, there have been bad ones before—that’s nothing new in Bengals Country—but you’d have to go way back to find two that awful in back-to-back weeks.
Bengals fans everywhere feel drained. Another season lost. Same story.
That’s why this bye week was… kind of nice.
We all needed a break—from yelling, from pacing, from muttering at the TV. None of it’s helping the Bengals win, and it’s definitely not good for our collective health. A little detox is good for the body and the soul. Personally, I feel refreshed after watching a weekend of NFL football without the stress of the Bengals playing.
We all know the league’s going to add another regular-season game soon, and probably a second bye week with it. If an extra bye makes me feel this recharged, sign me up.
How about you? Did the bye week recharge your batteries, or did you still miss the Bengals—no matter how terrible their current brand of football is?
The big news this week is Joe Burrow’s return to practice, albeit in a limited capacity. This opens his 21-day window to practice without counting against the 53-man roster. When that window closes, the Bengals will either activate him—or not.
Realistically, that means he could return in time for the Week-14 game against the Bills in the snowy wastes of upstate New York. Whether he should play is another story. If the team drops a couple more games, there’s no reason to risk another injury. And if they manage to claw back to 6-6 by then, do you mess with the chemistry of a winning stretch—especially if Burrow isn’t fully healthy?
Just because the window’s open doesn’t mean we’re three weeks away from seeing him back on the field. It’s borderline unbelievable he’s practicing at all, considering he’s still fresh off turf-toe surgery. I slept wrong last night and won’t be able to look left for four days. Burrow and I might both be human beings, but that’s where the similarities end.
