The Bengals are tied for the lead in the AFC North, but the Ravens are breathing down their necks. NFL.com analyst Pat Kirwan and Jason Horowitz preview the game, which you can watch this Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET on CBS.

Bengals WR Chad Ochocinco has a subtle message for the Ravens defense he’ll see on Sunday, they stink. Ochocinco told a Baltimore radio station that he sent packages with deodorant to the team’s secondary and LBs Terrell Suggs and Ray Lewis. “I not only sent them gift baskets, but I sent them something they could use so they don’t sweat,” he said, via the Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore is still bitter about what happened last time. Cincinnati caught them by surprise and it took a month for the Ravens to recover. They rediscovered their hot hand last week on the way to pounding Denver 30-9, and now they’re ready for revenge.

Cincinnati is ready too. After completing their best win in years, the Bengals enjoyed a relaxing few days away from football and recuperated their damaged bodies. Now they ride back into town, healthier and more prepared than they’ve been all season, eager to keep the Ravens in their place: behind them in the standings.

The game plan is becoming redundant against these kinds of teams; spread out the wide-receivers, exploit the middle of the field against zone coverages, run hand-offs outside of the tackles to Cedric Benson, throw early to set up the run late. All of these efforts are designed to soften the hard edges of the Ravens defensive front seven. They’re still a tough team to run on (fourth in the league), but the Bengals smashed them to bits with the run in their first meeting. If Cincinnati can protect Carson Palmer and the passing-game gets moving early on, Benson and the offensive line will find life easier in the second half and wind down the clock while sustaining long drives.

Let’s face it; after last week, the Bengals offense appears that it cannot be defended in any one particular way. Palmer is back to playing at an elite level, Benson has demonstrated a blend of speed and power that now has him ranked among the league’s best runners, and the team is suddenly faced with a glut of quality offensive linemen; opponents can’t repel firepower of that magnitude!

The Ravens freaked out Bronco quarterback, Kyle Orton, early in the game last week by sending heavy pressure on blitzes which caused the scruffy signal-caller to scramble around and lose his composure. Still fueled by their hostility toward Palmer and the Bengals, I would expect Baltimore to cut loose and come after our golden boy with hatchets and spears all day on blitz-packages.

The theory makes sense; Palmer will eat any defense alive if he’s allowed time in the pocket to hang back and find open guys, and after their recent success with the blitz, there’s no reason to think Ray Lewis and his band of lunatics won’t go nuts at the mere sight of No. 9. He’s a marked man pursued by nasty renegades, bent on finishing the job and escaping with a win.

Therefore, something as basic as the screen-pass could lead the Ravens right into Cincinnati’s trap. Like an experienced matador, Palmer could invite the all-out blitz, wait for its raging eyes to come into sight, and at the last second side-step the violent encounter and dump off the screen to Benson with both an open field and a wall of blockers to work with. Voila!

If the Ravens pick up on the screen, yet continue to send additional blitzers, quick-outs to the Bengal receivers would force Baltimore’s corners to make open-field tackles—something they’ve struggled doing throughout the season. Once Palmer and the Bengals find success in the short-passing game in the face of the blitz, the Ravens will be forced to back off from sending all that pressure, and Cedric Benson will have room to operate on the ground.

At this point in time, it’s up to the Bengals to stop themselves on offense because opposing defenses aren’t rising to the challenge. If they can come close to matching the success they had against the Bears, the Ravens will have little chance of slowing Cincinnati down and winning the game.

On defense, nothing has changed since the last meeting between these two; stop Ray Rice first and Todd Heap second. Leave their receivers alone in one-on-one coverage, our corners can handle it. Keep the defensive line stretched out and contain Rice between the hash-marks. Play a shallow zone to keep Heap from finding space alone in the flats, and when the Bengals do blitz, send linebackers and safeties up the middle to flush Joe Flacco out of the pocket and make plays with his legs.

Cincinnati did a decent job containing Rice on the ground in Week 5, but missed a tackle to allow the big play on a screen pass; that can’t happen again this week. The newest version of the NFL running back—squat and meaty, compact and hard to tackle—has plagued the Bengals defense more than the league’s traditional backs. Two smallish, quicker runners, Rice and Houston’s Steve Slaton, have had the biggest impact in games against Cincinnati so far. That’s why stopping Rice, and not worrying about Willis McGahee or the trio of mediocre receivers, remains the defense’s top priority.

There is little reason to worry about the Bengals this week. Sure the Ravens are always a formidable group of roughnecks that seem consistently hellbent on pulverizing anything in sight. Sure they take pleasure in making Sundays a brutal affair where only the gruffest survive and often times bully their way into wins and playoffs. Sure they’re dressed like a bruise, but the team they so eagerly await at that rickety card table in the dingy hole-in-the-wall on the outskirts of town will not be out-muscled. They won’t be intimidated or shaken from their game-plan. They will take their seat opposite from these goons, stare them in the eye, and beat them for their pile once again.

Bengals 17, Ravens 0

The first-place Bengals, fresh off of a near-perfect game against the Bears, are still 4,500 tickets away from selling out this Sunday against the Ravens. The logically impulsive thing to do is stand up, point at Mike Brown and call him a vicious opportunist who preys on the American addiction of entertainment and distraction.

At these words, Brown would likely lean back in his chair, wipe his mouth with a white linen napkin, and agree that he is indeed one hell of a capitalist, but as tempting as it is to carry on detailing the swinish attributes of our favorite team’s owner, it is actually another greedy hog—a Texan-sized boar rolling around in his mud-puddles of cash and wealth—who is more to blame for our potential blackout this Sunday than Big Daddy Brown.

Sure the recession has a lot to do with it, but it is Jerry Jones, and his Dallas palace of decadence and excess, that has raised the average cost of attending a football game like no other money-wallowing slug before him. It’s caused most of the other owners to jack up their own rates trying to keep pace of the league’s average ticket price that swelled from last year thanks to the new exorbitant cost of a Cowboys game.

While scores of Americans stoop and settle for new lows in order to find work, Jones moved ahead with a new venue for entertainment that smacks of the Roman Coliseum, not in style or architecture, but in affect and general silliness. Perhaps Jones is the modern Caligula, leading a blind charge into a millennium of scarce natural resource and less common sense.

I agree it’s a brazen move. Unveiling a structure the size of the Death Star during the worst economic climate in the last 80 years takes balls. Jerry Jones will probably tell you that he can spend $1.2 billion on his football team because he always makes the most of what he has to work with, and I suppose that’s true; no one can blame him for living out the dream that I and many others fantasized about in the backseat on the way to school. The frosted-side in me thinks having your own football stadium would be so awesome!!!, but the shredded-wheat side thinks $40 parking is morally unconscionable.

Jones is simply a triumph of this American market-driven society because he, and the other Stone Cutters like him, continues to push ahead and exceed the limits of what can be done with more money. It’s estimated that a family of four spends over $750 on a game there, yet the season is sold out. He’s providing exactly the kind of entertainment that we as a country are so desperately addicted to, yet we may be reaching a tipping point back to sanity.

This weekend marks the third time in five chances this year where it will take some outside financial boosting from a player or local corporation to sell enough Bengal tickets in order to see the damn thing on television. After beating the Steelers in Week 3, many figured that would open up the bandwagon again, fans would gobble up tickets to the remaining games, and all would be well in the universe. Not so. I thought that after last week’s drubbing of Chicago, fans would want to see that kind of football poetry unfold before them in person, but that’s still not the case.

Compared to the league average, the cost of a game in Cincinnati is very reasonable and is actually less expensive than last year. Is the recession the reason the games aren’t selling out this season? Based on other cities of comparable market size like Green Bay and Indianapolis both selling out their games so far, I think it runs deeper than that.

Maybe 2008 taught Cincinnati a lesson; Autumn Sundays exist even without football—or at least watchable football. Once the losses piled up and the putrid stench of the corpse that was last season became too much to endure, many people turned away from the television and found something else to do. As a result, the city, as a whole, no longer seems to jones for the sport anymore. The $70 price-tag for an average ticket has become too steep to shell out for these people, and why not?; football can’t matter that much, can it?

Any economic turbulence the NFL may feel is somewhat self-imposed by the demand for pricey stadiums and the endless player payrolls, but we as fans allowed this rampant gouging to reach these ridiculous proportions as well. Society shoveled gobs of money into the mouth of the sports entertainment monster for the past 20 or so years, never blinking as we handed over more and more spending cash to friendly people behind glass ticket-windows. The League enjoyed a golden era of team parity that super-charged the sport’s popularity and league-wide sellouts became a weekly certainty; the nation was hooked and thought of ignoring your team became simply implausible.

Then the stock market wavered and for one beat of a hummingbird’s wing, our way of life was jeopardized. Being the reactionary society we are, Americans reevaluated the costs of entertainment, and some of the more luxurious elements of our life were cut. Electronic appliance stores, investment firms, professional sporting leagues, and other meaningless nonsense all felt the wave of the national skimping.

The NFL scurried to push ahead, attempting the razor fine balancing act of fan enthusiasm on one side and contractual commitment to owners and television companies on the other. Then Jerry Jones goes and builds the NFL’s own mini Las Vegas equipped with cage-dancers and penthouse suites, and jacks up the market making it more difficult for everyone else involved.

As much as I enjoy watching my beloved Bengals on television every Sunday, it’s probably a good thing that people refuse to go broke by keeping a pricey league of entertainment afloat. Team owners and player-agents would likely say that the market drives the costs of the league and it’s the people’s demand that dictates the market, but it appears that the people in Cincinnati have said to hell with the NFL and it’s market by staying home and engage in other activities.

Perhaps priorities are beginning to shift around here; whether this takes hold or is just a passing trend that simply reflects a recession awaits to be seen.

When was the last time these words accurately defined our Cincinnati Bengals? 1990? 1980? Ever?

A franchise that’s been defined by finesse, flamboyance, and (usually) failure, seems to finally have some hair on its proverbial chest. After spending the majority of the last 20 years perpetually rebuilding, Marvin Lewis said, “enough is enough”. Instead of being seduced by 40 times and measurables, the team instead simply looked for football players. Men who do not wilt under pressure or folder in adversity. Men of character and resolve.

To find them, this year’s team was assembled from parts found in the junkyard, the consignment shop, and the irregular rack. An offensive line with just two returning starters; two cast-off safeties. A former first round bust at running-back. Another a second rounder given up on by the Rams. A fullback out of football last year. In many respects, this roster is much different than those of years past.

Since the nightmare scenario to end the opener versus Denver, this rendition of the striped crusaders has been different. Brandon Stokely’s ridiculous and improbably touchdown touched off another round of “here we go again—the gods hate the Bengals” pronouncements from fans and pundits alike. Truthfully, no one would have necessarily blamed the team if they had curled up into the fetal position and embraced another season of oblivion.

This team, however, is different. They fought back. They sacrificed. They began to persevere. The scrapheap cats handled Green Bay. They then sandwiched two late game victories over the schoolyard bullies (The Steelers and Ravens) around a tough win over a very game Cleveland squad. Their latest contest was a clinical dismantling of a desperate Bears team that was a complete victory in every phase.

As the team returns to action from their bye, they find themselves in unfamiliar territory: in first place, with all the tie-breakers, armed with an offense predicated on a successful power running game, but still capable of big plays with a bevy of dynamic receivers led by the All-American Franchise QB. And a salty, stingy defense led by a fiery coach and teeming with smart, tough talent, and a head coach with an unwavering message doing it his way. Not bad for a motley crew of spare parts.

There are, of course, nine games to go. Plenty of time for things to change and for the character of the team to unravel into more familiar results. Previous incarnations of these Bengals have been unable to handle success. They’ve tended to believe the media hype and press clippings and lose their focus. This could happen again, but I tend to doubt it.

This team is different. No matter what the future may hold, this team of cast-offs, free agents, and hungry youngsters won’t lose focus. No matter what may come with divisional battles with the Ravens and Steelers on deck, these Bengals will come to play. They will be aggressive, tough, unflinching. They will fight to the final gun and defend every inch of ground. They will display character, determination, and grit.

And for once, it’s great to see, and something worthy of rooting for.

One of the prime subplots in this season’s Hard Knocks was the battle between two likeable rookie fullbacks: undrafted thumper Chris Pressley and seventh-round pick Fui Vakapuna.

Pressley won out, scoring a practice squad job before landing on Tampa’s 53-man roster. Now Vakapuna will get his own happy ending — for now. The Bengals are adding him to their active roster, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

The team released tackle Scott Kooistra to make room for Vakapuna. Starting fullback Jeremi Johnson sat out practice Monday with a knee injury, but is considered likely to play against Baltimore this Sunday.

Like veteran circus freaks, we’ve been kicked around for a long time and we have trust issues with management. Bengal fans usually draw pity-smiles from the football world and any success often comes with a condescending pat on the head. It’s a tough gig, but that’s exactly what makes moments like the one against the Bears on Sunday simply golden.

On Monday morning we had bruised sternums from all the chest pounding the day before. By the third quarter, the crowd at Paul Brown Stadium was drunk with touchdowns and merriment; it was an orgy of high-fives and fist-bumps. The score quickly ran out of control and you could overhear cell-phone calls to people at home watching it on TV, verifying that everything happening was real. Euphoric astonishment washed through the stands. It was good day to be a Bengal fan.

Since this is the bye week and we’re still coming down from our high, let’s get silly and toss perspective out altogether one last time. I’ve held back from using these words but it’s time they are written: the Cincinnati Bengals are Super Bowl contenders.

Boom!

Before the tiny, embryonic seed of doubt gets any bigger and all those rational counter-points spring to your lips, first consider the facts.

At 5-2, the Bengals are tied for the lead in what many talking-heads are calling the best division in the NFL. They have defeated each divisional team and are heading into their bye week after slaughtering a decent Chicago team, 45-10. They have the NFL’s leading rusher in Cedric Benson and Carson Palmer is putting up numbers that project comparably to his best statistical seasons. Chad Ochocinco is also back to his customary Pro-Bowl form and the defense is agreed by many as its best unit in years. What’s not to like?

If you’re not a stats person, if you’re an intangibles sort, then there is this: the Bengals went to Lambeau Field and got their first win after losing at home in Week 1 to the Broncos on a last-second tip for a miracle touchdown. When some doubted their emotional wherewithal, the Bengals followed the win in Green Bay with a fourth-quarter comeback against Pittsburgh at home followed by two more consecutive thrilling comebacks on the road at Cleveland and again at Baltimore. They then lost a trap game to Houston, were once again doubted, got angry, and obliterated the Bears the next week.

The team has been through personal tragedy but has stayed focused and professional throughout. Palmer has improved every week and is playing on an elite level again. The Bengal offensive line is feasting on quality opposition. Cincinnati’s defense has risen to a multitude of challenges already this season resulting in winning situations for the offense. Still not satisfied?

Fine.

They’re already battle-tested in close games after first losing a heart-breaker and then mustering three second-half comeback wins. They have viable offensive weapons that have yet to be fully utilized, including the sixth overall pick, Andre Smith, and the limping defense will mend over the upcoming bye week. They have two weeks to prepare for Baltimore then Pittsburgh, and have the upper-hand on each. They still play Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City at home and travel to Oakland. They’re playing their best football right now and not even Bob Bratkowski can keep a Bengals fan from smiling.

It’s okay to talk about the Super Bowl. Let go of your doubt and enjoy it; we don’t get these moments very often. Sure there are lots of reasons why it might not happen, but it’s been a while since we’ve had that many paragraphs at mid-season of why this could be the year. Is there any chance the rest of the world feels the same? I doubt it.

It would go one to be featured in my elementary school’s newspaper, the headline that day ” Welcome to the Jungle ” The story that day was the Bengals 61-7 destruction of the Houston Oilers. Those Bengals would go on to finish 8-8 that season , and Bengals fans have been suffering ever since.

Sure they have had brief moments of excitement and have even thrilled there fans at times. But this season is different, The Cincinnati Bengals in 2009 are doing more than winning football games. They are taking their fans back to a better place in time.

I predicted that the Bengals would finish this season 9-7 or 10-6 and be a wildcard team in the AFC playoff picture. This team is better than I ever imagined. The Bengals may not win pretty, but they win. It seems that this team has finally learned how to reach out and take victory. The first 5 games of 2009 all came down to the wire, and the Bengals found a way to win. This team got off to an amazing 4-1 start before they suffered defeat at the hands of a Houston team that I also predicted would be 10-6.

Today the Bengals took another step forward. Today they imposed their will on the opposition. They came out today to make a statement, and what a statement it was. The NFL better realize this team is for real. Just look at what they did to the Bears today. They dominated on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball.

The Cincinnati offense put on a clinic against the Bears today. Carson Palmer was almost perfect on the day going 20-24 for 233 yards and 5 touchdowns in 3 quarters of work. Chad Ochocinco was targeted on 11 attempts, catching 10 balls for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns. The only time Chad was targeted and didn’t make the catch resulted in a defensive penalty.

Cedric Benson proved his point to all the doubters in Chi-town as he ran wild against the Bears gaining 189 yards on 37 attempts and scoring a touchdown. The Cincinnati Bengals offense showed today they have the athletic ability to create matchup problems against any defense in the league. If this team can avoid the injury bug they should be an exciting offense in the second half of the season.

The Bengals defense looked great again this week. They created 4 turnovers and seemed to steal the heart and sole of the Chicago offensive players. Chicago was behind early and never could get Matt Forte involved. Forte had just 24 yards on 6 rushing attempts. Jay Cutler was 26- 37 for 251 yards 1 touchdown and 3 interceptions.

The Bengals defense is young and very athletic, they seem to be getting better every week. This was the kind of game that can spark that Cincinnati defense. A game like that breads confidence. If that defense continues to develop at the rate they are now I would not want to line up against that in 6-8 weeks.

Cincinnati will have a bye next week, and currently sit at 5-2 and 1st in the division. They come out of the bye week with 2 division games against Baltimore and at Pittsburgh. Those games are followed up with games against Oakland, Cleveland, and Detroit. I don’t look for Cincinnati to sweep the division , but it could happen. Cincinnati could be 10-2.

On Wednesday, Jerry Jones had mentioned vaguely that they had received an offer from another team, but had turned it down. Jones said that there was a “very firm, significant offer for one of our young players.”

Bennett has rare size and athleticism, but is still being developed by the Cowboys and getting limited snaps behind starter Jason Witten.

The trade would have made a lot of sense for the Bengals, who have been struggling at the position with the loss of starter Reggie Kelly and back-up Ben Utecht in training camp. Daniel Coats, a FB last season, has been pressed into starting duty, with free agent pick-up J.P. Foschi also getting significant snaps.

Both players had drive-killing fumbles in last week’s loss to the Texans in the second half.

There was no word on what the Bengals had offered the Cowboys in terms of draft picks or players. For his part, Bennett seemed intrigued by the possibility of playing with Chad Ochocinco. On his twitter page, Bennett wrote, “Ha the bengals tried to trade for me?ochocinco Marty b woulda been a ruckus. I love being a cowboy tho this is home I love this team.”

Though the deal was ultimately turned down, and the trade deadline has now passed, this should be seen as a good sign to Bengals fans. It seems to indicate the team is leaving no stone unturned in an effort to improve a weakness on the roster.