Indianapolis 45 @ Cincinnati 37--Where's The D?

Peyton Manning showed the world why he is the reigning NFL MVP. The Cincinnati Bengals went into the game with the intention of shutting down Edgerrin James, and they did a good job of that. He had only 89 yards on 24 carries, but he did find the endzone twice. He did not do the serious damage though. Manning did, over and over and over again. He finished 24-40 for 365 yards with 3 touchdowns. He led the Colts to touchdowns on each of their first five possessions, and was able to convert five different third downs of eleven yards or more during the course of the game. The Bengals' secondary looked lost at times, Tory James was blown by on a 66 yard touchdown pass to Reggie Wayne, and Ifeanyi Ohalete was constantly out of place trying to cover Dallas Clark. The other noticable problem with the Bengal D was their lack of pass rush. Justin Smith sacked Manning once, but they were unable to get consistent pressure on him.

Despite all of this, the Bengals' offense proved that it can play with the best in the league. They put up 37 points against a defense that ranked in the top 5 of the league in multiple categories entering the game. Rudi Johnson and Chris Perry both had success running against the undersized front seven of Indianapolis, and Chad Johnson had a career high in receiving yards with 189. Carson Palmer had another excellent day throwing for 335 yards and two touchdowns against only one interception. This gives the Bengals hope heading into the final six games.

The Bengals remaining games have two more tests in them. December 4th at Pittsburgh and the season finale at Kansas City. Even if the Bengals don't win either of these games, they could still finish 11-5 if they take care of business in their other games. This would be good enough for a wild card berth. If they slip up in one of those games, the Chargers or Chiefs will have a chance to catch them. The main reason they won't are their schedules. Both the Chargers and the Chiefs have very difficult schedules the rest of the way which should keep them from getting to more than 10 wins at best. The Bengals control their own destiny, and that destiny is the playoffs.