THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

Good Monday Morning! And happy Labor Day!

Part of being a fan, is blind faith. When you’re a fan, you blindly believe your team always has a chance. You believe on Opening Day the Reds are going to contend, no matter what logic may dictate to you. The second Sunday in September, you slap on your number 9 or 85 Bengals jersey and blindly believe the Bengals are going to contend. You just know it.

We have a lot of people here in the Tri-State who blindly follow the Reds and the Bengals. Not so much that they run out and buy tickets, of course. Losing will do that to a franchise. But in their hearts, in their words, fans around here want to believe.

I will give you two reasons today why you should believe in your Cincinnati Reds: Jay Bruce can’t possibly be as bad as he was before he got hurt in July. And there’s a lot of talent bubbling just below the major league level.
The best days for your Cincinnati Reds lie ahead, which isn’t saying much since the Reds have made the playoffs a grand total of twice since 1979.

But be very careful what you buy into. For example: The Reds recent winning streak continued last night, with a 3-1 win in Atlanta. Bronson Arroyo look good on Friday night. Kip Wells pitched decent baseball Saturday night. This is great. Except the Reds are doing something they’ve mastered over the last 14 seasons: they’re winning when the heat is off. They’re out of the pennant race, playing with zero pressure. There is a stark contrast from what they’re doing to what’s going on with the Dodgers and Rockies, or the wild card battle in the American League between the Rangers and Red Sox. We’ve seen this before, haven’t we? The Reds have padded their resume by playing well, when there’s nothing to play for.

Ask yourself this, before you get all geeked about what they’ve done in the past week or so. When and if this team actually makes it to the playoffs again, do you really believe the “Everyday 8” will be populated by players like Laynce Nix, Paul Janish and Craig Tatum? That’s not a knock on those guys. But like of lot of the “Everyday 8’s” we’ve seen around here in recent years, they’re back of the roster players, bench guys at best. You can get an occasional start from players like that, maybe a hot bat or two off the bench. But what contending team right now would have them in their starting line-up. In a word: none.

Look, I love it when the Reds win. I’ve told people in their late teens and 20’s, who have no reccolection of this team being any good, that Cincinnati is a different town when the Reds are winning. Downtown has a buzz. The stands are full most nights. There’s baseball chatter all over, even among some people who don’t know if a baseball is blown up or strung together.

But, in light of this lastest winning streak with no pressure from a playoff chase, let’s not lose sight of one thing: This team needs a lot of work and a lot of re-tooling before next Spring if it hopes to contend. Believe in hope. Just don’t believe in false hope.

Anyone running around town today, giddy over the way the Bengals looked in their pre-season finale against the Colts needs to have their medication adjusted. The only thing that Thursday night told us was this: a bunch of guys the Bengals hope never get on the playing field beat a bunch of guys the Colts hope never get on the playing field. Plain, simple, end of story.
Here’s all you have to ask yourself: did you see Carson Palmer play? No.
I think Peyton Manning is still sitting on the bench.

So here you go. This is what you’ve got to be real about, one week before games start to count. The Bengals offense goes as far as the line holds up. Anymore, Carson Palmer has all the agility of a refrigerator. If the line can’t give him time to throw, if he has to leave the pocket consistently, bad things will happen. Remember, a lot of these guys blocking were in the same group that allowed Ryan Fitzpatrick to become fertilizer last Fall. I like Andrew Whitworth. I’d love Andrew Whitworth at guard, not the position he’s playing. And don’t kid yourself; the reason why Whitworth is playing left tackle is because the Bengals knew on draft day Andre Smith wasn’t going to be in camp on time. There was no way they were going into camp this year, waiting for Smith to show up to play left tackle. Remember, Smith was a left tackle in college. He almost immediately became a right tackle here, because the Bengals knew in April he’d be tough to sign. They tried to tell us, a tackle is a tackle, that a player who’s played left tackle could easily move over to play right tackle. Repeat after me: not true. To accept this is to minimize the role of a left tackle. They are not interchangeable parts. Andre Smith is a left tackle.

Football truism here: the three most important positions on the offensive side of the ball, in this order, are quarterback, left tackle and wide receiver. Running backs you can find anywhere. There’s always a Cedric Benson floating out there in mid-season. There’s always a Bernard Scott available in the late rounds of a draft. Good interior lineman, by and large, are not that difficult to find. Quarterback, left tackle, wide receiver are not interchangeable parts. Once you get by Whitworth and Bobbie Williams you have nothing but questions along that offensive line.

And one thing about Andre Smith: what did the Bengals expect when they finally signed him? Weight has always been an issue with this dude. He showed up a week ago today and was as big as a Marriott. Personal discipline has been and issue with this guy, at least as far back as the end of his last season at Alabama. Improper dealings with an agent cost him a chance to play in Alabama’s bowl game. Then, there was the issue of leving the Combine early and changing agents like socks.

The minute the Bengals found out they’d be picking after the Jets, who were going to take Mark Sanchez from day one, and before the Raiders, who are as stupid with money as friends of Bernie Madoff, the minute all of that happened, the Bengals knew they were in for a long negotiation process with Smith. So riddle me this: why didn’t the Bengal dispatch someone from their training staff to wherever Smith was this summer and watch him? Make sure that he was eating right and practicing in as close to camp conditions as possible? Did any of the smart guys at Paul Brown Stadium think that might be a good idea? Problems with NFL rules, figure out a way to get around them. But no, none of that happens and Smith arrives weighing a robust 364. I keep hearing comparisons to Willie Anderson. I keep seeing Freddie Childress when I look at him.

All of that makes me wonder about the Bengals this year. Palmer’s healthy and that’s a plus. Ochocinco appears to be channeling Floyd Mayweather in his physique and workout regime. And that’s good. I like that they’ve re-enforced their front seven on defense.

But in the AFC, you’re going to need eleven wins to get into the playoffs. And getting into the playoffs is the only thing that matters. Eleven wins didn’t get the Patriots in last year. But I thi

Baltimore’s better, the Steelers are the defending Super Bowl champs and other than Detroit, those games against the NFC North could be brutal.

So as we sit here today, I’m hear to tell you I believe your Cincinnati Bengals will be better this season (you’re saying Ken, how could they be any worse than they were last season? These are the Bengals, we should not be asking that kind of rhetorical question). But I don’t see eleven wins on this schedule.