You always need to be wary of the phrase 'strength in numbers'. A lot of times, you've got numbers, but not a whole lot of strength. The Bengals believe one of the few bright spots in this lost season is the strength in numbers at running back. They've got a lot of them, at last count five that could fight for four jobs next summer.

Rudi Johnson is finally getting his stride back, after a nagging hamstring injury. Rudi has fallen out of favor with a lot of fans lately. But in bad weather, he's a good back. And the Bengals play a lot of games in bad weather. Then, there's Kenny Irons, the 2007 second round pick who's spent the entire season on the shelf. Irons blew out his knee in a pre season game this summer. But the Bengals drafted Irons to be their every down back, with Rudi moving to more of a short yardage, goal line guy (think "Bus"). You'd have to believe, the Bengals will give that strategy another shot next summer. Then, there are what I call the 'flavors of the month'. In October and November, when Rudi was out with his injury, fans fell in love with Kenny Watson. I host the "Bengals Feedback" show on 700 WLW and 1530 Homer after Bengals games. Actually, the name of the show should be "Bengals Group Therapy", the way this season has gone. Callers would scream for more Watson and howl for less Rudi. Now, the flavor of choice os DeDe Dorsey, who's a lightning quick runner, but seems to only get into the game for just a handful of plays. Dorsey, like Watson, provides a nice change up. But if you want to win ballgames in late November and December, you have to pound the ball. The Bengals best 'pounder' (pound for pound) is Rudi. Period.

Then, there's the oft injured and seldom seen Chris Perry, the number one pick from 2004. The addition of Irons in the 2007 draft seems to exclude Perry from the mix. He's again out for another season. But it wouldn't surprise me to see all of these guys back when the Bengals convene for 2008 camp next July. They're all under contract for 2008.

And if you believe this from Peter King on sportsillustrated.com, money won't be a factor. The Bengals are how much under the salary cap? Yikes!

Then, there's always Chick Ludwig in the Dayton Daily News who weighs in on the potential 2008 Bengals draft. I like Chick a lot, even though he never returns my phone calls, when I'm trolling for guests on my radio shows and WLWT's Sports Rock!

I'm a traditionalist. I love Thanksgiving dinner at 7pm. I want white meat only and gravy made from the turkey. I don't like traveling for the holidays and, above all else, I don't want to be bothered while watching football on television. Full disclosure, I have to do that for a living. But when the game is on, I want to watch it. I want to see who blocks well, who misses tackles. I want to see if the quarterback can read a defense. I want to watch for the coaching strategies. But here's what I don't want to see anymore.

The Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day. I know, I know, I said I was a traditionalist. And the Lions on Thanksgiving Day pre-dates cranberries and stuffing. But until the Lions get better, until they prove to the football world they know what they're doing, the NFL needs to keep this team off national television on Thanksgiving Day. Watching the Lions is worse than indigestion.

The Lions have been so bad, for so long, it's borderline criminal. They can't draft (see Desmond Howard, Charles Rogers, Joey Harrington, etc.) and they haven't had a whiff of the playoffs since 1999.

When they had Barry Sanders, they used to be fun to watch. You knew the Lions were never going to get close to the Super Bowl, but at least their offense could score some points. And Sanders was always good for a couple of electrifing runs on turkey day.

Now the Lions are one of the NFL's doormats. Perhaps the NFL is aware that a lot of their teams don't want to play on Thanksgiving, have no interest in playing a 'short' week. Maybe the NFL is sensitive to the fact that Lions fans will leave their homes and dinners to watch their team play on a national holiday. But the rest of us deserve better. The Lions against the Dolphins? Time for a nap.

Ken