Just another Manic Monday....

BTW, whatever happened to Suzanna Hoffs and the Bangles?

Whoa...didn't see this one coming, Saints win the Super Bowl! You can think the genius coaching of the Saints' Sean Payton. 4th and 1 from the Colts one, right before halftime, Payton elects to 'go for it'. The Saints didn't get into the end zone. But it left Peyton Manning and the Colts backed up. Payton had all of his time outs left. He knew if he held the Colts to 'three and out', he'd get the ball back in decent field position. It happened exactly that way and the Saints wound up with the three points they left on the field just moments before.

The on-sides kick to start the second half was pure genius, and headsy. And challenging the two point conversion try that the Saints didn't get on the field, but was reversed on replay, was another indication that Payton had his 'A' game going and Jim Caldwell, the Indianapolis coach, did not. By the way, there is NO way that two point conversion should have been overturned on replay. Despite what the NFL chief of officials says, it was not a successful conversion by strict interpretation of the NFL rule book.

I'm particularly happy today for the Cincinnati connection on that Saints squad. Former Lakota High and UC star, Troy Evans was a big contributer on special teams. And did you see him out there for the pre game coin flip? Zach Strief, the Milford High standout by way of Northwestern, will be wearing a Super Bowl champion's ring. And the linebackers coach for the Saints happens to be the son of Bengals defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer. When you factor in the time Sean Payton spent on the late Randy Walker's coaching staff at Miami University, Southwest Ohio didn't do all that badly on Sunday night.

Good Monday Morning!

This is what I'm thinking about today: what do the Jets, Colts, Vikings and Saints have that the Bengals don’t? Why were those teams still playing Sunday, and your Cincinnati Bengals have scattered for the winter? The easy answer is this: they all play great defense, they all have impact players on both sides of the football and they all can throw the ball, even the Jets.

The tougher question is why. Why can the Jets do all of that and the Bengals can’t? A lot of it is talent. A lot of it is scheme. A lot of it is simply putting dollars into personnel that will have impact in the areas of the game that are now the most important.

There was a time when you could win in the NFL simply by running the ball, controlling the clock and then playing solid defense. It was a blue print to getting deep into the playoffs. The New York Giants did it under Bill Parcells. They did a few years ago under Tom Coughlin. And we know all about what the Steelers have done. But the game has changed.

This is what Bill Cowher said on the CBS NFL pre-game show back in October. And this is a direct quote:

‘The game has changed, the rules have changed," he said. "I think right now, I hate to say this, but the running game is a complement. It's not the foundation that it once was. “ Cowher went onto say, “You look at the last three AFC teams that were in the Super Bowl, that's Pittsburgh, New England and Indianapolis. They're all passing teams. The running game is a complement.”

Think about how many times you’ve seen a team get into the red zone simply because it throws the ball downfield. Sometimes, the receiver makes a spectacular catch. Sometimes, he turns that into a touchdown. But more often than not, the receiver doesn’t have to do anything.

In the NFL, pass interference is a spot foul. It’s not college, where the distance of the call is just 15 yards. If an NFL defensive back is called for pass interference on his own five yard line, that’s where the offense gets the ball. In college, 15 yards from the line of scrimmage, max.

Now think about the number of times the Bengals threw deep this season. In a lot of ways, what was wrong with their offense, could have been fixed, or hidden, by simply throwing deep. The difference between these four teams left standing and the Bengals? It was the Bengals inability to throw the ball with any consistency. But why?

I did a little digging, a little research. Three of the four teams left in the Super Bowl chase were in the top eight in passing offense: Indianapolis ranked second, New Orleans fourth, Minnesota eighth. The Jets were 31st, second to last.

Throwing deep, testing the secondary, keeping the safeties from cheating up into run support is something else the Final 4 NFL teams can do well, and the Bengals didn’t’.

Here’s the stat: plays of 20-or more yards this season, passing plays. The Colts had 62 of those. The Saints had 58, the Vikings 55. The Jets had 37 plays of 20-yards of more. Your Cincinnati Bengals, only 36. 36 pass plays of 20-or more yards in 477-passing attempts.

Passing leads to points. I’ve said this since October, the Bengals offense could not score enough points this season to make any reasonable thinking fan believe they could play with the big boys come playoff time. Eleven of the 12 playoff teams ranked in the top 17 for points scored this season. When you extract defense and special teams scoring, the Bengals total of 281 offensive points in 2009, left them at 22nd in the entire league. That comes out to 17 and a half points from the offense per game.

New Orleans and Minnesota, incidentally were one-two.. The Saints offense averaged better than 28 and a half points per game.

But why?

Of the 10-playoff quarterbacks, nine had better passing stats than Carson Palmer. Only the Jets Mark Sanchez was worse. Does this mean that Palmer isn’t the quarterback a lot of us think he is? Or did these teams have better talent around their quarterbacks?

Let’s start with the offense line. The Bengals line allowed 56-hits on Palmer and 29-sacks for a quarterback misery total of 85. The Colts allowed just 13-sacks, 44-hits for a misery total of 57. The Saints allowed just 20 sacks, misery total of 72. The Jets line, considered the best in the business, allowed 30-sacks and 53-hits on Sanchez. The Vikings total was a whopping 117. Favre was sacked 34 times.

But the Colts threw the ball over a hundred times more than the Bengals did this season. Manning, Favre and Brees were all top ten in attempts. Palmer was 19th, making the sacks and hits on him more glaring.

You know what the four teams left standing have that the Bengals don’t? A legitimate tight end. The Vikings Visante Sciancoe had twice as many catches as JP Foschi did this season. The Colts Dallas Clark caught 100-passes. Foschi caught 27. Sciancoe had eleven touhdown catches. The Bengals receiving corp, tight ends and wide receivers and running backs, together caught just 21.

Cowher is right. This is a passing league where you must score points to win. It was great watching Cedric Benson run all over the field this season. It was terrific to see the Bengals defense shutdown some big time play makers. But the name of the game now is throwing the ball and scoring points. And unless the Bengals figure that out between now and next season, my guess is we’ll get to this final four weekend without them…again.

Looking at the tape of the Bengals and Saints co-workout today, it made me think of just how 'old school' the Bengals are. Today was the first time they ever shared a practice field with another team, in their 40-year history.

It's common around the NFL these days to see two geographically close teams scrimmage before the pre-season begins. When I worked in Washington, DC, I covered the Redskins-Steelers scrimmages every summer. And that's plural: scrimmages. Once a summer they'd meet in Frostburg, Maryland, then the 'Skins summer base. Once a summer, the teams scrimmaged in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The Bengals, for 40-years have only held an intra-squad scrimmage. Some coaches have told me they don't like this. When you scrimmage against yourself, your offense against your defense, it doubles the chances of you players getting hurt. Today, it was a full speed, non contact workout with the Saints. Maybe it'll lead the Bengals into the same turf the rest of the NFL has been enjoying, for year.

I'm now officially concerned about Willie Anderson. The big tackle showed up today wearing a protective 'boot' on his right foot. Anderson was injured in December, 2006, in a game against the Colts. Apparently, the injury never healed properly. And today, Anderson hinted he may not be ready for the season opener, now in just 25 days. This week, Anderson went to Atlanta to see doctors other than those who tend to the Bengals. His injury, in his words, was 're-injured' to promote healing. That, to me, sounds like the re-breaking of a bone that had healed improperly. Anderson, one of the greatest players in Bengal history, said there's a 60 percent chance this will help heal the injury. If it doesn't, could it mean the end of a possible Hall of Fame career? I hope not.

More on the Bengals can be found on my web site: www.kenbroo.com. On the front page, you'll be able to download The Bengals Report Podcast. In the "Podcasts & More" section, you'll get the latest Broo View Podcast. And of course, if you live in the greater Cincinnati area, I'll see you tonight at 6p and 11p on WLWT Channel 5.