THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

What we saw in the last 36 hours in Pittsburgh and Indianapolis is the kind of football we deserve in Cincinnati.

Sunday, we saw two teams, each capable of winning a Super Bowl, performing at the highest level possible in the NFL. Indianapolis and New England played terrific defense and fundamentally solid offense in a game that was in contention until the final couple of minutes. There was no showboating, no grousing among team mates on the sideline and there were no massive breakdowns in execution (in other words, you didn't see three separate penalties called on the same team on the same play).

Monday night in Pittsburgh, a team just slightly below the Colts and Patriots on the NFL food chain put on a show. The Steelers may not have the firepower to stay with either of the NFL's two marquee teams. But this is another team fully capable of winning the Super Bowl this season, if things break the right way for them. Ben Roethlisberger, everything Carson Palmer wants to be, found open receivers, threaded the ball to receivers who weren't completely open and ran an offense that drilled a proud Baltimore defense.

Ray Lewis was interviewed on ESPN at the conclusion of the game. In addition to throwing his offense 'under the bus' by pointing out several times that 'you can't turn the ball over four times and expect to win' and 'I don't play offense...', Lewis also said that half the season is done and they've played all three AFC North division opponents on the road. Now, those teams have to go to Baltimore. One of those teams, of course, would be our Bengals, who beat the Ravens on opening night for one of their two wins. Do you think the Bengals were watching last night and saw what the Steelers did to the Ravens? Do you think the Bengals heard what Lewis had to say? Or do you think our Bengals have packed it in, now 2-6 and going nowhere this year?

I'm hoping the answers to those questions are yes, yes and no. What do you think?