THE BROO VIEW with Ken Broo

It’s a bye week. The best thing about this bye week is that the Bengals neutered bye week jokes by winning last Sunday. You knew what was coming if they didn’t beat the Jaguars last weekend, right? Bengals bye week, it’s the bye week minus three.

So with no game to preview this week, here are a couple of things I’ve been wondering about. Because there’s nothing worse than me with free time.

Who exactly was it who thought it would be a good idea to begin this season with three third down running backs on the roster, and nobody who could carry the ball effectively on first or second down? Chris Perry, Kenny Watson, DeDe Dorsey (incidentally, do you remember some of the callers we had on my WLW radio show last season salivating over DeDe Dorsey being the every down back?). The three of them are great, if you begin with third down. I don’t know if Rudi Johnson would’ve have done any better than this group. But I do know this: the Bengals had to scramble to find someone, anyone when Perry proved that he isn’t the same running back he was before getting hurt. And I also know this: the Bengals caught a major break when Cedric Benson was on the street, even if it was because of a couple of DUI arrests.

Here’s something else. At what point did it dawn on the Bengals smart guys that they didn’t have a fullback? It certainly wasn’t when Jeremi Johnson showed up in Georgetown like he did his off season training at Hooters. Watching the Bengals line up tight ends in the backfield, hoping they can pick up the blitz has been comical. When Marvin Lewis arrived, Lorenzo Neal was checking out. Neal didn’t want to be around here anymore. But he was on his couch eating Doritos and out of work in September. The Ravens found him. Did the Bengals even look?

I’m sure there’s an answer to this, but not one I’d like or maybe believe, but why do you use two of your top three draft picks to take wide receivers in April and neither has done anything to help you win a game? OK, Andre Caldwell has been hurt. Jerome Simpson was supposed to be some sort of Spiderman leaper with hands as big as Buicks. Where has this guy been. It’s not like this team has a luxury of drafting players for positions of depth.

You knew you had the artist formerly known as Chad Johnson under contract for the next three seasons. And if you want to keep TJ, all you have to do is slap a franchise tag on him this winter. Presto, you wide receiver problems are over. Now you draft two guys at that same position, who you know full well won’t play. Add the ongoing redemption of Chris Henry to the mix and you’ve done something that seven months down the road looks completely illogical. Hello, your offensive line can stop good defenses and your defense has a grand total of nine sacks and five interceptions in nine games.

So I pick up a copy of USA Today this week and there are the salary totals for every team in the NFL. I see the Bengals checking in at number 20, 20th out of 32 teams. That’s better than it’s been. But look at the teams who’ve spent less and gotten more this season: Baltimore, Denver, Indy, New England and Tampa Bay. What do they all have in common? They all have a shot at going to the playoffs. Better shot than our Cincinnati Bengals do. Yeah, of course, there are teams that spent less and stink. Detroit and Kansas City would come to mind. And there are some that’ve spent more and stink. Oakland and the 49ers would come to mind. But how do teams spend less and do better than the Bengals? Less, better?

Now the battle cry from inside the Bengals locker room is run the table and finish 8-8. They would have to win eight in a row to accomplish that. And the last time the Cincinnati Bengals won eight in a row was exactly when? Four in a row, 2005. Seven in a row in 1970. Six wins to start the 1975 and 1988 seasons. Five in a row in the middle of the 1981 season. Eight in a row? That would have been, never…

And that would get them to 8-8. And how many teams have actually qualified for the playoffs with an 8-8 record? Well, the Rams made it in at 8-8 after the 2004 season. It’s happened. Not often. But let’s get real. You watch football. Philly is due in here next Sunday. Then four days later, they have to go to Pittsburgh. And the Ravens and Browns have both beaten this team. Don’t forget that little trip to Indianapolis.

And that leads to this question. Why is Carson Palmer flying around the lower 48 seeing every orthopedic surgeon not named Tim Kremchek? Is it Palmer who’s looking for someone, anyone in a white coat who’ll tell him it’s OK to play? Or is it the Bengals telling him to take these trips? And if you’re in dutch to Palmer for 100-million over the next six seasons after this one why would you even think twice about letting play another down this season?

You know, maybe I’m too cynical for my own good. But along with frustrating the stripes out of me, your Cincinnati Bengals do something else that’s really tedious. They make me think. Fans shouldn’t have to think. They should only have to root. Thinking is a Monday through Friday thing. Even God rested on the seventh day. With the Bengals, no rest for the downtrodden and mentally weary.