Sorry I've been away....lot on my plate these days. But I have some thoughts that've been rumbling around in my cranium....

Dumping the defensive coordinator and a position coach should've been a start for the Bengals. They've grown stale on both sides of the football. Marvin Lewis needs fresh ideas on offense and needs to take a more active role coaching his defense....

I was shocked the Giants beat the Buccaneers this weekend, mildly surprised that the Steelers defense couldn't do a better job against the Jags offense. The other two games were no surprise. If TO isn't healthy enough to play this Sunday, the Cowboys are vulnerable. The Giants are a completely different team on the road than at home...

I want to believe Roger Clemens. But he looked very uncomfortable in his 60 Minutes interview and playing that phone conversation he had with his accuser at a news conference Monday actually hurt Clemens, I think. Let the lawsuits begin....

UC basketball fans should see light at the end of the tunnel. Monday's news that Nick Aldridge has finally enrolled in school (Bob Huggins recruited him before leaving and Aldridge wound up at Western Carolina until this transfer) along with a nice recruiting class coming in next fall could finally make the Bearcats competitive in the Big East.

There are a lot of reasons to believe Xavier will be playing deep into March this year. But here's the biggest reason: the Muskies have balanced scoring and an unselfish attitude. Whenever you get five players averaging double figures this late in the season, it means the head coach is doing a terrific job. Sean Miller is.

Think it gets easier for the Bengals in 2008. My friend Chick Ludwig in the Dayton Daily News has this to report today: the combined 2007 record of all the Bengals opponents next season is 115-93. The only teams the Bengals play next season that had losing records this year: Baltimore, Kansas City and the Jets.

Pete Mackanin, the Reds interim manager for the last half of the 2007 season, found work today. Mackanin has signed on to scout for the Yankees. Apparently the Reds offered him a similar deal, but Mackanin felt returing to the team he still wanted to manage would be a little too awkward.

If you're looking for him in his post Cincinnati Post life, you can find the blog-crazed C. Trent Rosecrans at this address: ctrentrosecrans.com. Yes, he's blogging on his own now and I'm told is 'this close' to finding a soft landing spot here in the greater Cincinnati area.

Check out my web site when you have a moment: www.kenbroo.com.

Good Morning! And if you choose to celebrate Christmas, let me join in the choir of wishing your a very Merry Christmas.

It won't be for the Cleveland Browns. Talk about 'spitting the bit'. Cleveland is now on the ropes, no longer a sure lock to make the NFL playoffs, thanks largely to some stupid play calling and execution in the final two minutes of the first half of the Browns vs Bengals game in Cincinnati Sunday. Twice inside the final two minutes, quarterback Derek Anderson tossed interceptions that led directly to Bengals touchdowns. In all, Anderson tossed four interceptions and single handidly delivered a win to the Bengals. Needing only to 'win to get in', the Browns are now in hot soup.

Check out what they're saying about this game in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Here's the bottom line for that final Wild Card in the AFC. If Cleveland and Tennessee both win next win, Tennessee is in. If they both lose, Cleveland is in. If Cleveland wins and Tennessee loses, Cleveland is in. If Cleveland loses and Tennessee wins, Tennessee is in.

The Browns get the easier draw: at home against the 49ers. The Titans have to play at Indianapolis, Sunday night.

The Bengals? Don't get caught up in the hoopla of beating Cleveland. Any win is a good win. But this team has major, major decisions to make on coaches and players after this season is over. I look for some major changes. After Marvin Lewis, no assistant coach is safe, including both coordinators. I'll have more on this as the week progresses, but the Bengals need to make a statement in free agency this winter. No more bottom feeding, the Bengals must bring in impact players. They passed last winter on Adalius Thomas and instead signed three marginal players (Ed Hartwell, Kendrick Allen and Michael Myers). Only Myers remains and is, at best, a role player.

Roger Clemens is trying to repair his image, speaking out on youtube.com and denying any use of HGH or steroids. You can watch it, here.
I suppose I'd deny it too. And that's the trouble with all of this fall out from the Mitchell Report: nobody will ever really know who's telling the truth. Major League Baseball's reluctance to embrace any kind of drug testing until three years ago lends itselfs to skepticism.