After I got to M&T Bank Stadium Sunday at 11, I found my pressbox seat, dropped my head to the table in front of me and fell asleep.
Saturday had been a long day and night of hijinks and frivolity. What you do in Baltimore stays in Baltimore. I was tired. I took a nap and started dreaming.
It wasn’t long before I saw Joe Burrow throw a 55-yard TD pass to C.J. Uzomah. Uzomah was open, mainly because the Baltimore Ravens were more worried about the Bengals 3-headed wideout monster than about C.J. Uzomah. Even if, inexplicably, Baltimore’s best corner was covering Uzomah. That’d be Marlon Humphrey, who whiffed on the coverage, then whiffed on the tackle.
I stirred briefly, then nodded off again. Immediately, Ja’Marr Chase came into view. He was receiving a short slant pass from Burrow. It was the 3rd quarter, Cincinnati was ahead, 20-17. With the game close, on the road and the other team’s QB was Lamar Jackson (no dream, that guy. Pure nightmare) nothing was failsafe.
I started to toss and turn. Then, Chase came to me.
“Have no fear, my son,’’ he said.
“My son, Doc?’’
It’s a dream. Roll with me.
“I shall catch this pass between three Baltimore dudes, break a tackle and run 82 yards in about 5.5 seconds.’’
Damned if Chase didn’t do just that.
I settled back in and, as Hemingway would say, slept the sleep of the dead.
It was about midnight when the cleaning crew woke me up. “Sleep it off somewhere else,’’ one said. “We ain’t a boarding house.’’
I asked who won the game.
“Cincinnati,’’ he said. “You was sittin’ right here the whole time. Ya dreamin’ or Sumthin’?’’
Column: Chase, Bengals laid perception to waste at Baltimore
Analysis:What we learned from big win in Baltimore
Recap:Bengals are top AFC seed
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Well, that’s open for debate.
The Bengals came to Baltimore, to play the Ravens who had won five in a row, rolled up 28 2nd-half points, gained 520 yards and sacked Jackson 5 times. By the middle of the 3rd quarter, Ravens fans were booing; by the middle of the 4th, Jackson had been removed from the game.
Best Bengals win in six years. Dreamy, you might say.
Without further ado:
TEN THINGS FROM 41-17. . .
1. "We have no right to get complacent," Zac Taylor said. "There are so many things we can't let slide." A Bengals coach and team, worrying they might be too good for their own good. Now I know I’m dreaming. ‘We’ll find those ruby slippers later, Dorothy. Right now, we gotta celebrate.’’
2. “This is that moment. This is everything we talked about,’’ said Taylor. He meant the constant and unwavering optimism. “Great things to come. Keep working.’’ Taylor had his belief vindicated Sunday. “They understand what they’re trying to build.’’
3. Not enough was made of the job the Bengals secondary did on Baltimore’s wide receivers. I’m guessing it wasn’t in the plan for Jackson to run 12 times. At least half of those were scrambles.
4. Conversely, the Ravens beat on Burrow consistently in the first half. They sacked him just once, and it was after the game was well in hand, but they were in his face just about every dropback, for the first 30 minutes. Burrow didn’t flinch.
5. “Tough, resilient guys don’t back down under pressure,’’ he said. The QB was talking about his mates, who were steady-as-she-goes all day, in a raucous environment. He could have been praising himself. Any more knee questions? Good.
6. Chase’s 82-yarder was the killshot, but the 32-yard TD to Uzomah was just as important. The Ravens answered the 3rd quarter bell with three plays and 75 yards of lightning and a score that put them ahead 17-13. If ever the home guys were going to overcome the pesky Men, that was the time.
7. I think the Ravens players thought that, too. I think enough of them still carried with them their Same Ol’ Bengals beliefs. Pound ‘em a little, they’ll break. When that didn’t happen, Now What? took over. The punchers couldn’t answer the bell.
8. What if the Bengals lose Sunday in Jersey to the hapless Jets? Does re-inventing the Bengals die after just one glorious game? That’s highly unlikely. So was KC not scoring a TD on Sunday. On Sunday morning, the Ravens were the darlings of the AFC. On Sunday night, they were in 2nd place in their own division. This is the NFL.
9. I think the Jets have a Little Big Horn chance of winning, by the way.
10. The last time the Men won at Balt and Pitt was 2015.
Now, then. . .
I HAD A LONG, INTENSE TEXT discussion with a friend Sunday night, while wandering the streets of my beloved hometown of Bethesda. MD. He insisted I was “negative’’ – gee, never heard that one before – and a killjoy. I’d made mention to him in a postgame text that his team could lose next week.
“If you can’t relish this beatdown, you truly have an Irish melancholy cloud over your head’’ came the text.
Thank you.
We went back and forth on my obligation, or whatever, to be happy for the entire city of Cincinnati. Which I am. I swear. For the fans and city. Personally?
I don’t root for any local teams to win. Or lose. I root for me, which in some ways does mean rooting for the locals. Winning equals happier subjects to interview, happier (and more) readers eager to re-live the moment. Better columns generally. In that sense, I’m a big fan.
But the teams don’t pay me. The participants don’t say, “Hey, I hope you write a great one today.’’ The job is to write subjectively, not flash my pompons from Press Row.
With all due respect, I’m not John Sadak. I don’t think you’d want me to be.
Frank and I are still friends, though. I think.
AS FOR THE BEARCATS. . . Navy had the ball in the last minute, with a chance to tie or take the lead. The Mids didn’t, but they dented UC’s resume in the 27-20 outcome. The committee will look at that and say, “Phew. Maybe now, we have Cincinnati off our backs.’’
It’s an imperfect way to determine a national champ, but until playoffs expand to 12 teams, it’s what we’ve got. UC should have done a better job early against the option. I mean, Navy’s version didn’t exactly remind you of Oklahoma and Texas in the 70s. And letting the Midshipmen back into the game was unfortunate. The idea is for the unbeaten Bearcats to crush everybody.
The Impossible Dream is still alive. Not as alive as it was on Saturday morning, though.
TRIP REPORT. Glorious glory to Great Falls. There has never been a time when the walk down the towpath and across the rocks to the no-beaten-path above the river has been anything less than perfect. This was the best trip ever. Absolute solitude, a couple hundred feet above the roaring Potomac. The path was packed on a warm, sunny Saturday. A quarter mile away, silence. There’s a lesson there somewhere. Something about seeking your own path.
I made the walk around my old neighborhood for maybe the 30th time. Thirty Ravens roadies, 30 walks past 5419 Lambeth Road, where a McMansion now sits like a fat man in a bath tub, over where my house used to be.
I think that’ll be my last pilgrimage.
Bethesda has changed so radically, even my heart memories can’t resurrect it. The only thing we really know about the passing of time is that at some point, we want to stop it. We can’t. I’m going to stop trying.
Of course, I say that every year.
TUNE O’ THE DAY. . . In keeping with the theme of the day. . .
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