Want a great coaching tool in time for Monday night?
Go anywhere you choose, and look ONLY for the color red. (I’ll wait here.) Me? ... I see a red blanket ... red sections of my shirt ... my wife’s red teapot ... a red chop mark on my print ... and ... STOP.
Now look only for blue. (I’ll wait here again.) Me? ... I see a blue tablecloth ... my blue jeans ... the blue section of my mouse pad ... the blue crown on my hat ... and ... STOP.
If all you see is blue and/or red, you miss the big picture.
And if you are a Buffalo Bills fan, and all you see is their blue and/or red, and you believe winning or losing is all about them, you ignore the impact of orange and black.
The Bengals are a big part of the big picture.
“Excited to be relevant after decades of not being so,” @ChrisSchloemer tweeted. “Just the gravity of this game tells you how far we have come. Bring it!”
* * * * *
To be fair, that exercise goes both ways, in every game. We as fans tend to believe everything revolves around our team. Credit the Bengals for wins, blame the Bengals (or officials) for losses, view the opponent as white noise.
Not this time.
Not in either direction.
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The Bills have won six in a row and are Super Bowl favorites. The Bengals have won seven straight and are reigning AFC champions. We see both teams.
After the Bengals held on to beat New England on Christmas Eve, I pushed our day-after-game Twitter session back a day, so you could enjoy the holidays and distance yourself from the near-meltdown. To nudge you forward, and expand our focus, I asked how you are feeling about facing Buffalo on Monday night.
Not that you needed much nudging.
@TeddyInk_EFR: “It’s gonna be a great game between two great teams featuring 2 great QBs.”
@_WhoDeyRay: “Ditto. Perfect for MNF.”
The Bengals are perfect since their last prime-time game, the Monday night clunker on Halloween. Is thinking about that retriggering the nausea of that night? And of the night game before that, a Sunday evening loss to Baltimore?
So how are you feeling, exiting the daytime stage?
@SpudsMck: “Well to be honest, not great. We always do bad for night games. Especially MNF. Also that 2nd half of the patriots (g)ame. Yikes.”
@perk62383116: “My Bengals usually aren't great in prime time. Getting some Halloween nightmares. If they show up to play, the Bengals will be fine.”
Have we forgotten the win over undefeated Miami on a Thursday night, 10 days before the Ravens game? No worries. It comes with being nervous.
@MatthewBausch78: “Nervously excited. Bengals, 5-1 at home, versus a 6-2 road team in the Bills. Something has to give!”
@Sweetdani7: “Honestly, the Bills is the team I’ve dreaded the most. When Allen is healthy he’s a dangerous QB!”
@JungleGal45: “Pumped, excited and a little nervous! May have to double up on the heart meds! LOL.”
Nervously excited is good. Nervously excited is eustress. The good stress. The butterflies before the big game. We longed to be in this position.
Remember?
@HannahM54652034: “I’m so excited it’s gonna be a tough game, much respect to the bills but I believe in our team. They’ve made everything turn from impossible to possible, they started 0-2 and everyone just kept saying we were never gonna make the play offs and here we are 11-4!!”
A lot is at stake for the Bengals.
And for the Bills.
Can we see both sides?
* * * * *
Surprisingly, the Twitter session attracted some Bills fans.
Not surprisingly, it began with someone who knows us.
With someone who grew up in Western New York, attended Bills games “at the old Rockpile,” played baseball at Xavier and ended up back home, ever a Bills fan.
“We are digging out right now (from the snow) ... but will get up for the Bengals game right after,” @LargeTimHortons tweeted. “Much respect for the Bengals and their fans. Hoping KC loses so that whomever wins this is the true 1 seed. Will be a Monday classic.”
Game aside, our thoughts are with @LargeTimHortons and all Western New York still dealing with the devastating blizzard that brought more than four feet of snow.
“Yes this one was particularly bad and kept families apart at Christmas,” @LargeTimHortons tweeted. “Give me 2 X wins this week and let’s see a great one between #whodey and #BillsMafia.”
The Bills Mafia can use this diversion.
And the Bills can use this win.
He forwarded some reasons why this game is so important to the Bills. Beat Cincinnati, then New England in the finale, and they clinch the No. 1 seed. Lose Monday night, and maybe they end up No. 3, maybe needing to beat two elite teams on the road in the postseason.
While we are unnerved by the second half against the Patriots game after the first half against Tampa Bay, let’s take a closer look at Buffalo. A week after overcoming a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Dolphins on a game-ending field goal, the Bills trailed Chicago at halftime on Christmas Eve before pulling away at the end.
The Bengals just lost offensive lineman La’el Collins for the season to a knee injury. The Bills learned the same bad news a few weeks ago about linebacker Von Miller.
The Bills are a test for the Bengals, and the Bengals are a test for the Bills.
“I’m nervous,” @Pecafan tweeted. “#GoBills.”
“As a Bills fan, the tone from both teams fan bases in this thread is refreshing,” @Mendy2828 tweeted. “Respect, nerves, hopefulness and a lot of positivity without bashing the other team or it's supporters. If it can't be us, no issue supporting the Bengals.”
“Many years ago,” @Kwus15 tweeted, “I sat in a deserted downtown Atlanta bar with one other guy. A Bengals fan. Both killing time waiting for a late night flight. With a Bills vs. Bengals game on. We cheered and moaned. And laughed. 2004. Bills won. That time...”
We appreciate the mutual civility between two old AFL fan bases desperate for a first Super Bowl title, because fan-to-fan engagement is not always so cordial. It helps when we expand our vision beyond just our team and our fans, to see orange and black, AND blue and red, AND that both teams can rock the white. Still, if we have a little good-natured fun with each other, have at it.
“Whodey? Well for starters we’ve got super man. #GoBills,” @roryallen tweeted, with a video of him and his cohorts making a Superman-caped Josh Allen sign and landing it atop the street signs at the corner of (yes) Clark and Kent. “And Superman wears Josh Allen pajamas. 🤷♂️”
* * * * *
Look up in the sky. Instead of a bird or a plane, we envision the smoke from another Joe Burrow victory cigar.
We believe Joey B can lead a victory over Buffalo, finally and fully legitimize the Bengals, and catapult himself to the MVP Award and the Bengals toward the Lombardi Trophy.
“Excited to be home for (and going to) the game!” tweeted @NHill852, who has been stationed at Camp Humphries in South Korea. “If the Bengals win this in Primetime it will force the NFL to acknowledge that we aren't the same team. We already know Burrow is different but this game could make the rest of the NFL see him in that light.”
It is a perception thing. More importantly, the Bengals are hoping for at least the No. 2 seed and another division title. Like the Bills, they already are in the playoffs.
“I’m honestly OK if they lose to Buffalo,” @dontheloop22 tweeted, “the last game against Baltimore is the BIG ONE, and I don’t think you want to start the playoffs on a long winning streak … adds another target to your back.”
If that approach gives you a safety net, great, but that might not be the prevailing across Bengal Land. We want our matinee idols to prove they are ready for prime time and the mighty Bills. And win.
@LyonsKristofer: “I’m excited. this is a premier match up. Good to see where we stand.”
@Jake_Ryan_14: “Excited! Two great teams and two great fan bases. Should be an excellent game 🔥.”
@Michael43556979: “Both teams haven’t been this good at the same moment in time since Boomer and Kelly. Going to be epic!”
@Bansheekat: “I so cannot wait for next week. This is going to be an action packed, nail biting, thriller of a game.”
@Stanimal032: “Big game on the main stage! Bring it on!”
@IrelandsWhodey: “Should be a cracker.”
@Nukepapa66: “Bengals will find a way.”
@StanleyShineBox: “Let’s do it!”
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