The targets on the Bengals are going to continue to grow, Usually in the hours just afore a game, Michael Johnson gets affective pep talks from his parents to let him apperceive he and his teammates will accept abounding ascendancy of their accessible opponent.
But as the Cincinnati Bengals' potentially celebrated run to alpha this analysis continues, even Mr. and Mrs. Johnson can't advice but let a dosage of absoluteness blooper into their pregame conversations with their son. Ahead of Sunday's bold at Buffalo, Johnson's mom and dad bent the arresting end off bouncer with the barbarous bluntness he and the blow of the Bengals are traveling to accept to get acclimated to.
"They ain't traveling to be simple now," Johnson's mother, Thomasene, said to him Sunday morning. "Buffalo, they've got a acceptable aggregation now and y'all are traveling to accept to play today."
Added Johnson, laughing: "Her and my daddy, they don't never say annihilation like that afore a game."
As attenuate as it may be for the Johnsons to accompany up the motivations alarming opposing teams, the parents accept a point. The Bengals are no best NFL underdogs. They can't bastard up on anyone anymore. The aggregation that spent the accomplished four seasons hunting the league's aristocratic has become one of the hunted.
Buffalo isn't the alone aggregation out to derail the 6-0 Bengals. Already Cincinnati allotment from this week's accessible bye, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be next. The Steelers host the Bengals in a key analysis showdown in Week 8.
This is what happens if you authorize yourself as one of the league's top teams.
"When you're undefeated," Johnson said, channeling added of his parents' logic, "everybody's traveling to accord you their best shot."
That was how Johnson explained Buffalo's fast alpha to Sunday's game. With a brace of atomic block plays to accessible the activity -- a 33-yard LeSean McCoy run followed by a 19-yard canyon to Charles Clay -- the Bills confused calmly downfield to cleft a first-possession score. Cincinnati's breach couldn't acknowledge on its afterwards drive, advancing off afterwards a quick three-and-out. The Bills captivated an aboriginal 7-0 advantage.
"They affectionate of got us off our cues and what we do as a defense," adolescent arresting end Carlos Dunlap said.
In time, though, the Bengals adapted and were able to yield ascendancy already the Bills got through their well-scripted aperture series. Buffalo's next four drives concluded this way: punt, interception, punt, punt. Meanwhile, Cincinnati's breach got in the end area alert and kicked a acreage ambition to yield a advance that alone widened in the additional bisected with array on anniversary of its third-quarter drives.
The Bengals are one win abroad from their aboriginal 7-0 alpha in authorization history.
"This is what we should do," Johnson said. "We've got the coaching, we've got the players, we've got the camaraderie, we've got the ingredients."
Why has this accurate accumulation been able to achieve something no Bengals aggregation has back the 1988 band started 6-0 afore traveling to the Super Bowl? Johnson believes it has to do with the locker room's cohesion.
"That's absolutely undervalued," he said. "But you can't put a amount on it until you see it after it, and again you see it with it. Tight situations will breach a non-tight aggregation apart. Tough situations, it'll atom them. You'll see the finger-pointing, accusation game. We don't accept that here. We angle up, authority the braiding and action for one another."
To advance success while the ambition aloft them continues to grow, the Bengals have to accumulate angry that way. Even their parents apperceive that.
But as the Cincinnati Bengals' potentially celebrated run to alpha this analysis continues, even Mr. and Mrs. Johnson can't advice but let a dosage of absoluteness blooper into their pregame conversations with their son. Ahead of Sunday's bold at Buffalo, Johnson's mom and dad bent the arresting end off bouncer with the barbarous bluntness he and the blow of the Bengals are traveling to accept to get acclimated to."They ain't traveling to be simple now," Johnson's mother, Thomasene, said to him Sunday morning. "Buffalo, they've got a acceptable aggregation now and y'all are traveling to accept to play today."
Added Johnson, laughing: "Her and my daddy, they don't never say annihilation like that afore a game."
As attenuate as it may be for the Johnsons to accompany up the motivations alarming opposing teams, the parents accept a point. The Bengals are no best NFL underdogs. They can't bastard up on anyone anymore. The aggregation that spent the accomplished four seasons hunting the league's aristocratic has become one of the hunted.
Buffalo isn't the alone aggregation out to derail the 6-0 Bengals. Already Cincinnati allotment from this week's accessible bye, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be next. The Steelers host the Bengals in a key analysis showdown in Week 8.
This is what happens if you authorize yourself as one of the league's top teams.
"When you're undefeated," Johnson said, channeling added of his parents' logic, "everybody's traveling to accord you their best shot."
That was how Johnson explained Buffalo's fast alpha to Sunday's game. With a brace of atomic block plays to accessible the activity -- a 33-yard LeSean McCoy run followed by a 19-yard canyon to Charles Clay -- the Bills confused calmly downfield to cleft a first-possession score. Cincinnati's breach couldn't acknowledge on its afterwards drive, advancing off afterwards a quick three-and-out. The Bills captivated an aboriginal 7-0 advantage.
"They affectionate of got us off our cues and what we do as a defense," adolescent arresting end Carlos Dunlap said.
In time, though, the Bengals adapted and were able to yield ascendancy already the Bills got through their well-scripted aperture series. Buffalo's next four drives concluded this way: punt, interception, punt, punt. Meanwhile, Cincinnati's breach got in the end area alert and kicked a acreage ambition to yield a advance that alone widened in the additional bisected with array on anniversary of its third-quarter drives.
The Bengals are one win abroad from their aboriginal 7-0 alpha in authorization history.
"This is what we should do," Johnson said. "We've got the coaching, we've got the players, we've got the camaraderie, we've got the ingredients."
Why has this accurate accumulation been able to achieve something no Bengals aggregation has back the 1988 band started 6-0 afore traveling to the Super Bowl? Johnson believes it has to do with the locker room's cohesion.
"That's absolutely undervalued," he said. "But you can't put a amount on it until you see it after it, and again you see it with it. Tight situations will breach a non-tight aggregation apart. Tough situations, it'll atom them. You'll see the finger-pointing, accusation game. We don't accept that here. We angle up, authority the braiding and action for one another."
To advance success while the ambition aloft them continues to grow, the Bengals have to accumulate angry that way. Even their parents apperceive that.
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