by J. Mesa
 
There was a lot of hot air emanating out of Cincinnati’s camp this week and it wasn’t from the un-corked pie hole of Chad Ocho Cinco. Nope, this time the noise was from 85’s wideout counterpart T.J. Houshmandzadeh.

In a stunning example of mediocrity this week, Houshmandzadeh went on record to guarantee that his Cincinnati team would not finish defeated at 0-16, but that the Bengals would indeed win games. Way to go out on a limb there, Hoosh.  But my question to Hoosh is: Have you been watching any game film this season? ‘Cause the Bengals have been stinking up the field all season long. OK, aside from a fired-up performance against a distracted Dallas Cowboys team their season has been down right abysmal.

I am not exactly sure when Hoosh and the rest of his kitty teammates plan to “turn it on” this season to start notching a few in the left-side column, but they better start showing up soon and personally, I just don’t see it happening.
 
So far this year Houshmandzadeh has a respectable 512 yards and at the half-way point of the season is on his way for 1,000 yards receiving. But over the last four games Hoosh has had an anemic output of just 246 yards with his longest reception at just 25 yards and two TDs in that four-game stretch.

Carson Palmer is out and the Bengals’ backup Ryan Fitzpatrick is has been hot, hot, hot to the tune of a 61.6 passer rating while going 81-135 completing a staggering 67% of his passes. Despite his Ivy League pedigree, Fitzpatrick is not outsmarting anyone on the field as is evidenced by his five interceptions. The offensive woes show no signs of slowing down as the line has given up 11 sacks while Palmer was at the helm and a staggering 17 sacks for a now crumpled Fitzpatrick. Ouch! Talking about no end in sight, I hear that after 17 sacks Fitzpatrick is now a full inch shorter then when he started the season.
 
The one saving grace for the Bengals and Hoosh’s bold guarantee is that when the NFL picks the schedule in the offseason, they gifted the Bengals the Kansas City Chiefs at home in the last week of the season. So there you go Hoosh you may not look like a complete tool after all, KC may be the only team that is worse than the unit you drag onto the field week in and week out.

Now that I think of it, it might be a blessing that the league and Reebok did not allow Chad Johnson to change the name on the back of his jersey officially to Ocho Cinco, because in Cincinnati it might be best advised to not draw anymore attention to this team other than their 0-8 record, eh Hoosh?

DO YOU HEAR ME NOW? – OK, I have a new hero in the NFL. Freakin’ Mike Singletary! The interim coach of the San Francisco 49ers was reported to have dropped his pants in front of his team during halftime of the 49ers 34-13 loss to Seattle last Sunday.

A former motivational speaker and self proclaimed “old school” member of the NFL dropped his drawers and kept them down to illustrate a point about the humility of losing. Just brilliant. I don’t know about the rest of you, but nothing in this world would motivate me to run faster and harder than a middle-aged, half-naked, former linebacker barking at me from just a few inches away from my face. Oh man, to be a fly on the wall during that halftime speech and reading the faces of the 49ers that would seem to say “OK, coach. We get it, we stink and we need to play smarter and harder. You got it…just don’t get too close.”