{"id":149765,"date":"2021-12-28T04:53:18","date_gmt":"2021-12-28T09:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=149765"},"modified":"2021-12-28T04:53:20","modified_gmt":"2021-12-28T09:53:20","slug":"random-thoughts-bengals-nfl-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/12\/28\/random-thoughts-bengals-nfl-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: Bengals, NFL and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest edition of Random Thoughts centers around the Cincinnati Bengals, NFL officiating, last second time outs, the College Football Playoff and the Rose Bowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bengals<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to give the Cincinnati Bengals some props.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a Cleveland Browns fan but I don\u2019t have anything against the Bengals, except for twice a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a team that was expected to finish dead last in the AFC North but instead, the Bengals have a real shot of winning the division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This doesn\u2019t seem to be a smoke and mirrors act. Joe Burrow has had a tremendous season especially coming off a major knee injury. He\u2019s clearly better than any of the other three AFC North quarterbacks at this point. Joe Mixon is a more than solid and Ja\u2019Marr Chase has turned out to be a great addition at wide receiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a little odd to me that Cincinnati is 4-4 at home but 5-2 on the road, but that seems a little nitpicky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Sunday\u2019s game vs. Kansas City is huge and it will help cap off a big football weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NFL officiating<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I doubt anything will happen but the NFL seriously needs to do something about officiating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are far too many subjective calls, calls that can change games instantly. Then there are blatant no calls that have the same effect. It\u2019s not a good look for the NFL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure it\u2019s a supremely difficult job. After all, these guys are on the field with 22 players that are much bigger than the average human or have near Olympic speed, but still, something has to be done, whether it\u2019s rules changes or making officials full time or something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time out<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This irritates me to no end \u2013 teams that seemingly call time out a split second before the ball is snapped for a game winning field goal attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that practice, I say no. There have been times where it seems like the ball has already been snapped, yet the coach somehow gets the time out anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time to change the rule. When the offensive line comes set, there are no timeouts, period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playoff games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I must be in the minority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t mind College Football Playoff games being played on New Year\u2019s Eve. Admittedly, I almost never have New Year\u2019s Eve plans. Some years I make it up to see the ball drop and others I don\u2019t and I\u2019m good either way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve bumped the times of the games up this year, so maybe that will help with fans who don\u2019t like the games being played on December 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the TV ratings are low for these games, you can bet this will be the last time they\u2019re played on New Year\u2019s Eve, at least under the current four-team format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rose Bowl<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s hoping the Rose Bowl is played as scheduled on Saturday. I\u2019d hate to see the game wiped out by COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have thoughts on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor The latest edition of Random Thoughts centers around the Cincinnati Bengals, NFL officiating, last second time outs, the College Football Playoff and the Rose Bowl. Bengals It\u2019s time to give the Cincinnati Bengals some props. I\u2019m a Cleveland Browns fan but I don\u2019t have anything against the Bengals, except for twice a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 08:21:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149765\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}