Cincinnati at Tampa Bay 1:00 p.m.
This cannot be how Coach Marvin Lewis planned for his team to exit their bye week. A 14-13 loss to the Bruce Gradkowski-led Buccanneers could not have been one of the possible scenarios.
Making even less likely are the zero turnovers the Bengals had. QB Carson Palmer had 261 yards passing and a TD. True, it wasn't a Wow! game, but it was still efficient enough to merit a W.
TJ Houshmandzadeh had a big game with 10/102/1 also, and 2nd round pick Chad Johnson had 99 yards receiving. Still no TD though.
Despite a weak run defense, Rudi Johnson couldn't get anything going with just 52 yards on 17 carries.
Gradkowski followed-up his first start with another efficient one. This time he completed 25 of 44 pass attempts for 184 yards and two TDs. I'd be wary of starting him as those completions and yards do not provide enough leeway for big points. He needs the TDS just to get into the mediocre point totals necessary to not lose games for fantasy teams.
Also for the second consecutive week, RB Cadillac Williams did what he needed to to help the Bucs prevail. he gained 94 yards on 19 carries. With some of the ypc's being put-up this year, averaging 4.9 is as good as scoring TDs - for real football. I'd still like to see a score from a RB1.5
Of additional note, TE Alex Smith caught a TD pass from Gradkowski - for the second consecutive week.
Dust-off those pre-season sleepers and pay attention.