In the movie
Event Horizon, Captain Miller pilots his ship, the Lewis and Clark to rescue an
abandoned ship. The ship, named The Event Horizon was designed to harness
the power of the black hole to travel through space. Of course, the
engineers who came up with idea neglected to consider alternative
possibilities. They learned the hard way that black holes not only
connect two points spatially in this reality but also
inter-dimensionally. You may go into the black hole intending to exit at
Alpha Centauri, but instead find yourself seeing dead people and hearing Latin
phrases while and you and your crew go murderously insane.
The Bengals enter the black hole that is Oakland-Alameda Coliseum this Sunday. Will we emerge with an easy road win and one step closer to the playoffs? Or will be we warped to an alternate reality as the Eagles were a few weeks back? A world where a play-off caliber team is destroyed by the unlikely Oakland Raiders.
Jamarcus
Russell has been benched to be replaced by Bruce Gratkowski. I like the Bengals facing new quarterbacks about as much as the Reds like facing rookie pitchers
on their first big league start. To make matters worse, we
haven't had much luck in Oakland or against the Raiders in general. We've never won in Oakland.
The last time we played the Raiders in a game that mattered we lost in the 1990 Playoffs. That game is more known as the game that ended the football career of Bo Jackson. That playoff loss marked the beginning of the Lost Years, also known as Bengal Football 1991-2003. Those of us that lived it, know how bad it was. Coaches and quarterbacks entered and exited the building in a seemingly constant stream -- except for Dave Shula who somehow hung around for four years. I think until recently the Curse of Bo Jackson has hung over this franchise like a dark cloud, a specter, a boogie man roaming the halls of PBS. Every bad snap, every locker room outburst, every muffed punt, bad tackle and busted draft pick, somewhere Bo Jackson smiled and thought about what could have been. What was wrong with the Bengals? Bo Knew.
But that all
ends on Sunday. The Curse of Bo will be banished for good.
The Bengals
will emerge on the other side of the black hole unscathed. Any lingering
doubts as to the veracity of this team were trampled into the shoddy turf of
Heinz Field by Bernard Scott's cleats and then further crushed
beneath Ben Roethlisberger's falling body. The Bengals are for
real.
But last week's victory over the Steelers goes far beyond simply serving as a bandwagon booster and an announcement the emergence of a new national press darling. Last week's win was a deafening salvo, a volley fired straight into the ranks of the NFL establishment. Revolution has come to the AFC North and beyond. This weekend, we march on Oakland, but have no doubt about it, our destination is Miami. Prepare yourselves, my comrades, for the long march ahead. Viva La Revolution!
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