Not your father's Bengals

I've been moderately impressed by what I've seen from the Bengals the first six weeks of this season.

I just re-read that sentence, and it is correct.

I was never much of a Bengals fan as a youngster, mostly because I wasn't raised to be one. As I got older, and was able to differentiate teams based on more than logos, colors, or one superstar, I disliked the Bengals for playing with a decided and apparent lack of heart. This era is of course from the 90's on, when the team would occasionally have respectable players but marched each week toward inevitable and often epic meltdowns, collapses, and simple butt whippings.

In the interim 20 or so years, there has been the rare exception to the rule, like the 12-4 run that culminated in Carson Palmer's knee injury and Marvin Lewis' losing the team at halftime of a game he was winning, but overall the team has lived down to their label of being chokers, villains, selfish ... in short, losers.

This year's team has thus far earned my respect. They don't quit when they're down. I haven't watched every game - thank you, NFL, for blacking out games and trying to strong-arm fans into paying ever-increasing prices for tickets, seat licenses, and other silliness instead of letting us enjoy your product - but from what I have seen, Andy Dalton and company keep their heads up during games. Even in the Week 2 loss at Denver, I liked what I saw. The body language on the sidelines, the confidence on the field, the players pulling together ... most un-Bengal-like.

I don't know that I would call myself a died in the wool Bengals fan at this point, but I'm hoping they have a good season, or even run of seasons if they keep this group together. The Dalton Gang has been fun to watch, and frankly, that alone is an improvement in these parts.