Bengals riding offensive momentum to season finale in Baltimore

The Cincinatti Bengals' offense has been reinvigorated since both Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens have been hurt.

Without a "star" receiver, this offense has played better than anyone expected. Quarterback Carson Palmer threw four touchdowns and no interceptions against the Chargers' number one ranked defense in the league and appears to making better decisions. Third year receiver Jerome Simpson caught six passes for 124 yards. Even though he was virtually shut down last week, running back Cedric Benson gained 150 rushing yards against the Cleveland Browns two weeks ago, showing he is still capable of frustrating a subpar run defense.

In recent history, the Bengals have had the Ravens' proverbial number. Under Marvin Lewis' leadership, the team has gone 10-5 against their purple-clad division rivals.

Carson Palmer has orchestrated quite a few fourth quarter comebacks against the Ravens during his time as the Bengals starting quarterback, most notably on Dec. 5, 2004 when Palmer led a 24 point comeback to give the Bengals a 27-26 win.

Since Cedric Benson has sporting the orange and black stripped uniform, he has put forth impressive, "streak-breaking" efforts against the Ravens. Last season, Benson broke the Ravens' streak of 39 games without allowing a 100 yard rusher, gaining 120 and 117 rushing yards in both game against the Ravens. This season, he has not been nearly has extraordinary but continues to do a decent job running out of the backfield.

On the other side, Joe Flacco is the key to the victory for both teams on Sunday. In week two, these two teams met in Cincinnati where obnoxious orange colors and loud crowd noises surrounded the him. He threw four interceptions, making scoring a very difficult task for his offense and much easier for his opponent.
Don't expect that to reoccur. Since the embarrassing 15-10 loss that motivated fans to request Marc Bulger  replace him, Flacco has thrown only four interceptions. The Bengals did not replicate their 2009 playoff season, in fact, have fallen for first to worst in the AFC North.

Ball security has been a crucial part in keeping the Ravens close in every game, win or loss. The Ravens are coming into this game with the hopes of setting a new franchise low for turnovers in a single season (21 turnovers, 2008).


This game is a mismatch on paper but when two division rivals such as these battle, the result is always brutal and unpredictable.

Rhymefest- Super Guy featuring Mike Bigga

Rhymefest and Mike Bigga, two of hip hop's most aggressive rappers, join together to trade lines laced with superhero references. Unfortunately the audio quality is poor but nothing an increase in volume can't improve.

My favorite hip hop albums of 2010

If you dig through my troves of 2010 posts, you may encounter a list of the hip hop albums released in the earlier part of the year I enjoyed the most. As this eventful year comes to a close, I want to present an updated list of four more hip hop albums I have cherished this year.

Kanye West- Monster featuring Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Nicki Minaj (Official Video)

Above is the dark, sick, gruesome but still unfinished video for the most successful single from Kanye West's My Beautiful, Dark, Twisted Fantasy album. All the rappers are present, each with their own unique preference of dress.

Let me just warn you. There is blood galore, a headless woman and many seconds of Kanye West's chest, this video isn't for the faint of heart.

Tity Boi- LO Boots featuring Vado

What do you get when two unlikely collaborators like Harlem rapper Vado and ATlien Tity Boi, one half of Disturbing the Peace duo Playaz Circle, come together? A club beat with a lot of braggadocio. When it comes to this one, I am a fan with reason.

"LO Boots" is the first single from Tity Boi's mixtape #2ChainTuesdays set for release in the near but indefinite future (aka no time soon).

Where have I been?

Give me this opportunity to apologize for the low volume of posts as of late. My computer recently got hit with a virus, thus making blogging very hard to do. In the next day or so I will post my list of favorite hip hop albums from 2010. Keep an eye out for that!

Ravens defense cashed in check Lewis wrote

Ray Lewis publicly stated last week that Browns running back Peyton Hillis would not run for more than 100 rushing yards like he did back in September, the last time these two teams met.

On September 26, Hillis ran for 144 yards on 22 carries, one of which was a 44 yarder off the left tackle, through the right side of the defense.

Yesterday was a totally different story. From the very beginning, the Ravens had Hillis snooped out, keeping him from breaking a run longer than seven yards. His measly 2.9 yard per carry average was outdone by teammate Mike Bell who was somewhat more productive, getting 27 yards with nine carries.

Once the Browns running backs were shut down, rookie quarterback Colt McCoy was left to scramble and force erratic throws in an attempt to keep his team in the game. The result was a three interception outing, two caught by Ed Reed and one by Lardarius Webb, giving them six and two interceptions respectively on the season.

This game marks the second consecutive game the Ravens opposing leading rusher was held to less than 40 rushing yards. If the run defense can maintain their stiff performances, they could cause upcoming opponents lots of trouble.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to my readers all around the world and a "season's greetings" to those who practice a different customs than I this time of year.