Is Shemar holding out?

[*ochocincos*]

(8 hours ago)bengalfan74 Wrote: I sorta wonder if people were not paying attention to who we were playing those last 5 games when our D finally started getting some stops?

Cowboys - 7-10 playing with backup QB's as starters

Titans  3-14 just awful team

Browns  3-14 same as above

Broncos  10 -7 but a rookie QB and they nearly beat us

Steelers  10 - 7  with a broken R. Wilson whos season was over 5 games ago

Or in other words the teams we were playing and circumstances involved were very favorable to us. So I'm not filled with confidence they can keep that level of play up against better teams this coming season. I hope they do.........but......

Not only that, the 5-6 games after Thanksgiving are not a large enough sample size to give some (me) strong enough confidence that all the defensive young guys are going to be able to perform like that or better for an entire season.
Maybe it's Volson jading me, but we saw players like him come on toward the end of a season only to regress back the following season, rinse and repeat.
We need the defense to be mostly consistent from Game 1 to Game 17.
Coming on toward the end of the year typically results in middle-of-the-pack seeding.
I want division-leading, possibly even conference-leading performance out of the Bengals.
I know the offense is capable, but there are too many unknowns on the defense to give me confidence yet.