John Clayton on McNair's outlook for PIT

Yeah. Indy has Houston and Miami, San Diego has Seattle and Arizona.

Ravens have Pittsburgh and Buffalo.

I think we're going to have to settle for the #3 spot and a home game.

The only consolation is that I'd like to see the Bengals not get in the playoffs now. They still have Denver and Pittsburgh. It is not out of the realm of possiblity that the Bengals go 9-7.

This is one reason I was rooting for Cincy tonight - I think they'll take care of Denver and get in anyway. Might as well help us get a bye, but that didn't work out.

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Originally Posted by Sephy

This is one reason I was rooting for Cincy tonight - I think they'll take care of Denver and get in anyway. Might as well help us get a bye, but that didn't work out.

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Not playing like they did tonight will they beat Denver.

This year has been so crazy week to week that a team that nobody thought would win out probably will and a team that nobody thought would lose out probably will.

PP

I dunno. Denver is a quirky team to figure out too. I don't think Jay Cutler was quite ready to come in this year, but who knows the way the Bengals played tonight.

So now what? I still say McNair at least starts next week against Pittsburgh. Now though I'm thinking let Boller play the Buffalo game and McNair rest for the playoffs a bit.

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Originally Posted by purplepoe

Not playing like they did tonight will they beat Denver.

This year has been so crazy week to week that a team that nobody thought would win out probably will and a team that nobody thought would lose out probably will.

PP

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Regardless, I can go back to being a Bengal-hater and Miami fan #1 for a couple weeks.

I realized that the problem with the scenarios where we could maybe rest McNair if the PIT and/or BUF games are meaningless is the following: We won't know ahead of time whether they're meaningless. Obviously the PIT game is not meaningless. And unless the BUF game is moved to the night slot on New Years Eve, we won't know at gametime whether the outcome of that game has a chance to improve our seeding.

The chance for a bye is diminished by the Colts winning tonight, but there's still a reasonable chance they could lose to the Dolphins, which would give us the #2. So we have to play to win out and not rest McNair and other starters unless we have a big lead (17 or more) in the 2nd half of these games. We can't write off the bye. Plus, as Billick said, you want momentum going into the playoffs.