Sports Today: Cincinnati Bengals avoid disaster, but now what?

Carlo Dunlap’s pick-six prevented what may well have been the worst loss of the Marvin Lewis era.

RELATED: Bengals rally to beat Indy

It didn't stop me from thinking we're getting pretty close to the end of the Marvin Lewis era, though.

I know it’s a long season and all, but that was just a dreadful performance by a team that should have been anxious to make up for, well, a dreadful performance the week before in Pittsburgh.

The unsalvageable offensive line was savaged again. Andy Dalton was nearly outplayed again by a young quarterback getting questionable help himself and the defense got pushed around most of the afternoon.

At the very least, the Bengals survived for another week. Now they are facing a stretch of four straight winnable games before a rematch with the Steelers, although three are on the road against teams that are better than the Colts so conclude from that what you will.

They’ve got more time to fix what ails them, though how fixable some of those ails are is very debatable.

I still like a lot of the young players on the team.

What is Lewis going to do to get the collective to start playing better?…

I expected Ohio State to score in the high 30s and beat Penn State, but I didn’t see the Buckeyes’ 39-38 win playing out like that. 

In fact, I thought it would be more like the opposite.

But this one will be a lot more memorable thanks to the improbable comeback authored by J.T. Barrett and the Buckeyes.

In the end, Urban Meyer’s special teams let him down, but his belief in having more good players than the other team prevailed.

Both quarterbacks played great. Both teams had lots of skilled offensive players contributing.

Ohio State’s defense was at its best late in the game while Penn State’s wilted when the lights came on at Ohio Stadium.

RELATED: Meyer, Barrett get last laugh as Ohio State pulls off epic comeback

What’s next?

Iowa can’t score, Michigan State is a fraud who will lose again this weekend and Illinois is awful.

Michigan made a quarterback change, though I’m not sure there is more to say about Brandon Peters than he is better than John O’Korn, who wasn’t very good.

We’ll see how that plays out over the next month leading up to The Game.

Ohio State is far from perfect, and a playoff spot isn’t guaranteed even if they win out, but the feelings are a lot better at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center today than they looked like they were going to be for a long time Saturday…

Hey, there was another epic World Series game last night! 

I do love seeing people get fired up about baseball after so many years of reading about how the sport is dying and blah blah blah.

I wrote last week the first two games had something for everyone, and it was more of the same over the weekend.

In fact, the Astros and Dodgers kicked things into overdrive with Game 4 that was tight until a big L.A. ninth inning and a seesaw battle won by Houston in extra innings last night.

Do you prefer pitcher’s duels or slugfests?

Doesn’t matter because this series has them both!

Of course we also found out who is going where to start the OHSAA football playoffs. 

2017 is a banner year for the GWOC, which put seven teams in the postseason, including top seeds Centerville (Division I, Region 3) and Trotwood-Madison (D-III, R-12).

Wayne, Northmont and Fairmont also made it in Region 3 while Region 12 turned out to be as loaded as expected when the season began.

Joining the Rams are Dunbar, Alter, Chaminade Julienne and Franklin fro the area.

»FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS: First-round pairings for area teams

Bellefontaine, Valley View and Miami East all are No. 1 seeds, too.

Also worth nothing: Middletown Madison is among five schools in the state to earn their first-ever playoff appearance, so congrats to the Mowhawks.

All of the games in the first four rounds are on Fridays this year, and the postseason will culminate in Canton, where venerable Fawcett Stadium has been refashioned into the gleaming Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium…

Congratulations to Charles Cooke, who became the 20th Dayton Flyers alumnus to play in the NBA.

He saw three minutes of action for the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night and scored two points.

Ironically, he is the first Archie Miller recruit to make it to the pinnacle of pro basketball from Dayton.

DAYTON TOP 10: Freshman seasons; A-10 wins; conference games; best records; worst records; stats to watch

This week Anthony Grant’s Flyers will take the court for the first time in front of a live audience as they host Ohio Dominican for an exhibition game Saturday at U.D. Arena…

Lastly a shoutout is due to the Cedarville University women’s basketball team. 

The Yellow Jackets traveled to Penn State and won an exhibition game Sunday.

How about that?

The Lady Lions are one of the Big Ten’s great programs, but they’ve endured some ups and downs lately.

Is this a sign of another long year in Happy Valley, or is something special brewing on State Route 72 under second-year coach Kari Hoffman?

At any rate, the Wright State men can relate to PSU’s pain.