With eight games in the books, we have enough information to be able to decide what kind of team the Bengals are this year. But don’t make me tell you, let’s let Carson Palmer throw his two cents in: “We’re not a very good football team.”

You get points for understatement, Carson.

Too bad we don’t seem to be getting points doing much else.

So, it’s half way through the season, we’re sitting a 2-6 and don’t have much hope for the playoffs. What do we do? The way I see it, we have four options.

Holding Onto Hope With the Tips of Our Fingernails
This one is sure to leave you with a worse kicked-in-the-nuts feeling than you have now, unless the Bengals actually run the table. Then, you can lord over everyone else at the playoffs tailgate that you are the only person who didn’t give up on the team, and therefore you’re the only one who deserves to be at the tailgate. And you’d be right.

Fill ‘er up Tank Job
As disgusting as it sounds, one option is to start cheering for the Bengals to lose. In effect, you’re cheering for a higher draft pick, an easier schedule next year and for the powers that be in the Bengals front office to be forced to shake things up and do something different. Now, all three of those outcomes are desirable.

But I can’t get over the idea of anyone actually cheering against the Bengals. Not when we still play the Ravens and the Steelers. Would you want to cheer for Ben Roethlisberger and Kyle Boller?

I don’t think you can call yourself a fan and root for the tank job, but that’s just me.

One Game At A Time
This is the way I’ve cheered for Reds games over the last few decades. I just want the Reds to play well in the game I’m watching, because anyone can win a game. Making the playoffs is out of the question, but I can root for a win that day.

This is kind of like ignoring the forest and focusing on one tree. Unfortunately, with the way the Bengals are playing, taking it One Game At A Time still means we’re going to be watching a lot of duds. And in baseball, a watching a crappy team means you get 2, maybe 3 wins a week. The Bengals will be hard pressed to win three more games over the course of the next 8 weeks. It’s a different dynamic when you play 1/10th the games.

Just Walk Away
Give up, start selling your tickets, and focusing more energy on your fantasy team. I think you have to turn in your black and orange stripes if you take this route. Earn them back next year by hosting lavish tailgates at both preseason games.

One nice corollary to this approach is that there are a lot of families who can’t afford season tickets, but would be willing to buy your tickets for one game. But I can’t say that allowing someone to take their young children to a losing Bengals game is something you would do to a friend.

So what am I going to do? I’m going One Game At A Time, but with each loss I’ll tell myself that we’re going to get better draft picks and an easier schedule next year. (I’m not even kidding myself that the Brown family cares enough to shake things up.) And with each win, I might take a quick peek at the standings and wonder what we could do if we win out.

How are you going to approach the second half of the season?