Spurs Dominate, Bengals set to dominate

 ABC news

Well the NBA finals are finally over and the best team in the NBA by far stood as Champs when it was all said and done.  Team basketball prevailed as the San Antonio Spurs played almost flawlessly and dominated the Miami Heat, closing them out in 5 games.  They played the type of ball that high school and AAU coaches could probably show film of as excellent fundamental instruction material.  Somehow we had heard it mentioned often going into the playoffs that this type of basketball was not "flashy" or "fun" to watch.  Well personally I have not had more fun watching a team play.  They moved the ball so well that their offense was almost artistic, so well that it almost overshadowed their tenacious defense.  It seems now you have to put Gregg Popovich up there with the greats of all time and his ability to develop talent and get everyone to buy in to this selfless cause that is bigger than the individual sounds an awful lot like a certain NFL coach...

 Link

So now what? 

It is the dog days of summer approaching for baseball, the USA men's soccer team might shock the world....and make it to the elimination round before losing and according to Lebron James we will have to wait till summer to hear his Decision 2.0.

 81 days till Bengals v Ravens week 1 of the NFL

The Bengals wrapped up their mandatory mini camp last week and don't start training camp till the end of July.  They have a couple of guys looking to ink soon this off-season:

Vontaze Berfict contract talks ->  Get it done front office.  This guy has what it takes to solidify a perennial top 10 defense for the next decade and he brings the type of passion and leadership that makes everyone around him better.

Andy Dalton contract talks -> Would prefer to make him earn it this year.  We believe he has what it takes to prove doubters wrong and is not far from being a top franchise quarterback in this league.  If he gets one though the less guaranteed money the better. 

Stay tuned as we will break down all of the Bengals off season later this week!

The Million Dollar Arm?

source

As many of you know, our very own Cincinnati Bengal Rey Maualuga has a featured role in the new motion picture from Disney, "Million Dollar Arm". If you were thrown off it was probably because he did not go by his actual name, he went by the name PoPo, and he was a terror MLB just as he is in the real NFL.

We were lucky enough to win tickets to see the private showing with other Bengals Friday, 5/16 at the Florence Rave. It was hosted by one of the classiest Bengals, Domata Peko and his lovely wife Anna. Since Rey had practice and had to miss the actual opening of Million Dollar Arm, Domata decided to rent out a room at Rave and invite several Bengals, then went to twitter and gave tickets away to local Bengal fans. Blessed to been given these tickets because the movie did not disappoint and even though Rey had only a few minutes on screen, he dominated those few minutes leaving his fellow teammates chanting Oscar! Needless to say, when Rey is done terrorizing on the Football field we know where he will be heading, HOLLYWOOD!

Now to the question that every Bengal fan is thinking about, what are we going to do with Andy Dalton and his contract? Well we here at NatiSportsNation believe that the Bengals do in fact have our franchise Quarterback in Andy Dalton. Take away the name and let's just look at stats:

Season            TD's       INT's       YDS       Record

2011                20          13             3,398     9-7

2012                27          16             3,669     10-6

2013                33          20             4,293     11-5

Now let's take a look at another QB's number but we won't reveal who we are talking about through their first 3 years in the NFL

Season            TD's      INT's       YDS       Record

2002               17          16            3,284      8-8

2003               11          15            2,108      4-12

2004               27          7              3,159      12-4

You see similar numbers with both of these QB's Andy has thrown 80 TD's in his first three season whereas the later mentioned QB threw 55 TD's through his first three years. Of course Andy has also thrown a total of 11 more INT's but leads in total yards by roughly 3500 yards. The QB we are comparing numbers with Dalton is Mr. Drew Brees himself. MVP, Super Bowl Champ, and has led the league in passing multiple seasons throughout his career. Do we really want to do exactly what the Chargers did and let Dalton go well before his prime, or do we want to stick with the leader of the Bengals offense and continue to let them grow and bring the Lombardi trophy to Cincinnati where it has been desperately waiting to visit. 

source

The Bengals have a lot of good players nearing the end of their contracts and they have been spending the off season trying to keep this young core together. They are currently in talks with Burfict who we for sure need to lock up for a long time, and we all know that next year is the year we will probably see the biggest contract for a WR when AJ Green's contract runs out. So what we think the Bengals need to do is offer our Pro Bowl QB Andy Dalton a 4 year 40 million dollar contract and let him bring us home a few Lumbardi's and then when everyone is back on Dalton's side pay the man the real money he deserves.

Stats