NFL cincinnati Bengals

Most teams will play their eighth game this week, meaning that we're hitting the halfway mark. Already, there's talk of 16-0 teams and teams that have played themselves out of serious contention.

We previewed this weekend's big games, got your predictions, and found out who you think has the better shot of running the table among the remaining unbeatens. Read all about it after the jump.

Bengals 45, Bears 10. It was 45-3 before the Bears finally got into the end zone, but the game had long been over at that point. It was one of those games that makes you wonder -- were the Bengals that good or the Bears that bad? As is usually the case when you ask that question, it was a combination of both. You have to give the Bengals credit, especially Carson Palmer for his precision passing. Well, really, the entire team deserves loads of credit.

Still, this game was more about how pathetic the Bears played. For a team with Super Bowl aspirations, that was a simply despicable attempt at playing football on nearly every front. More games like that, and the playoffs won't even be a possibility come late November.

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Cedric Benson's time in Chicago was a tumultuous one. He was drafted by the Bears in the first round -- the fourth overall pick -- of the 2005 draft and proceeded to hold out for 36 days. After arriving, he constantly complained about being mistreated by teammates. That may have been true, as the incumbent starting running back, Thomas Jones, was well-liked by teammates. Maybe it was because Jones worked hard, cared about the team and didn't have a sense of entitlement -- all opposite traits displayed by Benson in Chicago.

Now, Benson is becoming the player many thought he could coming out of college, due to -- in my opinion -- having received a wake-up call when the Bears cut him. Although, if you hear it from him, that isn't the case at all. In fact, he claims the Bears attempted to blackball him from the NFL.

Though a 28-17 loss to the Houston Texans wasn't an ideal way to come off an eye-opening 4-1 start, the Cincinnati Bengals knew it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Unfortunately, the repercussions of Sunday's game at Paul Brown Stadium will be felt for the rest of the season. The club Monday announced that Antwan Odom, who entered the weekend tied for the NFL lead in quarterback sacks, will miss the rest of the season.

CINCINNATI -- As losses go, this one was a stinker. Flying high off yet another last-minute intra-divisional win, the Bengals showed up for a home game Sunday against the Texans and had just about everything go wrong. They lost, 28-17, most important, and they also saw key defensive lineman Antwan Odom and Domata Peko go down with injuries. Odom's is a torn Achilles' tendon, which means they've lost him for the season. Bad, bad loss.

But the message Bengals coach Marvin Lewis delivered to his team in the wake of this bad loss was the same, simple two-word mantra he delivered on the first night of the season, after a goofy last-minute bounce cost the Bengals a game against the Denver Broncos:

"Don't flinch."

Bengals defensive end Antwan Odom -- who is tied for the NFL lead in sacks with Elvis Dumervil at eight -- was carted off the field during Sunday's game against Houston with a right Achilles' injury. Odom did not return to the game.

Odom crumpled after being blocked and trainers quickly called for a cart to come onto the field -- Houston scored on the play on a Matt Schaub-to-Owen Daniels touchdown pass. Earlier, Odom blocked a Houston field goal attempt.

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CINCINNATI -- Chad Ochocinco is taking some of the credit for the fact that Bengals fans in this area will be able to see the team play on TV on Sunday, and it appears he does have something to do with it. On Thursday the Bengals asked for (and got) a one-day extension of the league's deadline for selling out Sunday's home game against the Houston Texans. Had they not done so by Friday afternoon, the game would have been blacked out in the local market. And as of Thursday night, about 3,000 tickets remained unsold.

But at 1:08 p.m. Eastern time, Ochocinco announced on his Twitter page that he and Motorola had bought the remaining tickets and would be giving them away. Problem solved.

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CINCINNATI -- If Cedric Benson were going to make this climb from the NFL scrap heap to the top of the rushing list, it only makes sense that he'd do it here, among the well-known collection of misfits and ne'er-do-wells that league observers and HBO subscribers know as the Bengals.

This is in many ways the perfect spot for someone like Benson, who was unwelcome in Chicago before he even arrived and who drank himself out of town without ever delivering on the promise that comes with being the No. 4 pick in the draft. Here by the muddy banks of the Ohio River, in the shadow of the creaky Roebling Bridge, a team that's had only two winning seasons in the past two decades is happy to make Benson feel at home.

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The National Football League has fined Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis $25,000 for a hit on Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco on Sunday, ignoring Ochocinco's request that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell spare Lewis a fine.

Zebra Report is FanHouse's analysis of actual NFL rules and how they are to be applied ... because most fans think they could do a better job than the NFL officials, yet definitely could not. Click here for an introduction as to how we do things.

One week later and we know now that the league is mandating the roughing the passer calls we discussed last week. This past week, we also learned that the league admitted error on the Mike Sims-Walker touchdown we discussed, which should help to relieve some of the tension fans are carrying about a perceived lack of accountability. I was pleased to see the league's admission. Let's get to the reviews for this week.