Bengals sweep Ravens, stay atop AFC North

Could anyone who watched "Hard Knocks" imagine this? Watching Chad Ochocinco's(notes) antics, and the front office bumbling their way through the Andre Smith(notes) contract talks, and a team that seemed to have 8-8 prospects at best, how could you possibly imagine that the Cincinnati Bengals would finish up the first half of their season at 6-2, and sole possession of first place in the AFC North?Well, here we are, folks. The Bengals, possessors of one winning season in the last 19 years, swept the season series with the Baltimore Ravens with a 17-7 win that wasn't as close as the score indicated. It was interesting in that Cincinnati took a few pages from Baltimore's offensive game plan with some unbalanced lines and smashmouth football courtesy of Cedric Benson(notes), who picked up 117 rushing yards on 34 carries. Carson Palmer(notes) was efficient, completing 20 passes on 33 attempts, but it was clear that the Bengals wanted to tattoo their will on the Rav...