During this rather forgettable week 5 of the NFL season, the Cincinatti Bengals shocked the Baltimore Ravens with a come from behind victory on a late Carson Palmer touchdown pass. On the outset, the win was just another in the Bengals 4-1 season but it meant more to Bengals Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer.
Zimmer's wife Vicki passed away last Thursday at the age of 50 at their home in Cincinatti. Only three days after her death, Zimmer went onto coach a defense that allowed a potent Baltimore Ravens offense to only 14 points.
In football, we throw around the terms "life and death" and it sometimes take a real-life tragedy to realize that sports are just entertainment and in the end, most of these games are trivial at best.
After the game, Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis gave the gameball to Mike Zimmer who in few words said, "My wife loves all of ya. She is proud of you, win or lose. She is proud of you and I appreciate all of ya's effort."
I think Bengals cornerback Johnathan Joseph said it best after the game,
"Man, it just lifted guys up. "Once we saw him in practice Saturday morning and knew that he was going with us, it was unbelievable the feeling I had in my stomach."
The Bengals have suddenly become the leaders of the AFC North and a force in the AFC with a potent offense that stars Carson Palmer and Chad OchoCinco, the rebirth of running back Cedric Benson and a much-improved defense led by Zimmer. Sometimes tragedy pulls people together and teams have used that to propel them to success.
In the end as the story goes, Zimmer's wife had left the cooking and baking list she was going to be doing for the team after the Ravens game. For now, I think the win was sweet enough for Mike even if it was only is for those few hours.
