DHL Dan CCLXXVIII - On To Cincinnati

In this week's Picked Up Pieces column, Shank looks at the New England Patriots' latest road game:

Even with the Patriots ‘on to Cincinnati’ again, there’s very little sports history between our cities, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while revisiting “We’re on to Cincinnati.”

⋅ It was 11 years ago. The Tom Brady Patriots had just been smoked by the Chiefs, 41-14, on “Monday Night Football” when ESPN’s Trent Dilfer buried the New England dynasty, telling America that the Patriots “aren’t good anymore!”

Bill Belichick didn’t want to talk about any of it in his postgame press conference and answered most questions with, “We’re on to Cincinnati.”

A week later, the Patriots welcomed the Bengals, spanked them, 43-17, and they wound up in the Super Bowl, where they beat the defending-champion Seahawks, 28-24, in the Malcolm Butler/Pete Carroll game. It was the start of a five-year run in which the Patriots went to four Super Bowls and won three.

That’s when “We’re on to Cincinnati” became a local sports rallying cry, alongside, “Beat LA,” “No days off!” and “Don’t let us win this game tonight!”