NFL Dos and Don'ts: Cincinnati Bengals

As we prepare for another year of NFL football, let's take a look back at the highs and lows from 2014 for each team. Welcome to NFL Dos and Don'ts. If you missed one, you can read all our recaps right here.

Do

The Cincinnati Bengals had a pretty good season last year, going 10-5-1 in a very good AFC North. Three teams made the playoffs from the division, including the Steelers and Ravens. The Bengals lost to the Colts in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, but all in all, it was a pretty good year. The only team from the North that did not make the playoffs was the lowly Browns, who factor into both the Bengals' Dos and Don't.

Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, unlike say, Zach Mettenberger, has invited criticism since his college days. He parties on and off the field and (until recently) has never apologized for either. That's cool for him—do you, young buck—and cool for the opposition who is looking for some good shit-talking fodder. Johnny Football even has a signature "move" or whatever you'd like to call that "Money Manziel" thing, so you absolutely, positively Do throw that right back into his face when you sack him.

Wallace Gilberry knew there really was no option, he had to Do this.

Don't

Prior to the Money Manziel sack dance game, the Bengals and Browns treated the nation to a special Orange Nightmare on Thursday Night Football during week 10. The Browns beat the Bengals 24-3 that evening and Andy Dalton had a historically putrid night behind center. He went 10-33 for 86 yards passing. That shakes out to an average of 2.6 per completion. Or, if QB rating is your thing, a 2 rating.

Please, Don't ever do this. Especially in front of a national audience. We all had to watch this happen, because it was a football game on television. If there is a single takeaway from American culture, it is that we will watch a football game if someone televises it, no matter how bad. Please don't abuse our trust by going out there and having one of the worst statistical nights since we started keeping track of these stats.

Jason Campbell came in and sleepwalked through six attempts and managed to out-rate dalton by 54 points, which is still 100 points below a perfect rating. If you have absolutely no use for, or understanding of these stats, here is some context: Blake Bortles' 69.5 rating was the lowest QB rating of all quarterbacks last year. Dalton started the game with an 88.3 season passer rating and this one performance knocked it down to 78.

Before the Bengals played a preseason game this summer, offensive coordinator Hue Jackson said they were "going to open Pandora's box more…We tickled it a little bit last year. We're going to open it up a little bit more this year and be who I think we can be."

Pandora's box was actually a jar—given to Pandora—which contained all the evil known in the world. So…maybe they already did.