Benson made some waves last week when he accused his former team of trying to blackball him around the league. (Fortunately, when your running back has just 10 touchdowns in three years it doesn't take much to convince people not to hire him.) Plenty of players have tried to amp themselves up for a big "revenge game" by talking a little smack—and then promptly gone out and laid a big egg on the field/court/rink, proving that the organization that cut/traded/demoted them was right all along. Yet Benson somehow found a way to deliver a career-high 189 yards and a touchdown in a 45-10 pounding of his former mates. While playing for the Bengals even!

Benson said after the game that " it wasn't a revenge day" but he wouldn't have made those comments in the first place if it wasn't. He want to stick it to the team that never believed in him and was one of the lucky few to make that dream of sweet justice come true. Of course, if Benson had ever come anywhere close to leading the league in rushing when he played for the Bears, he wouldn't have anybody to be mad at now. I guess it doesn't matter whose fault that was—indifferent coaches, lumbering o-linemen, noodle armed QBs, or Benson himself?—because the team he leads now looks like a maybe possibly legit sorta contender. For this week, anyway. And this week is all that matters.

So eat your heart out, whoever has played running for the Bears since Walter Payton retired! Those nameless hordes sure look pretty stupid now, huh?

Cincinnati Bengals' Cedric Benson basks in an I-told-you-so day [Chicago Tribune]
Bears humiliated by Benson, Bengals [Chicago Sun-Times]
Wasn't just good running [ESPN Chicago]

* * * * *

Here are some other big winners, who did not win quite as big:

Ricky Stanzi: Mark Dantonio's patented prevent defense prevents the Hawkeyes from losing their first game of the season, and Iowa suddenly finds itself photobombing the national championship picture. Good for them. Jerks. [The Rivalry, Esq./Daily Iowan]

Terrence Cody: The Alabama nose guard blocked two field goals in the fourth quarter against Tennessee to save his team's season. That guy must be swimming in free textbooks right now. [Press-Register]

Manny Acta: After a disappointing season in Cleveland, the Indians decide that what they really need is a little of that Washington Nationals magic. And they actually had to steal it from the Astros! Geez, who do you have to sleep with to not get hired as a major league manager? [PlainDealer/MLB]

Dustin Doe: The Florida linebacker could have been remembered for one of the all-time bonehead mistakes—after being stripped of the ball while prancing into the end zone on an interception return—but was bailed out by a terrible replay review and instead got the game-cinching touchdown to keep his team undefeated. Yeah, I can't wait for baseball to get this stuff. [ESPN]

Philadelphia Phillies: Thanks to poor scheduling by MLB and a little help from God, the WFC got a nice long weekend at home, so now they're all caught up on Glee. [MLB.com]

And the Weekend Loser?: Boise State. After a 54-9 shellacking of Hawaii—on the road, even—the undefeated Broncos fell three spots in the BCS standings and will likely be shut out of the BCS games, never mind the national title. Yay, regular season "integrity"! [The Associated Press]

Since Pierre L'Enfant is no longer around to accurately convey the majesty of their ineptitude, this humble blog will attempt to do it with pretty pictures. It's more than what's needed, but less than they deserve and it will hopefully make Mets and Pirates fans feel a little bit better about themselves.

[Photo via. Special Thanks to Dan Steinberg and the rest of the Washington Post crew for their thankless coverage of this team.]

February 17: Sports Illustrated reports that Esmailyn Gonzalez—a highly-touted 19-year-old Washington Nationals prospect from the Dominican Republic—is actually 23-year-old Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo, a not-quite-as good baseball player from the Dominican Republic who forged his identity. "Gonzalez" had received a $1.4 million signing bonus in 2006, nearly double his next closest offer.

February 26: The Nationals fire Jose Rijo, a "special assistant" to General Manager Jim Bowden. Since July 2008, Rijo, Bowden and others within the organization had been under investigation by Major League Baseball and the FBI for allegedly skimming money designated for prospect signing bonuses in Latin America. Rijo, a former Major League pitcher, also owns the Dominican baseball academy where "Esmailyn Gonzalez" was discovered, but denied any involvement or knowledge of the fraud. [Washington Post]

March 1: Just days after spring training begins and faced with the growing scandal over the team's operations in Latin America, GM Jim Bowden resigns. The team's record over his four-year tenure is 284-362.

March 2: The Nationals unveil the new "Screech," a modified version of their previous eagle mascot that is both less adorable and less bird-like.

March 16: The Nationals sign journeyman RP Julian Tavarez, who describes his decision to join the team thusly: "When you go to a club at 4 in the morning, and you're just waiting, waiting, a 600-pounder looks like J-Lo. And to me this is Jennifer Lopez right here. It's 4 in the morning. Too much to drink. So, Nationals: Jennifer Lopez to me." Tavarez is designated for assignment in July.

April 6: On Opening Day, The Nationals are beaten by Florida, 12-6. The team loses its first seven games and falls 5.5 games back after just one week of the season. They are never closer than five games behind the division leader the rest of the season. [Photo: AP]

April 18: Elijah Dukes is scratched from the starting lineup and fined $500 after he arrives five minutes late for pre-game stretching. Dukes was tardy because he was giving a speech to children at a Little League ceremony. The league solicits donations from parents and pays the fine on his behalf.

April 18: Several Nationals players take the field with the letter "O" missing from their uniforms.

May 15: Rookie P Jordan Zimmermann receives his first personalized bats after being called up to the majors three weeks earlier. His name is misspelled on the bats. On August 19, Zimmermann undergoes Tommy John surgery and will miss all of 2010. [Just A Nats Fan]

May 16: A mechanical failure with the mascot's "sausage cannon" causes exploding hot dogs to rain down upon fans during an in-game promotion. One traumatized onlooker says: "It's just funny to watch hot dog rolls explode and come down on people." [WaPo]

May 16: Also, this happened.

June 7: Off-duty District of Columbia Fire Chief Dennis Rubin attends an afternoon game at Nationals Park against the New York Mets. Rubin immediately suspends all pyrotechnics at the stadium after he is hit by "debris" during a fireworks display that accompanies the National Anthem. [Wash. City Paper]

June 10: After a two-and-a-half hour rain delay in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Nationals rally from two runs down to force extra innings. They lose, 4-2, in the twelfth with fewer than 100 fans still left in the ball park.

July 13: After finishing the first half of the season with 26-61 record, manager Manny Acta is fired. [Photo: AP]

August 2009: A congressional aide returning from a trip to Middle East is detained by Israeli airport security when his green Nationals cap is mistaken for "Hamas headgear."

August 2: The Nationals begin an 8-game winning streak—their longest of the season—with victories over Pittsburgh, Florida, and Arizona. At the end of the streak, the team is 22.5 games back. [Photo: AP]

August 18: Two months after the MLB Amateur Draft, the Nationals sign No. 1 overall pick SP Stephen Strasburg to a four-year, $15 million contract, including a record signing bonus of $7.5 million. (He does not pitch in the majors in 2009.) Some experts believe they got off easy. [Photo: AP]

September 4: The Nationals are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. [Photo: AP]

September 9: Interim manager Jim Riggleman is quoted as stating that baseball is "not a physically taxing sport." The Nationals are 24-33 under his watch. [Photo: AP]

Somewhere In Time, 2009: The Nationals thank their fans for their "patients" as they try to build a winning team. The End.

The fined a player for helping kids. They kill people with sausages. They lose at rain delays. They misspelled their players' names. They misspelled a President's name. They misspelled their own name. We're not even counting the fact that their former GM stole millions of dollars from prospects that didn't exist. Manny Acta is the one being held responsible for it—which is too bad. Because if he is responsible then we've just witnessed the end of one of the most impressive eras of failure in the history of sports.

Now how are we supposed to entertain ourselves? They did charge into the All-Star Break in style. Tyler Clippard gave up the last run of the first-half with a pathetic balk, while their stadium hosted an Elton John-Billy Joel concert where Elton's piano broke (of course) midway through the third song of the night. But can Jim Riggleman keep it going? Sure, he knows how to fail—lifetime .445 winning percentage; only finished higher than third-place once—but can he keep the Nationals losing at such a high level? The world doesn't need more San Diego Padres.

At least keep it up until the Redskins' season starts, so we have something funny to write about.

Nationals dismiss Acta as manager [MLB.com]

Blustery Ken Rosenthal also reported Acta's inevitable dismissal and will be replaced by bench coach Jim Riggleman. (It would be a little ironic if Rosenthal's report was a erroneous.Probably not, though)

It's kind of a shame for Acta, who's been praised for his niceness and patience throughout the last three seasons of sustained awfulness. This is how it works, though, and someone has to be executed for the losing record, the uniform typos, the botched bobbleheads, the fireworks hitting the fire chief, Lastings Milledge, and everything else that's embarrassed this franchise the past three months.

Acta Still Manager — For Now [Washington Post]

After Dukes scored on Lastings Milledge's ultimately game-winning homer last night, Dukes and Acta went after each other in the dugout. It might have been because Dukes seemed to taunt Pirates pitcher Matt Capps once the Nationals had beaten him.

"We want to see emotions as long as you're not showing anybody up...He showed emotion, and I don't think he offended anybody."

That quote from Acta was the other night; he might have changed his tune last night. In other words, everybody ... the Elijah Dukes Explosion In DC Watch is ON! Hey, Manny: We'd recommend changing your cellphone number. Fast.

Trouble In Paradise [Nationals Enquirer]

While the Washington Nationals prepare for Thursday night's series finale against the New York Mets, Manny Acta's office at Nationals Park will have a visitor. Pope Benedict XVI will use Acta's office to dress and prepare for the morning Mass, which some 46,000 people are expected to attend.

The pontifical vestments hanging on hooks next to Acta's home jerseys? His Holiness borrowing Manny's Degree Men's Ultra Dry? Putting on Papal stirrups? Actually, I prefer to think that Pope Benedict got dressed in Ronnie Belliard's cubicle, perhaps even rustling through his belongings and swiping a pinch of chaw. Belliiard returns to cubicle on Monday, finds all the shoelaces on his cleats tied together: "Pope!"

Pope Benedict said morning mass before a crowd exceeding 40,000 at Nationals Stadium on Thursday, and all went well. Except that the Nationals missed their chance to have the Racing Presidents race a group of Bishops around the warning track, which would have been very cool.

In Pictures: Pope's Mass [BBC News]
Acta's Away, But Office Is Occupied [Washington Post]