Bengals look Pats

[The Entertainer]

[quote][size=3][b]Bengals look Pats [/b][/size]
By GEOFF HOBSON
September 24, 2007
Posted: 3:25 a.m.


The Bengals defense held down Shaun Alexander for most of the day until a late 22-yard run on a key 4th-and-1 play. (Getty Images)
SEATTLE - Since the Patriots came into Paul Brown Stadium 349 days ago and text messaged the undefeated Bengals on how far they were from the NFL elite, Cincinnati is 6-10 and Sunday's last-minute loss here to the Seahawks may have been the most frustrating and revealing.

The Bengals played a better game than most of the pundits said they would and came within 60 seconds of beating an elite NFC team that rarely loses at home. But at various junctures the 24-21 verdict had the defensive lapses of San Diego and Cleveland, the special teams implosions of Denver and pissburgh, the turnovers of Atlanta and Indianapolis and the last second-sting of Tampa Bay.

"(The Patriots) have been a great team for so long and we're still struggling year (after) year trying to figure out what kind of football team we're going to be and what kind of games we can win at the end," said right tackle Willie Anderson, a dozen years of frustration etched on his face.

"It's depending on every man playing football. We're all going to make mistakes and give up plays. But in crucial situations we all have to learn, players and coaches, how to play, how to coach in crucial situations. Both sides. Players and coaches. All phases. We have to fix that in crucial situations. It's killing us."

The Bengals are 1-2 and in last place in the AFC North, already two games behind the Steelers and a game behind Baltimore, their stirring Opening Night win over the Ravens now wasted like Carson Palmer's brilliant last drive Sunday that should have given him his 11th fourth-quarter victory to cap off his 342-yard effort.

The Patriots provide a daunting shadow when they arrive next Monday night. Only eight teams since 2000 have made the playoffs starting 1-3, and only one from the AFC Central/North since 1990 in the 2002 Steelers.

"That was a difficult football game to lose there at the end," said head coach Marvin Lewis, who saw the candles on his 49th birthday cake blown out when Glenn Holt committed Cincinnati's fourth and final turnover with a minute left on a fumbled kickoff.

"We do a lot of very good things, but we have some things that are getting us beat right now," Lewis said. "We have to take care of the football. We have to execute better in the kicking game and lastly we're giving up explosive plays and they make a big difference."

With his team leading, 21-17, with 2:42 left, Shayne Graham booted the kickoff out of bounds to give Seattle the ball at its 40 with three timeouts left. Holt took a helmet on the ball and fumbled that last kickoff on a day that began with Seattle's 72-yard kick return. Palmer threw two interceptions and running back Rudi Johnson had a career-low nine yards on 17 carries.

Lewis emphasized to his players postgame that all three phases betrayed them. But it's the young Bengals cornerbacks that will hear about this one.

Although it was a day rookie Leon Hall came up with his first NFL interception, he gave up an 18-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Engram on the third play of the game on third-and-four. Johnathan Joseph continued his sophomore woes when Deion Branch ran past him for a 42-yard touchdown catch with 2:06 left in the first half and with a minute left in the game wide receiver Nate Burleson worked past Joseph into a zone that gave up quarterback Matt Hasselbeck's winning 22-yard touchdown.

"It was zone coverage," Joseph said. "There's a hole in every zone. If they find it, it's a play for them. It wasn't a me-against-him type of situation. If it was man-to-man then you'd be closer in coverage. But it was a zone coverage. If you find the hole, you win."

Free safety Madieu Williams was at the top of the zone and was the closest man to Burleson when he caught the ball.

"We didn't make the play, whether it was zone or man," Williams said. "That was the emphasis."

If Sunday's winning play isn't exactly explicable, so is the Bengals 9-13 record since they clinched the 2005 AFC North title on Dec. 18, 2005. Or a 1-5 record since last season's four-game winning streak. Anderson is sick of hearing teammates say, "We lost even though we're the better team."

"We keep saying that when we lose," Anderson said. "How can a team win a game if we're so-called better? I don't know what that means."

Maybe it's because four of those 10 losses post-Patriots came like Sunday, when the Bengals had more yards and still found a way to lose with self-inflicted, game-changing mistakes.

Anderson's point?

The better teams execute down the stretch.

Like running back Shaun Alexander's 22-yard run on fourth-and-one from the Bengals 36 with 1:41 left. Up to that point, the Bengals had hemmed him in, giving him only one run longer than seven yards.

But not when the chips were down.

With the Bengals bunched on fourth-and-one, Hasselbeck took a shot at a linebacking corps that had to turn to the newly-signed Dhani Jones with middle linebackers Ahmad Brooks and Caleb Miller out and Lemar Marshall limping. Also with a battlefield promotion was Anthony Schlegel, picked up on waivers three weeks ago with a total of four NFL games.

So Alexander bounced it outside behind right tackle Sean Locklear. Like last week, when Browns running back Jamal Lewis had 144 of his 216 yards on three carries, Alexander had 56 of his 100 on three carries.

"I think they might have misaligned," Hasselbeck said. "They have had a lot of injuries, and they've been doing the best they can. They have a brand new linebacker that had to play for them today. They have injuries, and we were fortunate to have really the perfect call for the way they lined up."

On the next play, the winning touchdown, Hasselbeck appeared to audible to a play-action on first down that paralyzed the secondary. After giving up eight plays of at least 20 yards last Sunday against the Browns, the Bengals had allowed just one plus-20 pass Sunday.

Until the chips were down with a minute left.

"It was really an all-block situation where we were trying to block everybody and we had hitch routes outside that converted because they were in a two-deep zone," Hasselbeck said. "Really, it was a dicey call. You could see at the line of scrimmage I paused for a while, people were probably screaming at me, because I know the clock was running down. I was trying to decide how to handle the situation I decided with the play-action fake to the right, maybe because my back was turned a little, that safety might settle a little bit more."

According to Seattle coach Mike Holmgren, the play-fake made it go because it froze Williams just long enough in the middle of the field.

"Actually, they were in a pretty good coverage for it. Now that I think about it, when I looked out there, I said Matt might have to check the ball down to one of his backs," Holmgren said. "But the play fake held the safety just enough, and Matt made a beautiful throw into the voided area."

Anderson's point?

In the last 2:42, while Alexander and Hasselbeck rose to the occasion, the Bengals didn't.

It was one of those sudden, cutting losses that hushes a locker room. Defensive captain John Thornton, who typified the strong play of the line with six tackles, held his head in his hands.

"That was the bad part; knowing if we stopped them from getting a touchdown we were going to win," Thornton said.

Now it is full circle. But it is not the upstart and unbeaten Bengals vs. the struggling Patriots like it was last Oct. 1. It is a struggling Bengals team looking for mere survival, forget elitism as Anderson cautioned, "The worst thing we can do is start pointing fingers. That would kill us."

"There are always going to be some trash talk and naysayers," Palmer said. "But the true fans, the season ticket holders, the people we need to have our back on Monday night will have our back and try to create as much frenzy and noise and distraction as they can for that New England offense."[/quote]




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