Doc: A moment of peace for Zimmer

[|Tigers Johnson|]

[b]Doc: A moment of peace for Zimmer
[/b]
By Paul Daugherty

BALTIMORE – The man everyone wanted to talk to declined politely to speak.
Advertisement

That was fine. Some emotions can’t be explained: The hug of a child, the love of a lifetime, the loss of either.

• Photos: Bengals 17, Ravens 14
• Photos: Mike Zimmer and family before the game
• Scoring summary and statistics

Mike Zimmer’s wife of 27 years, Vikki, died Thursday for reasons unknown. After that, all he really wanted on Sunday was to be with his family. And so he was: His dad, his son, a daughter. . . and 53 players and a bunch of coaches.

It was one hell of an awful way to find inspiration. It was also a heavenly respite from what happened, and what is to come, when the noise dies down, the adrenaline ebbs and the mind has time for pain.

The Bengals won a football game here Sunday. It was a very big win, their biggest in four years. It wasn’t Comeuppance Sunday, as most had predicted. It was instead the drawing of a different curtain, the coming-up of new lights, when everything we thought we knew about the AFC North, and Cincinnati’s place in it, was scattered randomly, like dice on felt.

The Bengals have won three division games in a row, in a fashion no one could have invented, let alone predicted. Carson Palmer is The King of Late Game. Cedric Benson is Rudi Johnson with a burst. Chad Eight-Five is up to his old tricks. The offense is Swiss-efficient when it matters.

But it was the defense – Zimmer’s defense – that defined the Bengals on Sunday and brought pride and an identity to this formerly forlorn franchise. It is Zimmer’s attacking style that fairly screams, “the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t taking this stuff anymore.’’ It is his cajoling, blunt manner that has prodded his players to be better than anyone else thought they could be.

“Nobody wanted you guys’’ Zimmer would say all summer in Georgetown. He’d go down the list, from safety Chris Crocker to rookie linebacker Rey Maualuga, a first-round talent who dropped to the second round. Dhani Jones, Tank Johnson, Roy Williams. Personnel directors might have thought of them. Then they thought of something else.

The Bengals play like a team glad for the boulder on their shoulder. They practice like it, they come in early to push the boulder around. Ced Benson ran for 120 yards Sunday, against a defense that hadn’t allowed a 100-yard runner in two and a half years. This time last year, Benson was home in Texas, watching the NFL in his living room.

This is what Zimmer has helped cultivate. Desperation loves company. Players who have seen the end of the road aren’t eager to get there. They appreciate the life they almost lost. “Talent is overrated’’ is what some have reminded Marvin Lewis, all fall.

Zimmer didn’t speak publicly after the game. The result spoke loudly enough. The Baltimore Ravens came into the game known more this year for their offense than their defense, which is an altogether astonishing thing to say. And the Bengals shut them down. Other than rookie Ray Rice’s 48-yard catch-and-run TD, the Bengals shut them down completely.

Derrick Mason, the Ravens’ best receiver, came in averaging 15 yards on 18 catches. He caught as many balls as I did. Incredibly, he had just one thrown to him.

Johnathan Joseph picked off another pass close to the goal line. The Ravens averaged 413 yards in their first four games; they had 257 Sunday. It was a dominant performance by Zimmer’s crew. And totally a tribute to him.

“Guys would say otherwise,’’ Crocker said, “(but) that was our main focus, to win this for him.’’

You have to figure he likes this. You have to think it brings Mike Zimmer some peace. His extended family, the players nobody wanted, wanted him on this day. They rallied around him, protected him from hurt for three hours. They honored Vikki with their play. Vikki Zimmer was the unit’s unofficial den mother, frequently baking them cookies.

“You know how Vikki felt about all of you,’’ Marvin Lewis had told his players Friday. Now, Mike knows how his players felt about her.

He got the game ball. Partly because of him, the term “Bengalized’’ is taking on a radically different meaning. The old definition had more dirt shoveled on it Sunday.

As Crocker put it, “We’re finally getting that coin flip, you know?’’

There will be pain ahead for Mike Zimmer, private moments after the games stop and the lights go out in the coaches’ offices for another year. No one envies him that. But tragedy is not empty of grace. When we hurt, our families hurt with us. We’re not alone.

“We’re going to put our arms around him and give him all the love we can,’’ Marvin Lewis said. The players already did that. For three hours on Sunday afternoon.