BY CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Neil O'Donnell, right, will start Monday, and Jeff Blake, left, will pitch relief .
(Michael E. Keating photo)
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GEORGETOWN, Ky. -- For the first time in 3 1/2 seasons, Jeff Blake won't start a Bengals game that he enters.
Coach Bruce Coslet said Friday that Neil O'Donnell will start Monday night's preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts and play approximately a quarter, followed by Blake for roughly a quarter and a half and Paul Justin for the final quarter and a half.
The announcement prompted little surprise and no controversy. Coslet indicated last week that he probably would shuffle the quarterbacking order through the first three preseason games.
Eric Kresser, who excelled in last Saturday's 24-17 loss to the New York Giants in the preseason opener, isn't scheduled to play, having taken 22 snaps in the fourth quarter against the Giants to O'Donnell's 29 in almost two quarters and Blake's 15 in slightly more than a quarter.
"Kresser played the most last week, so he doesn't get to play this week," Coslet said. "That's the plan, and the plan is subject to change."
Blake will be coming off the bench for the first time since Oct. 23, 1994, at Cleveland, the week before he began his streak of 52 consecutive regular-season starts and 13 in the preseason. He did not play in last year's final five games after Boomer Esiason replaced him as starter.
Blake, who continued to practice with the first-team offense, was unfazed by the order of play.
"The second quarterback usually gets more playing time, anyway, and I need that," he said, pointing out that relieving could give him a welcome opportunity to operate the "two-minute drill" -- the faster-paced offense used toward the end of a half or a game.
Coslet insisted that he isn't closer to selecting a regular-season starter.
"It's what I told you at the start (of training camp). Nothing's changed," he said. "You (reporters) didn't believe me when I told you how it was going to come down, so there's no story. I don't know how it's going to come out. We've played only one preseason game."
The quarterbacks themselves obviously have listened to Coslet, who has repeated that he won't establish a timetable for choosing a starter and might spend most or all of the preseason settling on one.
"I don't even think about that," Justin said. "I just look for (practice repetitions) and to do what I have to do to get better." Said Kresser: "I don't know what (the coaches) have in mind. They really don't tell us anything. I'm just waiting to see what they have to say."
O'Donnell had little to say about starting: "Let's go out there and move the football, score some points, get it going." He has done that every time he has played at Cinergy Field, building a 6-0 record as a starter there with Pittsburgh and the New York Jets.
Justin, who missed the Giants game with a twisted right knee, felt eager to have a chance to play.
"You can do only so much in practice before it starts getting to be a pain in the neck," he said. "You want to go against someone else rather than your own team."
Kresser also wanted competition, especially after completing 10 of 14 passes for 138 yards and a touchdown against the Giants.
"I thought after last week, they'd give me a little bit of a look this week, but that's how it goes," said Kresser, who received playing time in New York because of Justin's injury. "I want to play as badly as anybody else. But I understand they need to get a good look at Paul."
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