BY
CHRIS HAFT
The Cincinnati Enquirer
STOPPING THE BALL
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The Bengals allowed an average of 177 yards a game rushing this preseason, while opponents kept the ball an average of 34:56 a game. That raised questions about how good the defense will be against the run during the regular season. Various Bengals, young and old ones, have displayed a knack for making tackles, though. Here are those players' credentials:
• Michael Bankston, end: Led Arizona Cardinals with 66 solo tackles last year and topped defensive line (fourth overall) with 114 total tackles. By comparison, John Copeland and Dan Wilkinson, last year's starting ends for the Bengals, totaled 83 tackles ... Led Cardinals line in tackles four times in six seasons. ... Had two preseason tackles, both solo, in limited time.
• Takeo Spikes, linebacker: Had 331 tackles in three seasons at Auburn and ranked third on Bengals this preason with 13 tackles, 10 of them were unassisted. ... Had one preseason sack.
• Sam Shade, strong safety: Led Bengals with 96 tackles from scrimmage and ranked third in special-teams tackles with 19 last year. ... Had seven tackles in preseason.
• Brian Simmons, linebacker: Totaled 317 tackles in last three years at North Carolina and tied Jevon Langford for most tackles in the preseason. They both had 14.
• Clyde Simmons, end: Enters 1998 with 109 career sacks, 11th all-time. Added 31Ž2 sacks in last two postseasons with Jacksonville. ... Had six tackles and one sack in limited playing time this preseason.
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Because most football cliches bear the unmistakable ring of truth, preseason optimism surrounding the Bengals became leavened with sobriety when defensive backs coach Ray Horton recently said, "There's an old saying: For every rookie you start, that's a game that you lose."
Horton cited no names. He didn't need to.
Top draft pick Takeo Spikes will start at right inside linebacker. Artrell Hawkins, the second-round selection from the University of Cincinnati, will start at right cornerback. Left inside linebacker Brian Simmons, whose minor knee injury will sideline him for the season opener Sunday against Tennessee, is expected to start soon after he regains full health, which should be early in the season.
That's three rookies, but that's not all. Despite possessing a combined 20 seasons of NFL experience, ends Michael Bankston and Clyde Simmons must adjust to Cincinnati's 3-4 alignment. Right outside linebacker Reinard Wilson isn't a rookie, but last year's first-round draft choice struggled in his switch from defensive end. He will start this year.
So if the saying is true, the Bengals will lose at least six games because of rookies or novices on defense. Which means that the offense and special teams must perform almost flawlessly if Cincinnati is to break .500 and reach the postseason for the first time since 1990.
No wonder players and coaches sounded like pediatricians in preseason as they repeatedly discussed the "growing pains" the defense must endure. Here's a sample from cornerback Corey Sawyer: "There are a lot of new guys here. We may go through some growing pains."
The season won't be so painful if Bankston and Clyde Simmons stabilize the line and John Copeland recovers from his torn Achilles tendon to reinforce the end position, probably in October. It could be tolerable if Spikes and Brian Simmons use the speed and aggression that made them first-round picks. It may be pleasant if the Bengals fix the flaws that left them vulnerable to the run in the preseason.
"I think we can be a great defense," cornerback Ashley Ambrose said. "I think we can be a defense that flies to the ball, an exciting defense that really gets to the quarterback. If we can do everything right, we'll have the turnovers, we'll have the pressure, we'll have everything."
More likely, the Bengals will repeat the transgressions of last year, when they ranked 28th overall and 29th against the run in the 30-team league, until the younger players absorb coordinator Dick LeBeau's system.
"They really aren't comfortable with exactly what to do," coach Bruce Coslet said. "They're still thinking too much, and it takes you out of your game. It takes your aggression away, I know that."
"We're probably as fast as any team I've ever been on," said Clyde Simmons, who's beginning his 13th NFL season. "But if you don't know what you're doing and you don't know how football is supposed to be played at this level, I don't care how fast and strong you are. You're not going to be successful."
Much of Cincinnati's zone-blitzing strategy revolves around the linebackers. So the faster Spikes, Simmons and Wilson mature, the quicker the defense will assume the dominant, swarming characteristics that LeBeau's Pittsburgh Steelers units had.
Spikes and Simmons, said Ambrose, "run sideline to sideline faster than any inside 'backers I've seen in a long time."
Wilson, said LeBeau, "is going to grow" -- there's that word again -- "for the first three or four years. But he's a very, very energetic player. He plays hard on every down."
Efficiency on first and second down was the root of the Bengals' failure to stop the run this preseason. Cincinnati has grasped enough of LeBeau's blitzing concepts to apply decent pressure on opposing quarterbacks, as its 14 sacks demonstrated.
If the defense never gets the chance to rush foes into submission, LeBeau's plans are wasted.
"See, the theory of this defense is to get to third down, and then just (exert) all this pressure," Coslet said. "But if (opponents) are making first downs with the run on first and second down, you can't do that. We must stop the run and then our defense can take over and dictate the game."