Friday, September 10, 1999SEASON PREVIEW: SPECIAL TEAMS
It's Pelfrey and nothing special
BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati EnquirerIt's kicker Doug Pelfrey and a cast of thousands.
It's hard to believe the Bengals's special teams could be worse than last season, but don't underestimate them after a hard-luck exhibition season:
• Three of their key players — long snapper Greg Truitt and defensive backs Kelvin Moore and Ric Mathias — are out for the season.
• Punter/holder Brad Costello, who worked the last three games of last season and all of training camp, tore a thigh muscle and was shelved late in August.
• Tremain Mack, who had the Bengals best season ever returning kicks last year, is out for the first four games after violating the NFL's alcohol abuse policy.
• Rookie punt returner Craig Yeast has been hampered by a high ankle sprain since early in training camp.
But Pelfrey, the 10th most accurate field-goal kicker of all time, is confident new long snapper Steve Bush and new holder Greg Myers will hand him a big season. But Pelfrey may have to get used to a new snapper with the arrival of former Colts center Jay Leeuwenburg. Leeuwenburg has about 30 pounds on Bush, a tight end, and they'd like the bigger body in the middle.
Pelfrey would like to get more than the 43 field-goal chances he's had the last two seasons, which works out to a little more than one a game. He had just 16 tries in '97 and last year he had seven games where he had either none or one tries.
Any other questions on special teams can be answered with, “Willie.”
It looks like starting receiver Willie Jackson is going to return kicks while Mack is out. He's also a top candidate to return punts. Jackson, an all-state high school quarterback in Florida, also looks to be the backup holder behind Myers, a guy who's never held in a regular-season game.
But they may have found a diamond in the rough on the waiver wire Sept. 6 when they picked up rookie free agent wide receiver Damon Griffin from the 49ers. Griffin is best known as Akili Smith's big target, but during the exhibition season he returned 10 kicks, one for a 96-yard touchdown.
The Bengals have yet to settle in with a punter. For the first time in 10 seasons, Lee Johnson isn't their Opening Day punter. Instead it's Will Brice, a punter/kickoff guy just signed Sept. 3. He has just six NFL punts, all with the Rams in 1997.
Can it be any worse than that gruesome 10-minute stretch in last year's season-endng 35-0 loss to Tampa Bay? The Bucs scored touchdowns after a bad punt snap, a blocked punt, and a fumbled kickoff return. Which all began on a missed 40-yard field goal.
Bengals Stories
It's Pelfrey and nothing special