Monday, September 13, 1999
BENGALS NOTEBOOK
Blake made all the clutch plays
How good was Jeff Blake Sunday?
Good enough to win.
Everyone from Bruce Coslet to Akili Smith to Titans coach Jeff Fisher sensed the Bengals would have pulled out Sunday's game if Blake didn't get sidelined by leg cramps with 9:15 left in the game.
He threw two interceptions and threw for just 182 yards. But he rallied the Bengals from a 19-point deficit with his gritty running and third-down play. He had a game-high and career-high 90 yards rushing on 11 carries, becoming nearly the first Bengals quarterback to rush for 100 yards since Virgil Carter 29 years ago.
The Bengals, who had gone 11-for-55 on third-down tries in the exhibition season, went 7-for-16 Sunday. Blake converted three running and was 3-for-5 passing on third down and had one touchdown.
Blake came through on some of his preseason vows, which were to score points and run the ball more. After going his last 15 series in the preseason without producing a touchdown, Blake led the Bengals to their most points in 19 games.
The Bengals spread the field with several multi-receiver sets, which appeared to open the middle for Blake.
“I like having a lot of receivers out there, that was nice,” Blake said. “We saw something on film it and I kept it in the back of my mind if I'd get the opportunity, I'd run.”
No positives
Several Bengals were asked what “positives” they could take out of Sunday's game, but most couldn't find any. The locker room was a grim scene in the immediate aftermath, including tackle Willie Anderson sitting quietly in full uniform for more than 15 minutes.
Wide receiver Willie Jackson said, “We hung in there, but we gave it to them. Maybe it's a starting point for us, but there's no moral victory. We let it slip away.”
Milne takes blame
Bengals fullback Brian Milne was flagged for an illegal shift on Cincinnati's last series. The penalty nullified Corey Dillon's 34-yard run and put the Bengals back on their own 6.
Milne saw a linebacker creep up to the end of the end line, and he made an adjustment by moving. The problem was, he didn't see wide receiver Darnay Scott go in motion, and two guys can't be moving.
“I didn't see Darnay and when he goes in motion, I'm not supposed to adjust,” Milne said. “That was my fault.”
Earlier in the game, Milne had the longest run of his career for 26 yards. He had 41 yards rushing all last season.
Brice blocked
Will Brice, with the club all of nine days, had his first punt blocked. It just so happened it was in the end zone and became a Titan safety that gave Tennessee a 16-7 lead and led to a Titan field goal.
He thought the pressure came from two defenders up the middle, but he doesn't chalk it up to a lack of chemistry: “Getting it off isn't a strength of mine, but I think I was OK there ... Those things happen. I don't think it was (lack of timing).”
The problem is, Steve Bush doesn't punt snap with great speed and BrIce is deliberate. But they also teamed up for a 72-yarder, a yard off the club record.
Brice as a Bengal.
Smith heave
Akili Smith fired a beauty of a Hail Mary on the game's last play. After completing his first NFL pass, an 11-yarder to tight end Tony McGee with one second left, Smith made exaggerated throwing motions as he ran to coach Bruce Coslet on the sideline trying to get loose. He hung it up in the vicinity of Carl Pickens and Darnay Scott, but four Titans were also there.
“(Coslet) told me to drop back, roll right a little, look left and give them time to get down there,” Smith said. “I saw Carl there and then a guy creeping over from the left. I thought he had it when the ball was dropping.”
Jones denial
Bengals left tackle Rod Jones said he didn't hold end Henry Ford with 6:32 left in the third quarter and the Bengals leading, 29-26. The play wiped out Blake's 80-yard touchdown bomb to Scott down the left sideline.
“I had my hands inside the frame (of the body),” Jones said. “They weren't out. I got clipped around my ankles and he fell on me. That's all.”
It's tradition
Ki-Jana Carter scored his first Bengal touchdown since 1997, then continued a ritual he began as a rookie. When Carter scored Sunday, he ran to the stands and handed the ball to his mother, Kathy, who was waiting in a first-row seat.
One difference: In Cincinnati, the crowd cheers the handoff. In Nashville, the gesture was met with stares and silence as Carter's mother happily held the ball aloft.
Sounds familiar
Bengal fans aren't the only ones who get antsy when things go wrong. Tennessee fans booed their quarterback, Steve McNair, when a drive failed in the second half with the Titans trailing.
First game, new stadium, near sellout, and things just weren't looking good.
“The crowd booed me, and that gave me more motivation to go out there and get the job done,” McNair said. “I don't understand it, but that's how it happened.”
Local lad shines
Terry Killens, the fourth-year Titans linebacker from Purcell Marian High School and Penn State, led both clubs Sunday with three special-teams tackles. Killens, a backup linebacker, also had one tackle during the regular defensive series of the game.
Titan fans
Titans coach Jeff Fisher was pleased with the first home crowd at new Adelphia Coliseum.
“It was awfully hard to hear out there,” he said. “Those are the kind of things we're talking about as far as home-field advantage.”
— The Associated Press
Stats to ponder
The Titans' remarkable center Bruce Matthews, 37, began his 17th NFL season Sunday. The Bengals have no two players combined who have played that long.
The Titans have 10 players in at least their eighth year in the NFL. The Bengals have only four such players: Jeff Blake, Carl Pickens, Jay Leeuwenberg and Michael Bankston.
This and that
A distraught Coslet emerged for his postgame press conference and left after one question. But he went into the locker room and apologized to the media: “This is just tough, tough. What can I say?”... Jevon Langford got the start at right defensive end, ending Michael Bankston's streak of 88 straight starts.
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