Monday, September 13, 1999

Titans 36, Bengals 35

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Dreams of win wilt in Tennessee heat

BY GEOFF HOBSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Willie Jackson scores on a 17-yard pass in the third quarter. (AP photos) | ZOOM |

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        NASHVILLE — The Bengals played a team with a new name in a new stadium with new resolve Sunday.

        But their season opener ended up like one of those reruns where you know the ending, but can't remember the plot twist.

        How about this one?

        With Bengals quarterback Jeff Blake on the sidelines with legs cramps, Tennessee scored 10 points in the final 4:38, the last three with eight seconds left on Al Del Greco's 33-yard field goal. That kick pushed the Titans past the Bengals 36-35 ending Cincinnati's dreams of its biggest comeback on the road in team history.

Corey Dillon cannot hang on to a pass. | ZOOM |

        It wasn't over until the final, almost surreal play when the two players who missed the most training camp nearly pulled it out. Bengals rookie quarterback Akili Smith launched a perfect 60-yard Hail Mary spiral into the end zone that wide receiver Carl Pickens nearly grabbed on the way to the turf after Titans cornerback Samari Rolle tipped it.

        “For a second there, my heart was in my mouth. I thought Carl had it as he went down,” coach Bruce Coslet said. “It's the kind of loss that steams your insides. We had so many chances and we didn't win and my players are just sick about it.”

        The Bengals rode Blake's running and passing from a 26-7 deficit with 5:32 left in the first half to a 32-26 lead with 7:56 left in the game before wilting in front of 65,272 at Adelphia Coliseum. The humid afternoon not only claimed Blake but running back Corey Dillon for the final five minutes of the first half. In addition, starting left cornerback Charles Fisher was lost for the year on the last play of the first quarter when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

        And the young Bengals lost a chance to silence their critics as they try to avoid the dreadful cycle of the '90s: How can you learn to win without winning?

Steve Foley recovers a fumble by Tennessee's Eddie George (27). | ZOOM |

        For the most part, this young roster featuring 32 players with three years or less of NFL experience took the moment. But it caught up with them in the end:

        • The inexperience of Smith, who missed 27 practices because of a contract holdout, forced Cincinnati to settle for two Doug Pelfrey field goals in the fourth quarter instead of going for the end zone.

        • The secondary, with rookie cornerback Rodney Heath, rookie safety Cory Hall and second-year player Roosevelt Blackmon, held up after Fisher's injury until quarterback Steve McNair threw for 72 yards in Tennessee's final two drives.

        • Will Brice, punting in just his seventh NFL game, had his first punt blocked in the end zone for a safety.

        “We're going to be OK,” said inside linebacker Takeo Spikes. “Being down on the road and coming back like that. This year is different. We've got something special.”

        Spikes came up with the defense's fourth turnover of the day when he sacked and then stripped McNair of the ball at the Titan 26 with 9:26 left. Blake, who had lugged Cincinnati with a game-high 90 rushing yards limped off the field with a calf cramp the series before after dashing for 13 yards to the Tennessee 21.

        Now he was back with the Bengals leading 32-26 and looking to put the game away with a touchdown. He tried to get it on first down to his leading receiver on the day —— Darnay Scott with seven catches for 80 yards — but he wobbled it over Scott's head in the end zone when both legs locked up with cramps.

        “I couldn't move them. First it was the calf. Then it was both legs,” said Blake after getting carted off the field. “I couldn't get anything on the ball. I couldn't feel (my legs).”

        Coslet again decided to let Smith hand off and take Pelfrey's 38-yard field goal that made it 35-26.

        After Titans running back Eddie George shook off Blackmon's tackle on a screen pass for a 17-yard touchdown play, Coslet went with another rookie quarterback, No.3 Scott Covington, with the ball at his own 11 and 4:30 left.

        “Are you kidding me? Passing the ball with my No.1 quar terback in the IV room?” Coslet asked.

        And it looked like it worked when Covington sent Scott in motion and Dillon the opposite way on a 34-yard run. But the Bengals had two men in motion when fullback Brian Milne also started moving before the snap and the penalty nullified the gain. The Bengals never recovered from the penalty and the Titans cashed their last chance.

        “If I stay where I am, we win the game,” Milne said. “A lot of it was I was just trying too hard to make a play and it bit me in the butt.”

        That's where the Bengals find themselves this morning. Trying hard and not getting much out of it except wondering what might have been. Blake was thinking they could have won if his 80-yard TD pass to Scott hadn't been called back because of holding on left tackle Rod Jones.

        That would have given the Bengals a 10-point lead in the middle of the third quarter.

        “Wasn't holding,” Jones said. “The guy fell on top of me.”

        Said Coslet: “What can you say? One of these has to go our way soon.”

       

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