Saturday, September 18, 1999
BENGALS NOTEBOOK
'97 game provides some hope
BY TOM GROESCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The Bengals offense has some precedent for playing well versus the Chargers this Sunday, having beaten San Diego 38-31 in the teams' last meeting on Nov.2, 1997, at Cinergy Field.
Consider: Cincinnati has its four key “skill” people still here from that game, in quarterback Jeff Blake, halfback Corey Dillon and wideouts Carl Pickens and Darnay Scott. The '97 Chargers game was Dillon's first 100-yard rushing day as a Bengal (123 yds.), including a career-long 71-yard TD run.
• San Diego returns eight of its 11 defensive starters from that game and had the NFL's top-ranked defense in 1998. But the Bengals handled them in '97, including a 15-yard TD catch by Pickens and the eventual winning TD on a 13-yard run by Blake.
The Bengals defense was better than the score indicates in that '97 San Diego game, too. The Chargers scored twice on punt returns by Eric Metcalf but managed only 235 net yards on offense.
Does any of that mean anything, nearly two years later?
“They have a lot of different guys, and we have a lot of different guys since then,” Bengals President Mike Brown said Friday. “We hope we can hold our own and win, but listen, we've got to prove we can win. Every game will be a challenge for us.”
BYE BANTER: The Chargers were the only NFL team with a bye last week. What does that mean against a Bengals team with one game in the bag?
“I don't know what it means, if anything,” Brown said. “They're fresher, but we have the advantage of having one regular-season game. I think it's unusual to have a bye the first week of the season. Normally that's something we would not like to have.”
DORMANT JUNGLE: Come Sunday, another non-sellout Cinergy Field crowd will see its first Bengals game with no players remaining from the team's last playoff season, 1990. Linebacker James Francis, cut after the final preseason game, was the last to go.
The new regime promises change.
“The attitude has changed, man,” linebacker Takeo Spikes said. “The only thing the same about this team this year is the uniform. I like going home and seeing the highlights saying the Bengals won, and not the opposing team's highlights.”
Spikes, part of several powerhouse Auburn teams, knows Bengals fans are tired of losing.
“I feel like I'm a winner, and I feel we have winners on this team,” he said. “I like people saying, "Y'all played a great game, man. You won.' It's going to happen here.”
THIS AND THAT: The home team has won the last four meetings between the Bengals and Chargers. And the Bengals, despite a recent history of bad starts, are 3-1 in their last four home openers.
• WR James Hundon, G Tony Coats, DE Andre Purvis and newly acquired DB Clifton Crosby were deactivated for Sunday's game. Four more players will be deactivated Sunday to reach the 45-man limit.
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