Saturday, October 23, 1999
BENGALS NOTEBOOK
Yeast ready, but ankle not
BY TOM GROESCHEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Craig Yeast wants to play. The Bengals want him to play. But Yeast continues to miss games, still battling the high left-ankle sprain he suffered Aug. 2.
That was the fourth day of training camp, and Yeast has yet to fully recover. The rookie wide receiver, Tim
Couch's top target at the University of Kentucky, had figured in the Bengals' 1999 plans as their third or fourth receiver.
“I'd love to play him,” coach Bruce Coslet said. “But he's still fighting that ankle. He's looking better, but he's still not well yet.”
Yeast played in the season opener at Tennessee on Sept.12, but has been deactived for the five games since. He returned three kickoffs in the opener for only a 16.7-yard average, leading the Bengals to decide he was not ready.
“I think I'm ready now, but the coaches may think one thing and I think another,” Yeast said Friday. “But there's really no conflict. If they think I'm ready, I'm sure I'll play.”
Yeast was not on the Bengals' Friday list of inactive players. But the club will lop four more players off the game-day roster Sunday morning, and Yeast could be deactivated again. Coslet would not comment on that Friday.
Yeast could bring a big-play element the Bengals have been missing at receiver. The club has completed only one pass over 30 yards this season.
At UK, Yeast set school records last year with 85 catches for 1,311 yards and 14 TDs, and he left as the all-time Southeastern Conference receptions leader (208).
“If I don't play this week, I'll just regroup and try to come back next week,” Yeast said.
FALLING SHORT: The Bengals have completed only one pass over 30 yards this season, a 39-yarder by Darnay Scott in the San Diego game Sept. 19. Last year, the Bengals had seven different players catch at least one pass over 40 yards.
Carl Pickens, whose lon gest last year went for 67 yards, has a long of 22 yards this year. He's averaging a career-low 9.2 yards per catch, and Scott is averaging a career-low 12.2.
“We're having trouble getting the ball downfield,” Coslet said, “and it's not because we're not trying. We had the ball for 62 snaps (vs. Pittsburgh last week), and I called nine long passes out of 62.”
Are the receivers not getting open?
“It's a combination of that, or the quarterback making the wrong read, or we're getting sacked or pressured,” Coslet said. “It's a whole combination of the whole offense.”
The intermediate routes, the 12-to-18 yarders, are something quarterback Jeff Blake sometimes struggled to complete. Rookie Akili Smith, who stands 6-foot-3 to Blake's 6-0, has been connecting on some of those.
“We're better at that because that's Akili's forte,” Coslet said.
With no deep threat, the defenses can crowd the rush lanes and concentrate on stopping halfback Corey Dillon. Coslet compared it to a college basketball team that shoots nothing but 3-point shots.
“Eventually, the defense is going to push their perimeter out past the 3-point line,” he said. “Well, that's what's happening to us. We want to be able to throw screens, throw the quick game. We want to hit the tight end over the middle, and we need to hit the deep area occasionally. You have to use it all.”
RARE AIR: Dillon leads the league in rushing with 501 yards, but no Bengal has ever led the NFL in rushing for an entire season. The only league rushing title in club history was by Paul Robinson, who led the old American Football League with 1,023 yards in 1968.
MILESTONES: Pickens needs four receptions Sunday to reach 500 for his career. Scott needs four catches to become the sixth Bengal with 300 receptions.
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