The Bengals are counting on veterans Darryl Williams and Tom Carter to improve their secondary. (Steven M. Herppich photo) | ZOOM |

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        GEORGETOWN, Ky. — A year ago, the Bengals started a rookie cornerback, second-round draft pick Charles Fisher, in their opener at Tennessee.

        This year's No.2 choice, cornerback Mark Roman, doesn't figure to start Sept.10, when the Bengals play Cleveland to start their season.

        Roman held out and reported to training camp just last week and probably would not have been better than the team's fourth cornerback even if he had come in on time.

        “The good thing is right now I've got some people ahead of him who are playing well,” defensive backs coach Ray Horton said last week at training camp. “So he doesn't have to be a starter, where in the past we have started guys like that. He can sit on the bench and learn what it takes to be a pro, because it is different.”

WHAT PASS DEFENSE?

• Cincinnati allowed 4,027 passing yards in 1999, worst in the AFC and fourth-worst in the NFL.   • Five times the defense gave up three touchdown passes and more than 300 yards passing in a game.   • The Bengals tied with Minnesota, Atlanta and Buffalo for the third fewest interceptions, 12, in the league.   Cornerback Rodney Heath led Cincinnati with three interceptions, and linebacker Takeo Spikes and defensive end John Copeland tied for second with two each. Tom Carter and Roosevelt Blackmon each had one.

        The Bengals' secondary is a different place this season. It had better be if the team wants to snap a string of nine seasons without a winning record. Cincinnati's pass defense was among the league's worst last season.

        “The only goal I put up there for them is a reminder of where we were last year,” said Horton, a former Bengal who was a pro defensive back for 10 years and won a Super Bowl ring with Dallas in 1992. “I don't want to say it was pathetic or poor, but as a professional football player, the last thing I wanted to do was let my teammates down.”

        The pass defense is better, though it looked more like 1999 during Friday night's 31-16 preseason loss in Atlanta. The Falcons threw for 362 yards and three touchdowns.

        “They were throwing some corner patterns that we have to work on with our safeties overlapping over top of the corners to help,” coach Bruce Coslet said Saturday.

        After the game Friday night, he said the lack of a pass rush gave Falcons quarterback Chris Chandler too much time.

        “He could just take four shuffle steps up in the pocket and wait for the deep, deep corner pattern,” Coslet said.

        The secondary has undergone a face-lift by adding players who have wrinkles.

        Free safety Darryl Williams, a 30-year-old free agent, brought his 120 career starts and 29 interceptions back to Cincinnati when he signed a three-year, $4 million deal two days after Seattle released him in March.

        Cornerback Tom Carter, who will turn 28 in September, was waived by Chicago and played two games with the Bengals in December. He had the 25th interception of his career in the first of his two Cincinnati starts, which were the 86th and 87th starts of his NFL career.

        With Williams and Carter in the starting lineup, the Bengals have moved cornerbacks Rodney Heath and Roosevelt Blackmon and strong safety Greg Myers to reserve roles. Among them they had 16 starts in 1999.

        Gone are Myron Bell, Ty Howard and Rico Clark, who started a combined 20 games.

        A goal is not to rush Roman and Robert Bean, this year's fifth-round pick.

        That's not how it worked out for third-year corner Artrell Hawkins, a second-round pick from the University of Cincinnati in 1998, who has started 29 of his 30 career NFL games.

        “In the past two years, Artrell was my best guy, and he didn't know anything,” Horton said. “Now he gets to see veterans who know how to work and how to study. It's a calming experience.”

        In contrast, the Buffalo Bills didn't start first-round pick Antoine Winfield until the 15th game last year.

        Williams and Carter bring smarts to Cincinnati's secondary.

        “Quarterbacks come up to the line and can set the offense in a lot of formations,” Williams said. “If you have an idea of what they can do in that formation, you cut out a lot of worry. We try to go out and make no mental mistakes.”

        And have a professional work ethic.

        “Do it by example,” Williams said. “If (younger teammates) see you go out and do what you're supposed to, it gives them an example to follow.”

        Carter, who leads the players' non-denominational Bible study, has been a positive influence on and off the field to Hawkins and Heath, the team's No.3 cornerback.

        “I learn by watching him play, little techniques, how he works,” said Heath, a Western Hills High School graduate who started nine games for the Bengals last season. “Off the field, Tom's helped me understand God and Jesus. If you're lost off the field, how can you have it together on the field? If Tom has a bad play, he doesn't get rattled. He has an inner peace.”

        Horton likes Heath's play in camp.

        “He's everything I need at No.3,” Horton said. “In this league today, you look at St.Louis, Baltimore, Minnesota, Washington, all these teams that use three wide receivers all the time. You need three cornerbacks just to line up. You need a fourth in case somebody gets hurt. I need as many as I can get. But for right now I'm happy where I'm at.”

        Besides Williams, Carter and Hawkins, the other projected starter in the secondary is strong safety Cory Hall, a second-year pro who was selected to NFL all-rookie teams by Pro Football Weekly and Football Digest.

        Hall had 49 tackles and one interception in 1999.

        Myers, who has 34 starts with the Bengals in four years, is Hall's backup. Three-year veteran Tremain Mack backs up Williams.

        Besides the two draft picks, another promising newcomer is Brian Gray, an undrafted free agent who has a safety's size and can play cornerback.

        “We're getting better, but we're not there yet,” Horton said. “We're light years ahead of where we were last year, but we've still got light years to go. Just because we seem better doesn't mean we are.”

        One indicator of improvement is interceptions. Williams and Bean both picked off passes to end Atlanta drives deep in Cincinnati territory Friday night. Bean's interception was in the end zone, and Williams tipped a pass and then caught it.

        “Just catch the ball when you have the chance,” Williams said. “Last year, they had a lot of chances and didn't catch the ball. And that gives the offense another chance to make a play.”

        John Copeland's two interceptions were tied for second on the team last year, behind Heath's three, and Copeland is a lineman.

        “The fans can expect to see more interceptions this year,” said Hawkins, who had three picks as a rookie but none last year. “We've had more this camp than I can remember. It's not just one guy.”

        Unofficially, Bean leads with seven practice interceptions. Hawkins and Blackmon each have six.

        “We're making plays now,” Williams said. “We're supporting the run. We're making interceptions. We're in the right position. Good things are going to happen.”

        Bengals president Mike Brown, a constant on the sidelines at training camp, likes what he sees so far.

        “I feel better about our defensive backs as a group than I have for some time,” he said. “We have more depth at cornerback. We actually have more than three deep at each cornerback position who can play effectively. In some recent years, we didn't have anybody who could play effectively.

        “I don't know if we have shut-down corners. There are some of those in the league. Most teams don't have those. We don't have those. But we have solid, competitive guys, and we feel better for that reason.”

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