Sunday, August 20, 2000
Bengals give fans hope
Preseason football proves nothing. Coaches save their subtleties for the games that count and ration their regulars to preserve them for the regular season.
Conclusions, consequently, must be qualified. Both praise and blame should be passed out with a disclaimer. The NFL in August is a prolonged audition at premium prices.
Yet the Cincinnati Bengals had plenty at stake when they took the field Saturday night for the preseason opening of Paul Brown Stadium. There are still seats to sell in the sparkling new building, and its principal tenant has not lately engendered much excitement.
Saturday's game was a chance to market the team in its new trappings, an opportunity to pitch the public on the joys of luxury spectating and the possibilities of Akili Smith. So far as that goes, it went really well.
The Bengals outlasted the Chicago Bears 24-20 and sent their long-suffering constituents home with a gratifying housewarming gift. In the greater scheme of things, it was just another relatively meaningless exhibition game in a stadium not quite finished, but for the forlorn Bengals it had the feel of a breakthrough.
“It wasn't a preseason game to us,” Bengals coach Bruce Coslet said. “We treated it as serious business, and the guys responded.”
Something for the fans
Most of the 56,180 in attendance were still at their seats for the final gun, as cornerback Artrell Hawkins performed an impromptu dance on the midfield helmet logo. Many of them went home to tell their blacked-out neighbors of Smith's sure progress and the wondrous footwork of rookie receiver Peter Warrick.
Bengals fans don't need much of an excuse to start chanting “Who-Dey?” and believe their team better than the Browns. Maybe Mike Brown should not run for mayor just yet, but for the moment, at least, neither should he feel compelled to run from crowds.
Brown's long-held contention has been that the main thing separating the Bengals from more successful teams was the quality of their quarterback. Saturday's game would suggest he may be losing that excuse. Smith was spectacular, exploiting the Bears' declawed defense for a pair of touchdown passes and three successive scoring drives. If Smith's NFL education is incomplete, most of his passes weren't.
“It was just time to wake up,” Smith said. “... It was time to put it together as a team and everybody make some plays, and we did that tonight.”
At last, hope
If the Bears presented Smith with fewer defensive looks than he will face during the regular season, nothing they did or didn't do detracted from his accuracy. The second-year quarterback completed 13 of his 14 pass attempts while conducting three successive touchdown drives in the first half, connected on 21 of 29 attempts altogether and relied on running back Corey Dillon only sparingly.
The last time the Bengals' offense operated so efficiently, Boomer Esiason was calling signals and Darnay Scott's wheels were still in showroom condition.
Maybe this means nothing so far as the regular season is concerned, but the Bengals gave their fans a reason to come back for more Saturday night. It had little to do with the novelty of the new stadium. It had a whole lot to do with the novelty of winning.
Tim Sullivan welcomes your e-mail at tsullivan@enquirer.com
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SULLIVAN: Bengals give fans hope
