BALTIMORE — Bengals rookie receiver Peter Warrick has come into the NFL with a big contract, big plans and the big-play talent to make big plays happen. Two games into his professional career, Warrick has learned one big lesson: It's the little things that matter most.

        Little things like catching the ball before trying to run.

        Little things like it takes work ethic to succeed at this level.

        Little things like learning how to lose without accepting it.

        Little things like this isn't Florida State any more.

        “I just have to get the feel for the game and know that Peter Warrick can be good — I know I'm good — but it's a lot I have to learn,” he said.

        Warrick has shown enough flashes to say the guy is a can't-miss pro. He has eight catches for 155 yards, and his 19.4-yard a catch average is the highest among all rookies. No surprise here.

        The surprise has been the six passes he has dropped. Four of them were right in his hands.”

        “I just have to make the play itself and stop trying to make the big play,” he said. “I just took my eyes off the ball and was thinking about what I was going to do next.”

        Next in the NFL education of Peter Warrick is Game 3 today in Baltimore against the 2-1 Ravens.

        Fair to say he has never faced a collection of defensive talent — speed and power — that he'll see on the field at PSINet Stadium. There will be Pro Bowlers at every turn, end Michael McCrary, linebackers Ray Lewis and Peter Boulware and safety Rod Woodson.

        But Warrick isn't competing as much against the other team — he beat people up at Florda State with 207 catches and 38 touchdowns — as he is competing against himself now.

        “You can always watch film and look at what you do bad and try to make it positive,” he said. “Man, I'm trying to get better. I watch players (Jacksonville receiver Jimmy Smith) and how they come off the ball and run their routes.”

        Warrick is a young man in a hurry.

        “They've been in the league for a long time, and it's taken them a long time to adjust to all that,” he said. “I'm trying to do that quicker than unusual. I don't want to let it take me three or four years to get to where I want to be. I want to try to do that right now.”

        For now, the lethal combination of two inexperienced rookie wide receivers — Warrick and his former college teammate Ron Dugans — the growing pains of second-year quarterback Akili Smith, an underacheiving line and the disappearing running game have given the Bengals the league's lowest-scoring offense. Cincinnati's averaging 3 1/2 points a game.

        Warrick's part in the two-game flop has been the drops.

        Against Cleveland, Warrick dropped a pass inside the Browns 10-yard line. The Bengals had to try a field goal, which was blocked. Later in the game, he dropped a perfect Smith pass on a crossing pattern. Clang. The next time the ball game came Warrick's way he was streaking down the middle of the field. The pass looked long. But he reached up with one hand, pulled the ball to his chest and ran for another 10 yards to finish a 46-yard play.

        “I think about the drops,” he said. “But the next play, you've got to try to make up for it. Like the Cleveland game. I dropped it. "Dawg.' But Ron said there's another play coming. The next one came and I caught it with one hand. Even though it's a drop in the playbook, I feel like I made up for it.”

        Coach Bruce Coslet, a tight end as a player and a former receivers coach, isn't worried about Warrick's drops.

        “We expect him to catch everything,” Coslet said. “It's not frustrating to me. It's just waiting for a young wide receiver to get the consistency he needs to have. (Warrick and Dugans) are so concerned about doing the right patter at the right depth that they end up saying, "Oh, I forgot to watch the ball.”'

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