Sunday, October 22, 2000
No quick fix for Bengals offense
By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The list of reasons the Bengals offense is the worst in the NFL is long. The list of ways to fix the problems is short.
HERE'S WHAT'S WRONG:
1. The offense is painfully inexperienced at the skilled positions.
Wide receivers Peter Warrick and Ron Dugans, who started the first five games, are rookies. For all of his talent, Warrick has dropped a half dozen passes and run the wrong routes more often than fans or the media can identify.
Dugans had trouble getting open and ran his share of incorrect routes. He was replaced in the starting lineup last week in Pittsburgh by the receiving corps' graybeard, second-year pro Craig Yeast.
The other receiver active today for the Denver game is another rookie, Danny Farmer.
Warrick leads the team with 20 receptions. Dugans has 11, and Yeast seven.
Across the ball today, Denver lines up two wide receivers who each have more than 40 receptions, Ed McCaffrey and Rod Smith.
Bengals quarterback Akili Smith started four games last season and played in three more. He has started six more games this season and is playing like the rookie he is.
Former coach Bruce Coslet, who quit after three games, and president Mike Brown said before the season that the Bengals would go as far as Smith would carry them. The Bengals are 0-6. Smith has completed only 45 percent of his passes, thrown twice as many interceptions as touchdowns — four to two — and often has held onto the ball too long in the pocket. Smith shares blame with the offensive line for his 21 sacks and four lost fumbles.
Left tackle Rod Jones will be replaced in the starting lineup today by 13-year veteran John Jackson.
The receivers, as Smith pointed out Wednesday, share the blame for the anemic passing game. And, as Smith pointed out three times Wednesday, backup Scott Mitchell “didn't get the job done” in Pittsburgh.
2. The running game is going nowhere.
The failure of the passing game has allowed opposing defenses to “stack the box,” the line of scrimmage between the tackles, with eight players. The Bengals have a Pro Bowl running back in Corey Dillon and returned most of the personnel who accounted for the league's sixth best running game, but Cincinnati is 20th in rushing with a 104-yard average.
As right tackle Willie Anderson has said after nearly every game, until the Bengals pass the ball effectively, the other team will concentrate on stopping Dillon. One Bengals assistant coach said this week Dillon has been running this season with a target on his shirt.
The running game would have been even worse if Brown hadn't signed Dillon in August.
3. Cincinnati could not weather the loss of two key veteran players on the offense.
Some observers said the Cincinnati media overplayed news of wide receiver Darnay Scott's broken leg in training camp like he was Jerry Rice. Well, Scott was the Bengals' Jerry Rice. Scott was one of the league's best deep threats and a team leader who would have made Smith, Warrick and Dugans better players.
While backup center Brock Gutierrez has played solidly, starter Rich Braham was the key to the Bengals' run blocking last season. Braham started the first two games on a bad knee and has been inactive for five games, including today's.
4. Maybe the players just aren't as talented as they are on other teams.
Players and coach Dick LeBeau, who says the team is just a couple of three plays a game from winning, believe the talent in Cincinnati is comparable with successful teams around the league.
But there are other employees in the organization who wonder how many Bengals would be picked ahead of players on another team when matched man to man.
As training camp wound down, Bengals executives, scouts and coaches sweated final player cuts to get down to the 53-man roster. They said former starting guard Brian DeMarco, a casualty, would surely get picked up by another team. Same with running back Sedrick Shaw, wide receiver James Hundon and kicker Doug Pelfrey. Not so. Not one of the players cut by the Bengals in August is playing for another NFL team in October.
The Bengals did pick up an offensive player, Farmer, who was cut by the team that drafted him. And not one of the players on Cincinnati's practice squad has gotten as much as a bite from another club.
HOW TO FIX IT
Now, for the solution, and it comes straight from LeBeau and his staff and players.
It's a simple answer but not the kind of sexy answer Bengals fans want to hear.
The same players who have been with the team since training camp have to better execute the same plays the team has been practicing since training camp.
Bengals coaches are correct to resist the temptation to reinvent the offense after three months. Employing a few wrinkles in personnel and formations is the right thing to do. The young players are learning what to do and how to play together. Underachievers have been put on notice by LeBeau — on both sides of the ball — that they will be replaced.
What happens offensively in the next 10 weeks will answer two questions:
How good are these guys, really?
And how badly do they want to be good and change the league-wide perception of the Bengals as the laughingstock of the NFL?
Bengals Stories
Yankees win opener, 4-3
SULLIVAN: Vizcaino joins Yankee lore
What will Clemens do with Piazza?
World Series Notebook
Suit claims boys', girls' sports not equal in Boone County
What case law is there?
Athletics under federal scrutiny
Locals win 3 state titles
Badin's Wiegands win state doubles
Falk chalks up third state title
Lakota West rallies for state golf title
St. X boys, Colerain girls run to titles
Boys cross country results
Girls cross country results
St. X edges Moeller in sectrional soccer
Soccer tournament highlights
Boys soccer schedule
Girls soccer schedule
N.Ky. high school highlights
Complete prep football coverage at Enquirer.com/prepfootball
Some playoff spots will go down to final weekend
Warren Harding 24, Elder 19
Week 9 Notebook
Lakota West 41, Lakota East 14
Auto Racing Insider
Cyclones 2, Milwaukee 1
Mighty Ducks 2, Norfolk 1
Former UC, XU stars return for exhibition
Georgia 34, Kentucky 30
Gottfried has risen to ESPN's top
Five Questions with Mike Gottfried
Hanover 55, Mount St. Joseph 12
Ohio State 38, Iowa 10
DAUGHERTY: 20 questions with Huggins
Huggins stays patient with inexperienced team
Prosser, Gaudio join forces again
1975 World Series: Game 1
• Return to Bengals front page...
No quick fix for Bengals offense
