Akili Smith is happy the Bengals won their first game Sunday against Denver, but he'd like to change just one aspect of it. He wants to be part of a victory.

        “I really didn't feel like I contributed to the win,” he said. “I was out there on the field in the first half making the right checks, stuff like that, but as a quarterback who was 2-of-9 for (34) yards, you don't feel like you contributed at all.

        “I'm still waiting for my breakout game.”

        Coach Dick LeBeau likes Smith's work ethic and is sure Smith will make the kind of contribution he's looking for before the season ends.

        “I think he's going to be a work in progress,” LeBeau said. “You're going to see progress, and it's going to be a steady thing that's probably not going to be a smooth curve.”

        Smith suffered a neck stinger in the third quarter of the Bengals' 31-21 victory and didn't return. He tried warming up, but he couldn't get any zip on his passes. He felt tingling from the right side of his neck to the tip of the ring finger on his left hand.

        Smith will make his 12th NFL start Sunday in Cleveland. Cincinnati is 1-6. The Browns are 2-6.

        Cleveland was the site of his first start, an 18-17 Cin cinnati victory. Smith engineered a 10-play, 80-yard drive in the final 2:04, throwing a 2-yard TD pass to Carl Pickens with five seconds remaining.

        But that's not the game Smith is thinking about this week, even though he knows Browns fans will boo him. He angered some fans and people in the Browns organization by thumping his chest in victory.

        The game on his mind is the Bengals' 24-7 opening- day loss to the Browns this season. Smith was 15-of-43 passing for 250 yards for one touchdown and two interceptions. That game is all the motivation Smith needs.

        “It's still kind of fresh, with it being the opener, from the individual standpoint of playing absolutely poorly,” he said.

        Smith is 76-of-175 passing for 835 yards this season. He has two touchdown passes and four interceptions and has been sacked 22 times.

        He wants to catch up to the improvements the offense has made around him.

        “Our receivers have gotten a whole lot better,” Smith said. “The running game is tremendous right now, and (the Browns) are going to have to deal with that. A lot of the sacks that have happened since the Cleveland game are on me, so the offensive line has improved a tremendous amount, so they're going to see a different team.”

        The Bengals want to avenge the loss.

        “We got embarrassed here at our house, and we've got to go back out there and prove to those guys we're better than what we showed them first time,” Smith said.

        He also wants to prove something to his teammates.

        “I'm happy to have the opportunity to show the guys that that game wasn't really me out there,” he said.

        What's missing from the game is a personal rematch between Smith and Cleveland quarterback Tim Couch. Couch broke a finger in practice last week and is out for the season.

        Couch, the first overall pick of the 1999 draft and one of six quarterbacks taken in the first two rounds, finished with a 77.3 quarterback rating. Smith, the third overall pick that year, is the lowest-rated of the six, at 52.4.

        “It's still Cleveland,” Smith said of Couch's absence. “It's still the Browns.”

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