PHILADELPHIA — Regardless of the game's outcome, the Bengals today will end their 10th consecutive non-winning season and head into yet another offseason filled with questions.

        Will the Bengals re-sign their most valuable player, running back Corey Dillon?

BOX-OFFICE BLUES

• The Bengals were the first team of the last five non-expansion clubs to get new stadiums not to sell out the initial season.   • Cincinnati sold out two of its eight home games.   • The team also failed to set a single-season attendance record.   • It distributed 469,992 tickets for the eight home games, an average of 58,749 a game in the 65,600-seat stadium.   • In the smaller Riverfront Stadium in 1990, the Bengals attracted 473,288 fans, or an average of 59,161 for the 9-7 AFC Central Division champions.   • At home, the 2000 Bengals were more than 7,000 a game off the NFL average of 66,302, which — if it holds — will set a third consecutive league attendance record.

        Can the career of quarterback Akili Smith, in whom the Bengals invested a $10.8 million signing bonus, be salvaged after a demoralizing season that saw him lose his job to an 11-year journeyman?

        Are the most passionate and long-suffering fans going to get what they want, Mike Brown's resignation as de facto general manager?

        Can coach Dick LeBeau, with the fierce loyalty he has generated among his players, be the man who can lead the Bengals out of the NFL wilderness?

        Now that the years-long distraction of getting Paul Brown Stadium up and running is behind them, will the Bengals get back to the business of putting a winning team on the field? Where do they begin in the draft and

        free agency to plug the many holes in a roster responsible for an 11-36 record the past three seasons?

        How does this season — during which their first coach quit — color the future? Is there something to build on? What needs fixing the most?

                Franchise player

        Just how important is Dillon? In the team's first three victories this season, he averaged 210 yards rushing.

        Failing to sign Dillon, the best running back in the free-agent pool, would not only hurt the team, it would make Cincinnati less attractive to other free agents.

        Even though Brown likes to build his teams around quarterbacks, Dillon is the centerpiece of the Bengals. He has 1,396 yards on the ground and, for much of the season, has carried the team on his back.

        Brown knows it. With the right to match any offer sheet, Brown won't let Dillon leave. Several sources show the Bengals have $47.9 million committed to salaries for 2001, the smallest amount of 31 NFL teams. They've got the money to throw at Dillon.

        “We plan on having Corey back here,” Brown said. “We've got a good, solid runner. We've got a line that blocks effectively for him. We have that part. But we don't have the passing game we need to have. We're still searching for the answers there.”

        No passing fancy

        The Bengals are last in the NFL in passing. They have thrown for 1,777 yards. The league average is 3,110 yards.

        Cincinnati would have to pass for 669 yards today to move into 30th place in the league, ahead of Cleveland.

        Smith has the lowest passer rating among the league's regular quarterbacks and lost his job to veteran Scott Mitchell. The passing game starting going downhill in August during training camp when the team's best receiver, veteran speedster Darnay Scott, broke his leg.

        “That handicapped us throughout the year,” Brown said of Scott's injury. “Any time you have an NFL team that can't throw for 200 yards, that can't (pass) most days for 150, that puts you behind the eight ball, big time.”

        Mitchell's numbers are similar to Smith's in most areas but one. Smith is 3-12 in 15 career starts, 2-9 this season, and Mitchell is 2-2 in his four Bengals starts.

        Brown wants Mitchell back to compete with Smith for the starter's job. If Mitchell chooses not to return — he came to Cincinnati strictly to back up Smith — the next free-agent QB will have the chance to start.

        Brown said he has seen enough of Smith in 11 starts to know what he can do.

        Smith says he's learning on the bench and vows to regain the starting role. He says hiring an additional offensive coach — he has lobbied for his former college offensive coordinator, Jeff Tedford — would help. Smith says offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Ken Anderson has been stretched too thin.

        Smith will get a shot to regain the job. Whoever plays quarterback will have more help than Smith did this season, in the form of a veteran wide receiver and a left tackle who can protect his blind side.

        “We have to get our passing game going,” Brown said. “We'll concentrate on that.”

        ; Resignation

        It's not Brown, the team's president, who will resign. It's fans who should succumb to the fact Brown will not step aside.

        He is 41-112 as the club's unofficial general manager.

        Katie Blackburn, Brown's daughter and an executive vice president, is next in line as president. She has taken on more responsibility, and handles most of the contract negotiations.

        “I think that's the natural evolution,” Brown said of his daughter's rise to power. “She'll have a bigger role as we go forward. She can do everything I do now.”

        Don't expect change any time soon. Football is Brown's business and his hobby. Some fans want Blackburn to be in charge and think, because she is not saddled with being Paul Brown's son, she will hire a general manager to run the team.

        Brown has LeBeau's support.

        “I will say this about Mike Brown's interaction with the coaching staff: I can remember several discussions in the draft room that I wish we would have not prevailed and he would have,” LeBeau said. “There's football players we talked Mike out of that are pretty good football players. I know that it works. We have to make it work.”

        LeBeau's team

        LeBeau, 63, who had his contract extended Wednesday, has said the Bengals are only a few players from winning and need to make just a few more good plays each game to win.

        The players have bought into his steady, confident professionalism. But the record suggests the team might be a little further from legitimate contention.

        In eight games this season against teams still alive for the postseason, including Pittsburgh, the Bengals are 1-7. Philadelphia, today's opponent, is playoff team No.9 on the schedule.

        In their first eight games against contenders, the Bengals were outscored 237-99.

        Their only victory against a winning team was the stunning 31-21 upset of Denver on Oct.22 when Dillon set the NFL single-game rushing record of 278 yards.

        Where does the rebuilding start for LeBeau? The front office has to re-sign Dillon. Smith's confidence needs repairing and his fundamentals need refining. Getting back a healthy Scott and linebacker Brian Simmons will help. Drafting well and shopping smartly in the free-agent market are vital.

        LeBeau declined last week to discuss much other than the Eagles.

        Brown said the Bengals “need to get a stronger rush on the passer.” They have 24 sacks on defense; the league average is 37.4.

        Cincinnati, which can run block, has given up 50 sacks.

        Before player personnel needs are addressed, though, LeBeau must make decisions about which members of his staff return. Only three — running backs coach Jim Anderson, offensive line coach Paul Alexander and linebackers coach Mark Duffner — are under contract for next season.

        LeBeau said last week Brown has given him total say in staff matters. New home

        Brown, understandably, is proud of the stadium which bears his father's name.

        “That was a major accomplishment. I am very proud of our stadium. It's great for the future of our franchise and our football team. It's a good thing for our fans. I would argue it's a good thing for Cincinnati,” said Brown, who's clearly irritated that most news about the facility is “negative.”

        “It's unfortunate that a lot of the stories about the stadium focus on things that are perceived as not right,” he said. “There's a tremendous injustice in my eyes in how the stadium is described as the $450 million stadium because $100 million of that was really the price of opening up the downtown for development.”

        Building blocks

        What is there to build on from this season for next?

        “It has been a huge disappointment. We have fallen way short of where we hoped to be,” said Brown.

        “Oddly, a team that was where we were last year, is the team we will be playing (today), Philadelphia. They got done what we had hoped to get done. I congratulate them. That is how it works. When you win, you feel pretty good. When you don't, you feel terrible.”

        The positives: “We run the ball as well as anybody. That's a real major plus. We're a little better defensively. We're not where we need to be, but our linebackers have done well all year long, and that was with one of our good linebackers (Simmons) injured.”

        The low point: The 37-0 loss at Baltimore. Bruce Coslet resigned as coach the next morning.

        “We've lost some others, as well, but there was no game we lost quite as decisively as that one. That was a difficult day,” Brown said.

        The best of times: “The Denver game was a very special game. If we were to pick the highlight of our season, that would have been it, surely.”

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