Monday, September 10, 2001
Narrow stop has big meaning
From the end of the ball to the end of the chain was a gap the approximate length of an ant's inseam.
“Too close to call,” Dick LeBeau decided.
“Probably a thread,” Adrian Ross recalled.
“From your eye to your nose,” Takeo Spikes surmised.
While the longest journeys begin with a single step, the Cincinnati Bengals may ultimately trace the road from oblivion to a single centimeter. It made the difference between repulse and reprieve, between a defensive stop and offensive sustenance, and, perhaps, the difference in Sunday's 23-17 victory over the New England Patriots.
No football game is determined by a particular play. No team is so malleable that it can be shaped by a single measurement. Yet in stopping Drew Bledsoe's fourth-quarter, fourth-down quarterback sneak, the Bengals blunted New England's best shot and gave themselves a basis for belief.
Seasons can shift on such fleeting moments. Moods can swing from melancholy to mirth. After a decade of unbroken gloom, the Bengals were bouncing around their dressing room with the spring that only comes from success. However narrowly, they had held that line.
“We were just making things happen,” said Spikes, the linebacker/leader. “Most of all, we had people believe we could do it.”
Fending off New England is not much of a feat in today's National Football League, but it precludes worry about another winless September and it shows what's possible with the score in your favor. The luxury of a 13-point lead allowed the Bengals to pass selectively in the second half and to rush the passer with impunity. Strategically, this is the difference between desperation and design.
Dick LeBeau's grand design is predicated on Jon Kitna creating enough pass offense to prevent opponents from concentrating on Corey Dillon. If the Bengals can control the clock, their susceptible secondary will not be so sorely tested.
Judging by Kitna's preseason performance and Artrell Hawkins' history at cornerback, the formula is a fragile one. Yet with the exception of one drive, the Bengals' second-half defense was as sturdy as the Steel Curtain. The Patriots failed to make a single first down on their first four possessions after intermission.
“I thought that's where we won the football game,” LeBeau said. “Those people did what they had to do to win the game.”
Mainly, this meant hurrying Bledsoe with as much pass rush as the Bengals have mounted in recent memory. Sunday's four sacks matched the team's 2000 season high and four of the 38 passes Bledsoe was able to launch were batted down by the Bengals at the line of scrimmage.
“New England had to play catch-up with us,” said defensive tackle Oliver Gibson. “That makes a heck of a lot of difference for a defen sive line when you can pin your ears back and go. When you know it's a pass, forget it.”
Bledsoe regularly beat the rush during a 94-yard touchdown drive midway through the fourth quarter. This narrowed the Bengals' lead to 23-17. But on its last two drives, with a chance for a go-ahead touchdown, New England got nothing.
The Patriots advanced to the Bengals' 41-yard line with less than three minutes to play. On fourth down, needing two yards to sustain the drive, Bledsoe called the fateful sneak. Gibson grabbed him around the knees.
“I knew I caught him short,” Gibson said. “But Drew is such a long guy. I thought he might have made it, but he kind of curled up when I made the tackle. When they came out to measure, I was praying.”
Players from both sides surrounded the place where the ball was spotted like so many pigeons pouncing on a bread crumb. When the chain was first placed, the Patriots signaled first down. But then the chain was stretched to its proper length, and a closer look was required.
“I don't think a penny separated the ball from where the measure was,” said New England center Damien Woody.
Small distance. Big difference.
E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.
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SULLIVAN: Narrow stop has big meaning
