Monday, October 08, 2001
Bengals back where they started
PITTSBURGH — Dick LeBeau's twin scapegoats Sunday were energy and emotion. He said the Cincinnati Bengals didn't show enough of either attribute to succeed in the NFL.
He might be right, but his real troubles are more tangible. For all LeBeau's euphemistic evasions, Sunday's 16-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers was more about execution and exactitude than emotion and energy.
It was about missed blocks, blown coverages, dropped interceptions, overthrown passes and erroneous pass routes. It was about ruinous run defense and a passing game about as precise as a dart game among drunks. It was, perhaps, about time.
Two weeks after their conquest of the Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, the Bengals have reverted to their old, disheartening habits. They are again playing the run as if it were contagious, and they haven't amassed 300 yards of total offense since the opener against New England.
Offense looks disjointed
Thus the rapture of a 2-0 start has given way to the reality of a 2-2 team in decline. Much as LeBeau might lament his players' approach, his greater concern may be with their abilities. Sunday, there were already questions about the depth of LeBeau's commitment to quarterback Jon Kitna. There were questions, too, about whether Kitna and his receivers were issued the same playbooks.
“We were making a lot of mistakes that weren't forced,” Kitna conceded. “... That's something that we have to fix and fix in a hurry. It should have been fixed a long time ago. We can't have that. We cannot have the mental errors that we are having and expect to win.”
Kitna has not passed for 200 yards in three games. Some of this can be blamed on young receivers misreading the defense, as Chad Johnson and Peter Warrick did on critical plays Sunday. Some of it can be blamed on the Bengals' continuing inability to open holes for Corey Dillon and the disadvantageous passing situations that result. Some of it, Sunday at least, might be blamed on the feel of the football.
Greasy as sauce
The Steelers observed the grand opening of Heinz Field with a batch of commemorative footballs both starting quarterbacks said were too slick. Conceivably, more emotion and energy could have enabled the Bengals to overcome the problems posed by their greased pigskins. Yet the Steelers' command of the line of scrimmage would indicate the Bengals' flaws are not so fleeting that they can be fixed by a pep talk or a Powerbar.
“We let Pittsburgh dictate,” Bengals linebacker Brian Simmons said, succinctly.
Energy and emotion are no substitute for talent and technique. If the Bengals looked flat Sunday, it may have been because the Steelers were flattening them.
“This team is still a work in progress,” Bengals tackle Willie Anderson said. “One of the things we've got to learn is intensity on the road. We just can't turn it on and off. We're not that good.”
E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.
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Bengals back where they started
