If it seems as though the Bengals are playing catchup most weeks, it's because they are.

        Over the past 20 games, dating to the start of the 2000 season, Cincinnati has scored in the first quarter just three times. It has been shut out in the first quarter the past seven games, dating to Dec.3 against Arizona.

        During the last two seasons, opponents have outscored the Bengals 95-24 in the first quarter. Only twice did Cincinnati lead (it split those games); six times, the score was 0-0 after 15 minutes.

        “It's important,” quarterback Jon Kitna said of scoring early. “But we haven't done that in any game, and we've won two of them. So ... it's nice, but it's not the end-all.”

        True. Of the Bengals' six victories during 2000 and 2001, they went scoreless in the first quarter five times and trailed twice. Baltimore led 3-0 at halftime in Week 2, and the Bengals won 21-10.

        The slow starts are not limited to the first quarter. The Bengals haven't scored by halftime in four of the last six games. They have been outscored 228-115 in the first half in the past 20 games and have led at intermission just four times.

        “I think if we could start scoring in the first quarter, it would probably set the tone,” tight end Tony McGee said. “We haven't set the tone.”

        Said fullback Lorenzo Neal: “We need to score early. I know we're going to score in the first quarter this week. We're going to score in the first quarter a lot of games. We've got to come out with some more fire. It's just us not executing.

        “I don't know if it wears on the offense mentally, but I imagine as a defensive player you're looking over and you're seeing that you're trailing.”

        Indeed. After averaging 22 points over the first two games, the Bengals scored 14 points in a loss at San Diego and just seven points at Pittsburgh.

        Corey Dillon, the Bengals' running back and primary offensive weapon, has not scored in the first quarter over the last 23 games, dating to Dec.5, 1999, against San Francisco. The Bengals have not scored in the first quarter on the road since the final game of the 1999 season.

        “Defensively, we don't have much room for error,” linebacker Takeo Spikes said. “We can't go out and ... let them get 14 points because of the lack of scoring. I feel we put ourselves in a bad position. But people want to say it's the offense, defense, special teams — we're all in this together.”

        Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski, in his first year with the team, attributed the Bengals' struggle to score early to “a wide variety of things.”

        “The reasons are going to sound like excuses,” he said. “One drive, it's this; the next drive, it's something else. We're not hitting on all cylinders. If it was one thing, it would be easier to fix. It's us breaking down at different points.

        “We need to get off to faster starts. Then it flips it around and makes the other team play from behind.”

        Offensive lineman John Jackson, a 14th-year veter an, said he doesn't believe the beginning of the game is as important as the end.

        “I think what happens in the fourth quarter is probably more relevant than what happens in the first quarter,” Jackson said.

        He could have a point. Cincinnati has failed to score in the fourth quarter in 10 of 20 games and lost nine of those. In the six games the Bengals have outscored opponents in the final quarter, Cincinnati is 3-3.

Bengals not scoring early, or often Bengals Q&A with Mark Curnutte

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