Sunday, October 21, 2001
Keys to victory
Bengals hope to feed off emotion again
By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Linebacker Takeo Spikes, the emotional leader of the Bengals, returns to the field today against the Bears.
He missed last week's game against the Browns because of his father's death in Georgia.
The Bengals played an inspired game, dedicating their effort to Spikes and presenting him with a game ball. Today, they need that same energy — and Spikes certainly will be charged.
“It's going to be emotional, man,” he said.
Whether emotion comes first or playing well produces emotion, the Bengals had it in their three victories. They didn't for much of their two losses.
Of course, those three wins all came at home. A boisterous crowd can help the emotion today as the Bengals try to go 4-0 at Paul Brown Stadium, halfway to a perfect home schedule. The game is not a sellout, but the crowd should exceed 60,000.
Other Bengals' keys:
HOLD ON: Punter/holder Nick Harris and long-snapper Brad St. Louis have to do everything they can to help kicker Neil Rackers.
St. Louis, who was almost perfect as a rookie, has not been as sharp this season with his snaps. He's been high on some, and others have gone too far into the holder's body. And Harris needs to quickly get the ball down where and when Rackers expects it.
Rackers missed a 22-yard field goal attempt last week, and it could have been critical for the Bengals. But they overcame it with 21 consecutive points, including two Rackers field goals.
The Bengals likely will be in another low-scoring game today. In a close game, between two teams that figure to run the ball most of the time, field position will be particularly important.
Harris needs to avoid punts like the 18-yarder that gave Cleveland an easy touchdown. He had two 50-yarders last week, and he has to be in the neighborhood and not around 39 yards. His 39.3 average is better than only three other punters in the league.
ALL DILLON, ALL THE TIME: True, the Bears come in ranked seventh against the rush at 87 yards a game, but whom have they played?
Arizona's Michael Pittman had 50 yards. Minnesota's Michael Bennett, 56. The other featured backs to face the Bears were Arizona's Maurice Smith and Baltimore's Terry Allen.
Safe to say Dillon is, by far, the best back the Bears have faced so far.
If the Bengals lead or the score is close, Dillon should get the ball 25-35 times. Bears defensive coordinator Greg Blache knows what to expect — the Bengals will run at them just as they did in the preseason, when Cincinnati had 231 yards rushing without Dillon.
When Dillon gets a lot of attempts, it means other parts of the game have gone the Bengals' way.
They are 12-8 when Dillon gets 100 yards and 15-5 when he gets 22 attempts.
A good point about coach Dick LeBeau: No matter what the opposition does well, he sticks to what his team does well - and what the Bengals do best is run the ball with Dillon.
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Bengals hope to feed off emotion again
