Sunday, October 21, 2001
Bengals receivers bond over dinner
Coach serves lessons with lasagna
Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — Put six NFL wide receivers in one room, and it's like looking in a funhouse mirror that stretches images to disproportionate heights and lengths.
Ron Dugans, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Malcolm Johnson.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
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There are long limbs everywhere. Rangy legs stretch out on the carpet and beneath a coffee table. Gangly arms drape across the back of a couch. Spidery fingers grip plastic forks.
Friday afternoon, 3 o'clock. Bengals wide receivers coach Steve Mooshagian has invited his players to his home for a lasagna dinner.
It's the calm before another storm that will come this afternoon when the Bengals host the Chicago Bears at Paul Brown Stadium. Bengals wide receivers have been the most maligned group of players on the team so far this season. They've come up big in the three wins. The team lost when they didn't play well.
Chad Johnson should have cut in front of the Pittsburgh safety. Peter Warrick should have turned up the middle and gone deep. A Jon Kitna pass bounced off a receiver's shoulder pads into the arms of a San Diego cornerback.
They were vindicated last week in the win over Cleveland, accounting for 151 total yards. Today is another shot at redemption.
Now in his third season coaching the team's wideouts, Mooshagian brings his players together at his house to try to bring them together on the field.
“I can chew them out when they don't do something right, but, I think, they listen because they know I care about them as people,” Mooshagian says.
It's a relaxed social setting. But there's still coaching going on.
Darnay Scott and Steve Mooshagian laugh along with teammates after dinner.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
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Danny Farmer and Ron Dugans sit on the couch. Darnay Scott's on the floor, reclining against the front of a chair and sipping iced tea. Warrick's sitting cross-legged on the floor by the fireplace. Malcolm Johnson's reading Sports Illustrated in another chair. Rookie T.J. Houshmandzadeh's eating a cookie while sitting on a kitchen chair he pulled into the family room.
On the big-screen TV, Mooshagian's playing a tape of the CBS telecast of the 24-14 win over the Browns.
Warrick watches his 33-yard reception, his longest reception since the first game of his rookie year, and offers a running commentary that comes across more like the sound effects on a Road Runner cartoon than football analysis.
Head and shoulder fake left: “Oops, missed me.”
Cut right: “Vroom.”
Tackled: “Ouch.”
This past week, Warrick had said he wanted to catch a couple of deep balls. The Bengals' new offense, he joked, had turned him — at 5-foot-11 — into a miniature tight end. But, he added in the next breath, more important than his personal goals is a winning team.
But Warrick's pride resurfaces Friday afternoon. Mooshagian, sitting on the arm of the couch nearest the TV, recognizes it.
“There, P-Dub, you got a big gainer,” he says.
“I'm still going to be a tight end,” Warrick says.
“Nah, you're too short.”
“Moosh, could you rewind that?”
There are no rallying speeches by Mooshagian. He listens to what's being discussed by his players. He'll get into quiet, one-on-one conversations.
Dugans, a college teammate of Warrick who has excelled on special teams this season, sees himself hang in the air — Michael Jordan-like — to catch a two-point conversion from Kitna.
“Geez, Ron, you were up there for 10 minutes,” Mooshagian says.
Dugans smiles. He has a political science degree from Florida State and is one of the Bengals' smartest and most insightful players. Later, he says, “Coach isn't just trying to look good through us. We know he cares about us. He's constructive if we mess up. He explains.”
Mooshagian has had to apply a lot of tough love this season.
Peter Warrick and T.J. Houshmandzadeh play football on Mooshagian's Sony PlayStation downstairs.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
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“You can't hide at quarterback or wide receiver,” he says. “All four of Jon's interceptions are our fault. We screwed up. We know it was us. We have a saying in our (meeting) room, "If you don't like how things are going, change things.' I put it on us. I have to do a better job, too.”
Coming in and out of the room are Mooshagian's wife, Rene, 17-year-old daughter Janaye, and son, Bobby, who's 15 and a wide receiver on the Mason High freshman team. Everybody in the family, including 13-year-old Danielle, is a big football fan.
Janaye and a friend opened and sorted Warrick's fan mail last year. Bobby, like his dad and grandfather, is a football coach in the making. He likes the players, but not in an autograph-seeking sort of way. He just likes being around them. Before dinner, Warrick beat him 28-0 in just one quarter of a PlayStation video football game.
Scott and former Bengals receiver Carl Pickens started the tradition of hanging at Mooshagian's house during his first season on staff. “New coaches have to have the guys over,” Pickens said. It was nothing new to Mooshagian. He had done it while coaching college ball at Pittsburgh, Nevada-Reno and Fresno State.
Pickens is gone. Scott is the graybeard at 29. Mooshagian is coaching two rookies, three second-year receivers and a third-year player, Johnson, who's on the practice squad. They're not much older than college players.
Coach Dick LeBeau likes the way Mooshagian handles the receivers, even though he was the last assistant to get a contract from team president Mike Brown during the offseason.
“He establishes his authority, but he also relates to them in a very genuine way as a teacher and counselor,” LeBeau says. “That (is) very helpful to our young guys.”
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Bengals receivers bond over dinner
