You'd like to forget the 0-24 thrashing Cincinnati took at the hands of the Chicago Bears. But you've seen it 50 times in the last 10 years. It may be, as the players said, an aberration. They're still riding that we're-different-now wave, if only because the alternative is too gruesome to ponder.

        “Is it something that's going to determine our whole season?” asked Corey Dillon. “I don't like to think like that.”

        Who likes to think like that? People who like smashing their thumbs with hammers? Train-wreck fans?

        But you can't help it. The Bengals are still so new to winning even half the time, any cataclysmic loss like Sunday's puts your cynicism in overdrive. When you lose by 24 at home, to a team previously thought to be your mediocre twin, you begin to wonder if the first five weeks were a mirage.

        Cincinnati beats the Bears, then wins next week at pitiable Detroit and goes into the bye week 5-2. Mike Brown begins devising ways to jack up parking rates for a home playoff game. Before 0-24, all that seemed possible. Now, six wins is a better fit.

        Everyone blew it Sunday, especially the defense. How does Jim Miller, a career clipboard guy, go 23-for-30, with a QB rating of 120? Anthony Thomas, a rookie, ran for 188 yards, 61 more than he had in Chicago's other four games.

        Meanwhile, Jon Kitna was off and Corey Dillon proved a man will run only as far as the brick wall allows him. Dillon didn't get out of the backfield untouched until the fourth quarter. Did the Bears defensive coaches spend the week in the Bob Bratkowski's meeting rooms?

        “We didn't block them and we couldn't tackle them,” decided Dick LeBeau, before offering a more telling appraisal: “We just could not get into the game.”

        Why not? Given the extended possibilities a win would have provided, why not? Over the last decade, the Bengals have shown a remarkable ability to follow a big win with a big egg. Occasionally, they have blamed “overconfidence.”

        What would this team ever have to be overconfident about?

        “We have to be able to show up every Sunday,” Rich Braham said. The Bengals effort “wasn't what it was last week” against the Browns. “It's something we've got to figure out and fix in a hurry.”

        Oliver Gibson was more succinct. “We've got a lot to learn about winning,” he said.

        The Bengals spent 11 years in the ditch. For other teams, getting out has been fairly easy. For the Bengals, nothing is easy. Losing still cloaks them like a shroud.

        We could give you some play-by-play here, but really, what's the point? There was no turning point, unless you count Kitna's forced-throw interception into double coverage at the Bears' 6-yard line, in the second quarter. Chicago led 3-0 then, but quickly made it 10-0 in three plays.

        The Bengals didn't bother after that. Neil Rackers pushed a 39-yard field goal try to start the fourth period. Kitna missed four consecutive passes on 1st-and-goal from the 2. Thomas ran like a 7-on-7 drill, Miller had fun and Chicago's defense looked like 1985.

        And the Bengals lost a great opportunity to be taken seriously.

        “You're not going to win playing like that,” Dick LeBeau said. No argument here.

        E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.

Bears 24, Bengals 0 Cynicism rears its ugly head Bengals notebook Ground game never got going Pickoff ticks off Kitna Rackers still struggling Report card Game statistics

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