Sunday, November 11, 2001
Don't blame the refs
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Did the Bengals get jobbed, homered, cheated and hosed? Oh, yeah. At some point, someone will explain how a defensive back can be called for pass interference when he has inside position and the receiver he is covering is draped on him like a suitcoat on a set of shoulders.
Until then, the Bengals will have to absorb another absurd loss in a decade of them. The losses are more maddening now, because Cincinnati finally has a team that can play with the middle 20 teams in the NFL.
After the 13-30 loss, players wisely decided not to cite lousy officiating as the reason they lost. The officiating was miserable. But it wasn't as bad as the way the Bengals reacted to it.
“Good teams overcome bad calls,” was how Lorenzo Neal put it.
It is time for the Bengals to get tough. It's time, way past time, for them to stop allowing other teams, the referees, the front office, the losing history, the dirty air at Spinney Field -- and whatever else extraneous has lodged into their fragile minds over the years -- affect whether they win or lose football games.
Artrell Hawkins got whistled for a 38-yard pass interference penalty, Takeo Spikes was hit for 14 more for disturbing the peace and that was the ballgame. Never mind the Jaguars were ahead just 14-13 at the time and, excluding a 65-yard drive to start the second half, were dead in the water on offense.
The Bengals melted down. “No fair!” they shouted, then went home. Only, the Jaguars kept the ball. They scored 21 in the third quarter. Until the Bengals sign a back judge to play pass defense and a head linesman to block Tony Brackens, we will not blame this third quarter on the referees.
“We have to be better at controlling our emotions,” said Hawkins. “We had a lot of game left.”
Aren't they tired of this? Week after season after decade, the Bengals don't do the heavy mental lifting that wins close games. And this was a close game. Neil Rackers made a 52-yard field goal to end the first half. When Rackers makes a 52-yarder, it's your day to win. It's your day to play the lottery.
But the Bengals got some lousy calls and gave it all away. Again.
“In the NFL, you've got to be resilient,” Oliver Gibson said. “We have to develop the character to come back.”
The 4-4 Bengals are no better than they were when they kicked off two months ago. Given their 2-0 start, you could say they're worse. They haven't beaten a decent team on the road, they remain incapable of consistency -- “Jekyll and Hyde,” Neal called them -- and they have yet to prove they're good enough to overcome who they are.
As much as the players deny it and hate when it's mentioned, the Bengals still wear the legacy of losing. A good team Sunday treats the call on Hawkins like a gnat in its eye. The refs blew it. That happens. Time to get tough.
In the socialist NFL, a big part of winning is knowing how. The Bengals haven't mastered that yet. Sunday would have been a fine start.
E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.
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Don't blame the refs
