Jon Kitna has made the Bengals better. The question is whether he can make them good.

        The new quarterback has elevated the local football franchise from laughingstock to lamentation, and for that Bengals owner Mike Brown is profoundly grateful. After 10 years as a national punchline, the Bengals have ceased to be a joke and have settled into the vast mediocre middle of the National Football League.

        That a 4-5 start shows progress is a sad commentary, but Kitna deserves whatever credit accrues from that achievement. Whether he deserves a vote of confidence, however, is doubtful. The more he plays, the more Kitna looks like a stopgap instead of a solution. Sunday afternoon, during the Bengals' 20-7 loss to the Tennessee Titans, Kitna was less a stopgap than a saboteur.

        He completed 12 of 18 passes in the first half, including a 10-yard touchdown toss to Ron Dugans, but his second half was characterized by questionable decisions and no points. Kitna had two passes intercepted after intermission, threw a third pass that should have been picked off and ultimately lost a fumble that sealed the defeat.

        His in-game quarterback rating was 105.6 at halftime. By the final gun, it had slipped to 60.4.

        “As a whole, guys are still behind (Kitna) and we should be,” Bengals tackle Willie Anderson said. “Guys should be asking him if he's behind some of us.”

        Kitna was undermined by dropped passes Sunday and, he thought, some dubious officiating, but the bottom line was that he was unable to exploit the league's most porous pass defense and continued to drift toward the bottom of the NFL quarterback ratings.

        If he is finding his level, it is not quite as lofty as it looked in September.

        Nine years after they traded Boomer Esiason to the New York Jets, the Bengals are still in the market for a worthy successor. If they do not draft another quarterback next year, they will surely scour the secondary market for potential upgrades. They may do both.

        Kitna has shown how far the Bengals can go with a serviceable quarterback. He has made them wonder how much further they might get with a star.

        There is a danger in getting too comfortable with mere competence, and that danger is heightened with Kitna because he is the kind of character people wish would succeed. He's energetic, charismatic, competitive and accountable. He is gracious in victory and invariably a stand-up guy in defeat. Sunday, he blamed himself for getting “greedy,” when he should have been content to grind out yardage in a field-position game.

        Kitna's sense of responsibility is laudable, but his arm is not always equal to his ambition. He gets in trouble when he tries to force the ball into a tight spot and lets fire with a floater. He sometimes plays as if he were working with Akili Smith's tools instead of his own, more modest, equipment.

        That Kitna has thrown all 323 of the Bengals passes this season is as much a reflection of Dick LeBeau's lack of alternatives as it is the head coach's conviction. The Bengals have seen enough of Scott Mitchell to believe he is only insurance and they have seen enough of Smith to hope someone takes him off of their hands.

        “I've always said that I would entertain the possibility of making a change if it would help us,” LeBeau said Sunday. “Had we not played so well in the first half, I think I would have given it more consideration.”

        LeBeau said Kitna would start again next Sunday in Cleveland. How long he holds his job will depend on how long it takes the Bengals to find someone better.

        Contact Tim Sullivan at 768-8456; fax: 768-8550; e-mail: tsullivan@enquirer.com.

That run-down feeling DAUGHERTY: Playing not to lose, they . . . lose SULLIVAN: Kitna fills QB void, for now Bengals notebook For openers, Bengals give Titans spark McNair has Bengals under his (sore) thumb Neal's inspiration isn't enough Titans 20, Bengals 7 Titans bounce back from demoralizing loss NFL roundup

Beach football wild for RedHawks
RedHawks need a better effort
UC women advance with upset of ND
BCS bowl picture taking shape
Ohio State hits ground running
OSU QB rejoins team but won't start
Pitino's Louisville debut a breeze
Repent will run solo in Jockey Club
NBA roundup
NHL roundup
Coming up this week
Xavier notebook
Xavier wins A-10 volleyball tourney
St. Xavier headed to Dayton

• Return to Bengals front page...