The Bengals' streak of non-winning seasons — 10, with what appears to be a strong possibility of an 11th, given the team's 4-6 start and a tough schedule over the final six games — is reaching epic proportions, according to Enquirer research confirmed by the NFL.

Longest runs without a winning season 1) Saints (1967-86), 20 seasons 2) Buccaneers (1983-96), 14 seasons 3) Cardinals (1985-97), 13 seasons Broncos (1960-72), 13 seasons Redskins (1956-68), 13 seasons 6) Jets (1970-80), 11 seasons Eagles (1967-77), 11 seasons Packers (1948-58), 11 seasons 9) Bengals (1991-2000), 10 seasons Eagles (1933-42), 10 seasons Cardinals (1936-45), 10 seasons* SOURCE: Enquirer/NFL research * Includes 1944 season, when Cardinals and Steelers combined during World War II.

WINS THE LAST TEN YEARS A look at the number of wins per season each NFL team has tallied since 1991. | ZOOM |

        The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-5), who play the Bengals today at Paul Brown Stadium, are the standard bearers for most recent ineptitude: 14 straight non-winning seasons (1983-96).

        The all-time leader is the 1968-86 New Orleans Saints, who went 20 years without a winning team.

        The Bengals are tied for ninth for the most consecutive non-winning seasons in NFL history. And given their recent performance, there is no reason to think the Bengals can't get to 12 straight, which would put them alone in fifth place.

        That would be — in the opinion of the experts — epic.

        “I can't say their streak is actually worse than the teams who've come before them when maybe there wasn't as much (parity) in the league,” said John Clayton of ESPN.com. “But it's getting up there. At least they're a little closer to .500 this year.”

        True, but they're going away from .500. They started the season 2-0, then drifted to 3-3 — that's .500 — before getting to 4-3 against the hapless Detroit Lions (now 0-10) and then losing the last three games.

        “Well, that's what I mean, they're up to four victories already,” Clayton said. “They've basically got their (season's) win total (of recent years) and there are still six games to go.”

        Clayton does have a point. The Bengals won only four games in each of the past two seasons (4-12 in 1999 and 4-12 in 2000) — and only three games (3-13) in 1998. The problem is, Bengals fans don't really see any hope for more than maybe one additional victory this season. That would be next Sunday at home vs. Jacksonville. And that's no lock. The Jaguars smashed the Bengals 30-13 three weeks ago in Jacksonville. That began the Bengals three-game slide.

        As with Clayton, Paul “Dr. Z” Zimmerman of Sports Illustrated doesn't think the Bengals non-winning streak is any more ignominious than some longer non-winning streaks, which were greased by the lack of free agency and no official salary cap. Those relatively modern contrivances have helped the NFL's Cinderella quotient — of the six teams in the past three Super Bowls, five had not made the playoffs in the previous season — but not the Bengals. Nothing has put the brakes on their slide.

        Dr. Z has his own theory on why the Bengals haven't been able to put together at least a nine-win season since they went 9-7 in 1990, two years after their second Super Bowl. The Bengals' last non-losing season was 8-8 in 1996.

        “As I get older, the more I believe in the old law of averages,” Dr. Z said. “It (a seemingly endless streak of non-winning seasons) has to happen to somebody. Somebody is great — a dynasty — and somebody has to go through something like this (losing). Why not the Bengals?”

        Dr. Z said if he had to blame the Bengals' 10 1/2 seasons of woes on anything — besides the lack of a productive quarterback, that is — it would have to be “an incredible stretch of bad luck.”

        “(The pick of) Akili Smith (as the third overall player chosen in the 1999 draft) killed them,” Dr. Z said. “Dan Wilkinson (a first overall pick) didn't want to play ... and now he's flattening people (in Washington). He's grown up; he's taken charge ... Ki-Jana Carter (another first overall pick) now has some toughness (also for the Redskins) and he's showing some moves.”

        Figuring the Bengals will lose today and win next week (5-7), it would take a cockeyed optimist to think the Bengals aren't going to run the table to end the season with four straight losses.

        Consider who they are playing:

        • At the New York Jets, who are 7-3.

        • At the Baltimore Ravens, 7-4, who are spoiling for a payback after the Bengals stunned them in Cincinnati.

        • Home vs. Pittsburgh, one of the best teams in the league at 8-2.

        • At the Tennessee Titans (4-6), who dominated the Bengals in the second half at Paul Brown Stadium two weeks ago to post a 20-7 victory. The Titans' Adelphi Stadium is an especially tough venue.

        If the Bengals finish the season with four straight losses to finish 5-12, does anybody really think they are going to find a proven winner of a quarterback to come in here and get the Bengals over the hump next season?

        “When's the last time they had a quarterback?” asked Dr. Z. “They'd better pick one of the (productive) ones on the free-agent list. They've just gotta have one.”

        But he stopped short of disparaging the present-day Bengals. He said he has seen worse teams than the Bengals, in his many years of watching the NFL.

        “They (the Bengals) don't quit — I've seen them playing hard,” Dr. Z said. “I've covered bad teams, teams that quit. The Redskins were like that (starting the season 0-5, before winning the next 5). I think they were laying down on Marty (Redskins coach Marty Schottenheimer).”

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