Monday, December 03, 2001
We've seen it all before from Bengals
Corey Dillon put the loss on his shoulders. It fit. Big loss, big shoulders. “It's my fault. Point blank. I screwed it up,” Dillon said. No one was arguing. You want to argue with Dillon?
Technically, he was right. Tampa Bay safety John Lynch poked the ball from Dillon's arm, then fell on it at the Bengals' 3-yard line halfway through overtime. The Buccaneers, realizing a 3-yard TD march would be asking too much of their offense, immediately kicked a field goal. And the Bengals lost another winnable game.
“A difficult loss,” Dick LeBeau decided. No more difficult, though, than the other 119 we've witnessed since 1990. LeBeau doesn't know difficult. He got a break. He was coaching in Pittsburgh half the time.
Sunday's loss featured every element that has made the Bengals the Bengals in the last 11 years. It was a greatest hits package for the true Bengals aficionado. A total team effort. Take a look at these three plays, and see if they don't look like the last 11 years:
Same old song
• First quarter, first drive, second-and-goal from the 18-inch line. The Bengals call a sweep left for Dillon. Note to the play-callers: Dillon is a tackle-to-tackle guy. He is a puncher, not a dancer. He doesn't like to run sideways.
Naturally, Dillon did just that. Four-yard loss.
The coaches will argue that the Bucs stuffed the middle with big people. So? Why do the Bengals allow a defense they've pushed around for 74 yards tell them what to run in the last yard? Terrible call. Very Bengal-like.
• First quarter, Chris Carter intercepts Brad Johnson, returns it to the Tampa 17. Bengals cornerback Kevin Kaesviharn is called for holding, negating the play. Is there a richer Bengal-esque moment than that?
Why, I believe there is. This one:
• Second quarter. Tampa's Ronde Barber swooped in from the right side of Cincinnati's line untouched, escorted and given directions, to block Nick Harris' punt. The Bucs returned it for their only touchdown.
The Bengals have lousy special teams. They've had lousy special teams forever, mainly because they have lousy depth and lousy coaching and a terrific inability to correct either.
That was the ballgame. Those three plays. Bad coaching, bad decision-making, bad play.
Better, but not enough
Give the Bengals points for effort, if that thrills you. Applaud the defense, which is becoming routinely difficult to beat, though it must be said the Bucs offense looked to be lifted from cave walls. Brad Johnson completed 26 of 33 passes. A few were actually longer than your arm.
Regardless, Cincinnati's defense is on the climb. If nothing else, that allows the front office to blow more top draft picks on the other side of the ball.
If the Bengals are different, they will show soon that Sunday did not mark the annual onset of Abandon Hope season. Because they do have better players this year than usual. But they still can't climb Hopeless Hill long enough to see what's on the other side.
Sadly, Sunday showed that. Again.
E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.
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DAUGHERTY: We've seen it all before from Bengals
