Today wasn't supposed to be the Bengals' regular-season finale. That should have been last week against Pittsburgh. But the events of Sept.11 changed all that.

        Instead, the Bengals are making up their game at Tennessee, postponed from Sept.16 along with the rest of the NFL games that weekend because of the terrorist attacks in the United States.

        What if Sept.11 hadn't happened? Or what if the games had been played anyway?

        “Those are big, big ifs,” Titans coach Jeff Fisher said this week. “Whichever team had survived the game and won, it could have changed their season.”

        The Bengals were 1-0, coming off a 23-17 victory against New England at Paul Brown Stadium. The Titans were 0-1 after a 31-23 home loss Sunday night to Miami.

        When NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue made the announcement to postpone the games, the Bengals turned their attention to their next opponent, defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore. The Bengals won 21-10 and were 2-0 for the first time since 1995.

        The Titans — playing without quarterback Steve McNair, who hurt his shoulder in the opener — lost 13-6 to Jacksonville behind Neil O'Donnell. By falling to 0-2, the Titans lost back-to-back games for the first time since the 1998 season.

        Had the Bengals-Titans game been played Sept.16, it certainly would have been more important in terms of football. Today, neither team has a chance at the playoffs, with the Bengals 5-10 and the Titans 7-8. But this wasn't about football.

        There were those who initially were in favor of playing, including Bengals president Mike Brown. Air transportation still hadn't been secured as of that weekend, but the Bengals were prepared to bus to Nashville.

        Eventually, Brown agreed with Tagliabue's decision to take the time off to mourn. A phone conversation with former Bengals offensive line coach Jim McNally, a New York Giants assistant, changed Brown's mind.

        “He didn't see how they could play a game in New York with the smoke still coming out of the (World Trade Center) rubble across the river from the Meadowlands,” Brown said at the time. “In the future, people will look back at it and approve of it.”

Improving Bengals offer hope for next season Sept. 11 changed schedule, stakes Keys to the game Today could be Chad Johnson's day Bengals-Titans by the numbers Who's got the edge? Titans' Matthews coy about retirement Mark Curnutte's NFL picks NFL power ratings

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