Bengals coach Dick LeBeau opened his news conference Wednesday with this statement:

        “Good afternoon. I did a little research in the last couple of days. I was looking at the NFL's statistics from the first two weeks of the season. We ran 83 plays (at Cleveland), and I looked around to see how many teams did that — not very many. We must have done something right to take that many snaps.

        “I looked, and we had 17 third downs and converted nine of them. That's over 50 percent. I wondered how many teams did that, and not too many did. Then I looked at total first downs, and lo and behold, we made 28 first downs in that football game. Then I wondered how many teams in the NFL did that — and guess what? There weren't any other teams that made that many first downs.

        “So I got to thinking that maybe this game was a little bit closer than what everybody seems to think it was. That is why I have referred to this game as a close game. Now what we did not do, obviously, is score points. And it was because of the things that we talked about on Monday.

        “A little bit here, and a little bit there, makes a difference in a game like that. What we've got to do is get that much better. And when I talk about a game of inches, they (Browns) scored two touchdowns, both of which were very close-run things. It was a matter of inches. If we get an inch better here or there on defense, they'll kick field goals in that situation. We had opportunities on offense that came an inch or two short. So if we get an inch better, we will score. So we're just going to keep plugging away.

        This is all preparatory to saying that we're not going to make a change (at quarterback). But we are going to change the execution and timing enough so that you don't run 83 plays and come home with seven points.”

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