By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BALTIMORE - The Bengals' 38-27 loss on Sunday guaranteed their 12th consecutive non-winning season. And the game was like many in the last 12 years: Being competitive was good enough.

With only a few exceptions - as if taking their cue from coach Dick LeBeau - Bengals players spoke of improvement, just now beginning to jell and getting close to fixing problems.

Such comments seemed strangely ill-timed and tardy for Game 9 of a 16-game schedule. The Bengals are 1-8, have lost 15 of their past 18 games and are - drum roll, please - 54-131 since their last playoff appearance.

No wonder. The goal established by the front office is just to be close, not necessarily to win. Some people in the organization seemed to put too much value in last week's 38-3 victory over the Houston Texans, an expansion team.

The Baltimore Ravens welcomed the Bengals back to reality.

Bengals quarterback Jon Kitna threw three interceptions. The special teams, although scoring on Brandon Bennett's 94-yard kickoff return, gave up two game-changing returns on a punt and a kickoff. The run defense resembled a colander. An opponent scored 30 or more points on the Bengals for the sixth time in nine tries.

"Our guys just stayed right in there, and that's a sign of progress," LeBeau said. "We keep growing, and we are going to win our share."

The Bengals' share of victories has averaged five per season since president Mike Brown assumed control of the team.

The best season in the last 12 was 1996. And that was a freakish 8-8 accomplished thanks to a 7-2 finish under an energized new coach, Bruce Coslet, who was worn out and resigned four years later.

The quarterback of the 1996 Bengals was Jeff Blake, who started for the third time for his new team, the Ravens, on Sunday. He threw for 183 yards and a touchdown.

Blake's best series was the first. He completed four consecutive passes to four different receivers, covering 65 yards. His deep out to Brandon Stokley beat cornerback Jeff Burris and gave the Ravens a first down on their 3-yard line. One play later, tailback Jamal Lewis ran in from 1 yard out.

"It's not about me trying to throw something in somebody's face," Blake said when asked about beating his former team. "What matters is us winning football games here with the Ravens."

What Blake did best was turn and hand the ball to Lewis, who ran through the middle of the Bengals' defense for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Lewis' punishing running gave Blake plenty of room to throw.

"It wears them down. They don't want to take no more," Lewis said.

"You start wearing the front line down and then the secondary, and they really don't want it. They start moving out of the way. That's when you know you've got them, you've got them by the throat."

Without meaning to, Ravens coach Brian Billick appeared to take pity on the Bengals.

"Cincinnati, under their circumstance, is a gutty team," Billick said. "Dick's doing a hell of a job."

What circumstance? The Bengals aren't an expansion team. They received the same $80 million in revenue sharing that the other 30 existing NFL teams did in the 2001 fiscal year. The draft and schedule are weighted to promote parity.

But on goes the losing with no end or major organizational changes in sight.Baltimore offers a counterpoint to the Bengals. The Ravens over-spent to win a Super Bowl in 2000 and challenge for another title in 2001. The salary cap caught up with them, and they had to let several high-priced star players go. They opened the season with an NFL-record 19 rookies on their roster.

On Sunday, the Ravens started just one of 11 players on defense who started last season - linebacker Peter Boulware. Their best player, linebacker Ray Lewis, was out with a shoulder injury. So was their best cornerback, Chris McAlister. So was their best defensive lineman, end Michael McCrary. But Baltimore is 4-5 and still in playoff contention in the AFC North.

The Bengals actually had more total yards than the Ravens, 372-325, and Cincinnati had a five-minute advantage in possession time.

But two of the Bengals' four turnovers led directly to 14 Baltimore points. Defensive end Adalius Thomas picked off Kitna on the first play of the second quarter and ran 25 yards for a touchdown that put the Ravens ahead 14-7.

In the fourth quarter, strong safety Ed Reed intercepted a Kitna pass intended for Chad Johnson at the Bengals 40 and returned it to the 19. Three plays later, Lewis ran in from the 1.

Kitna's first interception of the game could have been more damaging. Kitna overthrew Warrick, and Reed intercepted the ball at the Baltimore 46-yard line. He wove and danced free of traffic down the right sideline and appeared to be headed for the end zone. He raised the ball above his head in celebration at the Bengals 8, but wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh knocked the ball loose, and Peter Warrick dove on it in the end zone for a touchback.

"It was a wild football game," LeBeau said. "They made a few bigger plays than we did."

The Bengals had a chance to close Baltimore's 10-point lead late in the first half. After Bennett ran a kickoff back 45 yards to the Ravens 42, the Bengals drove to the 8.

On second-and-1, Dillon ran right, but the ball popped loose when he fell on the back of right tackle Willie Anderson's leg. Baltimore safety Chad Williams recovered and ran 90 yards for what was initially ruled a touchdown. The run, which Williams finished by running backward, was brought back after a replay review. But the Bengals blew the chance for at least three points.

"It's disappointing," Bennett said. "But, all in all, we're killing ourselves. A lot of stuff that happened out there today is stuff we can control."

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