By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

BALTIMORE - The Bengals' special teams played a big part in Sunday's 38-27 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, some good and some bad.

The good: Brandon Bennett returned the Ravens' first kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown that tied the game. Baltimore had scored on its opening drive to take a 7-0 lead.

Bennett gave the Bengals good field position all day, setting a franchise record with 228 kickoff-return yards. Tremain Mack held the previous record of 212 on Nov. 1, 1998, against the Denver Broncos.

Bennett's kickoff return for a TD was the Bengals' first since Mack went 99 yards against the Tennessee Titans on Nov. 14, 1999.

Neil Rackers made both of his field-goal attempts to keep the Bengals in the game, and Nick Harris averaged 50 yards on four punts.

The bad: Trailing just 17-14 inside the two-minute warning in the second quarter, the Bengals allowed Baltimore rookie Lamont Brightful to return a punt 95 yards for a touchdown. The return was the longest in the NFL this year and the longest in Ravens history.

Brightful had 201 yards on six returns in the first half. The Bengals kicked away from him in the second half.

After the Bengals tied the game at 14 on a 39-yard Jon Kitna TD pass to Chad Johnson, Brightful ran Rackers' kickoff back 54 yards. Baltimore moved 22 yards to set up Matt Stover's 33-yard field goal, giving the Ravens the lead for good.

"We were ready for everything they did today," Bengals special-teams coach Al Roberts said. "We got out-leveraged on the punt return and the kickoff return."

The punt return was a back-breaker. Brightful ran down the left sideline, and the Ravens sealed off every Bengals tackler. Baltimore double-teamed outside cover man Ron Dugans, and Lorenzo Neal said he was caught too far inside.

"I should have been farther outside," Neal said. "I should have done better."

E-mail: mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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