By Shannon Russell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Second-year punter Nick Harris sat in the locker room Monday afternoon and reflected on the state of the Bengals. He considered the eight losses, the recent slew of injuries, two months of steady criticism and a 12th straight non-winning season.Still, he said, there's hope.

"I think our next games - we're going to win them," Harris said. "We are a respectable team. We can put points on the board, and our defense is going to help us stay in the game."

The view was different a few stalls down, where linebacker Adrian Ross was engrossed in a sports magazine.

"We're lucky Houston was on our schedule," Ross said, shaking his head. "We have too many so-called stars that haven't played up to their so-called stardom yet."

Harris and Ross, who are indicative of the divided opinions within the club, agreed on one thing: The Bengals' worst days are behind them.

On Sunday, they renew their rivalry with Cleveland - and both players said fans won't see the same Bengals who lost to the Browns 20-7 in Game 2.

Since they last saw Cleveland, the Bengals have forced turnovers. They've scored more than one touchdown in a game. They've established some consistency among their starters and - perhaps most important - they've settled on a quarterback.

"We're a lot better productivity-wise offensively, there's no question about that," coach Dick LeBeau said. "At the beginning of the season, we were having trouble scoring. Since the Indianapolis game we've been scoring points pretty well, and our total offensive yardage has picked up."

Jon Kitna has started at quarterback in every game since the Bengals lost to the Colts 28-21 in Week5. With the help of two impressive error-free games - an Oct.27 loss at Tennessee and a Nov.3 win at Houston - Kitna's passer rating has jumped to 80.3.

The last time the Bengals played Cleveland, Gus Frerotte started. He threw for 239 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. His leading receiver was running back Corey Dillon, who caught eight passes for 67 yards.

"Whether they put in Brett Favre or Jon Kitna or Gus Frerotte, receivers have to get used to whoever's back there. And the quarterback has to get used to those receivers," Harris said. "I think Jon has definitely had some consecutive games in the last month that have been pretty good. It's a big difference, starting with Jon."

Since Game 2, Chad Johnson has emerged as the go-to receiver. He has caught the most passes (34) for the most yards (458) and is tied with Peter Warrick for the most touchdown receptions (3). He caught seven passes for 110 yards and a touchdown at Baltimore - nearly double his Week 2 production.

"We're executing the offense," Johnson said. "We weren't doing that at all last time."

The Bengals' defense couldn't force a turnover in Week 2, but it effectively shut down the Browns' running game. Cleveland was held to 75 yards rushing and 265 totals yards - season-low marks for the Bengals. Rushing leader Jamel White was pinned to 38 yards on eight carries.

Then again, the Browns have an NFL-worst rushing offense, averaging 72.3 yards a game.

The dark cloud for Cincinnati is its defense is still struggling. The Bengals are giving up 28 points a game, up from 20.6 points allowed in their first nine games of 2001.

Sunday, starting defensive tackle Oliver Gibson tore his Achilles tendon and was lost for the season. Unable to stop Baltimore's ground game, the Bengals gave up 325 yards and a season-high 38 points.

Raven Jamal Lewis ran up, down and around the defense for 135 yards and two touchdowns.

The Bengals are pressed to quickly iron out inconsistencies before facing a rejuvenated Browns club coming off a bye week. Since they last met, Cleveland has won three games - although records and stats tend to be irrelevant when the Bengals and Browns meet. Led by quarterback Tim Couch, Cleveland is averaging 23 points a game; its defense is allowing an average of 22 points.

Ross doesn't think the Bengals have established their "A" game, but he's optimistic about changes that have occurred since Week 2. He doubts the Browns will have such an easy walk the second time around.

"Before, we didn't really know what we were doing offensively, because we had different quarterbacks in and people new to the offense. And we had different people on defense," Ross said. "At this point, we've experienced all the stuff that we could have - the worst of the worst."

E-mail srussell@enquirer.com

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