The Bengals' new motto should be: Keep Hope Dead. They need to keep losing. If they really care about the future of their team, the Bengals need to go down in a blaze of gory the next four weeks.

They've got to finish weak. They're 1-11. Now's no time to stop.

Sometimes, the only way to save the castle is to burn the sucker down. In Decembers past, each late-season run for nothing has put Cincinnati management in its we're-not-as-bad-as-you-think mode. The December mirage - a 21-25 record in the last 10 Decembers - is the trapdoor of the Bengals' existence.

Every December win is a nail in the coffin of meaningful change. That's why Sunday's 23-27 loss to Baltimore was huge. The Bengals appeared poised to start the upward slide, opening 13-0 and 23-14 leads. They got to the Ravens' 10-yard line at the end, but two plays from there yielded nothing, allowing all of us a deep sigh of relief.

What if they had won? What if the Bengals had overcome themselves Sunday and again next week and the week after? A 3-2 finish would make them 4-12, and leave mom and pop satisfied things were getting better.

It might happen that way, anyway. But 1-15 looks a whole lot better than 4-12 when it comes to hoping realistically that mom and pop will join the 21st century NFL. One-and-15 strips bare all illusion.

That's why Sunday's game had us so concerned. Jon Kitna again acted like a Pro Bowler, hitting his first 10 passes while playing puppeteer to the Ravens' Pinocchio secondary. The Bengals should get the top pick in the draft. If they don't set Byron Leftwich free to play elsewhere, they're blind to what Kitna has done with this offense the last six weeks.

The Bengals, who say their legacy has gotten them jobbed by the refs, got the breaks Sunday. The Ravens lost three points to a penalty, and gave the Bengals three more at the end of the first half, when a Raven was called for "leaping" during Neil Rackers' 49-yard miss. By the time you figured what "leaping" was, Rackers had made a 40-yarder.

Baltimore also dropped two interceptions on the Bengals' final drive. The Ravens got away with one Sunday. Trying desperately to lose, they found the one club that wouldn't let them.

"We definitely won the game, but we didn't win the game," decided Dick LeBeau.

The coach was right. The Bengals came dangerously close to success but came through when it counted by allowing a 98-yard interception return and a blocked punt. Both were Ravens touchdowns and helped greatly Cincinnati's run for 1-and-15. Every little gaffe helps. When things start looking up, you can't panic. You just have to stick together. And play your game.

Not many Bengals fans came out to boo the team on. The Bengals "distributed" 44,878 tickets Sunday. Many must have gone to the Boys Club of Greater Johannesburg or the League of Iraqi Voters. Because you could fit Sunday's actual crowd into the spare bedroom.

Fans with tickets express their displeasure the only way they know how, by keeping their butts out of the seats and their guts out of the $5.75 beer line. Those who showed up didn't go away disappointed.

Seriously: The Bengals have enough quality players who are also quality people to make the playoff run we thought would occur this year. With a major organizational earthquake, they just might do it next year. Without it, we're watching re-runs for the 13th consecutive season.

Keep up the bad work, boys.

E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com

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