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Bengals punter Nick Harris gets his job back today after a forced one-game vacation.

Harris was pulled for last week's game at Carolina in favor of rookie Travis Dorsch. In his debut, Dorsch saw two punts returned for touchdowns by the Panthers' Steve Smith.

They were the second and third punts returned for a score this season against the Bengals' punt-coverage team. It ranks 31st in the league with a 16.1-yard average against.

In his last game, Dec. 1 against the Ravens, Harris had a punt blocked that was returned for a touchdown.

Today, the Bengals face another successful punt returner in Jacksonville's Bobby Shaw.

Shaw, who took over when the Jaguars cut Damon Gibson, has returned 20 punts for a 13.2-yard average - fourth best in the AFC. Shaw also has one touchdown of 69 yards.

The punting game has been poor for the Bengals. Returners T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Peter Warrick have averaged just 4.1 yards on 19 returns.

Every time the Bengals and their opponent trade punts, the Bengals lose 10 yards. The Bengals have a net punting average of 28.5 yards, compared to 38.4 for the other team.

Harris has punted 53 times for a 41.2-yard average and a 31.8 net. Dorsch's five punts averaged 32.4 yards with a net of 1.8 yards.

Bengals coach Dick LeBeau said the idea for the change was his.

"It didn't have anything to do with Nick Harris," LeBeau said. "One of my concerns in making this change was talking to Nick. My thinking on that was this: It made no sense for (Dorsch) to go all year and never kick in a game. We thought the weather would be more favorable at Carolina than in any of the remaining three. We wanted to give him some game experience."

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