By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Today could be an historic day at Paul Brown Stadium. And the legacy the 2002 Bengals could leave behind is not the one they had planned in training camp.

This team was the one that was supposed to break the franchise's 11-year playoff drought.

Instead, the Bengals are 1-13, and the postseason dry spell now is 12 years. A loss to the New Orleans Saints would make this Bengals team the first to lose 14 games in one season.

And the Bengals could become the first team in the franchise's 35-year history to go winless at home, at 0-8.

The dubious standards will be difficult to avoid. The 9-5 Saints are fighting for a wild-card playoff spot in the NFC, and high-scoring New Orleans is a bad matchup for a Cincinnati team that has allowed more points than any other in the league.

Bengals coach Dick LeBeau said he anticipates a playoff-type style of play.

"The two (teams, New Orleans and Buffalo) we're playing here at the end are both going to need the game very much," he said. "Lord knows we certainly need to win at home, so it's going to be a lot of energy. We'll match their energy, I'm sure of that."

The intensity on the field might not be matched in the stands. Bengals fans are angry at the organization, and they've responded - in part - with apathy.

The past two home games have drawn the smallest announced crowds in the 23 games played at taxpayer-funded Paul Brown Stadium.

The announced crowd was 44,878 tickets distributed Dec. 1 against Baltimore. And the crowd was announced at 42,092 on Dec. 15 against Jacksonville - although there were far fewer people in the stadium for both games than the number of tickets distributed.

Today's game might draw even fewer people than the Aug. 24 preseason game played between the Saints and Bengals in Cincinnati. That game had 41,636 tickets distributed.

At least 200 fans in the stands will be children, guests of the Cincinnati Recreation Commission. Cincinnati councilman Chris Monzel had asked fans to donate unused Bengals tickets to the agency so it could give them to underprivileged children.

While the Saints figure to be a tough matchup for the Bengals, the game should be entertaining.

The Saints have scored the second-most points in the NFL, 413. Their explosive offense has recorded 100 plays of 15 yards or more, including 25 of at least 30 yards. They have 16 plays of 40 or more yards.

The Bengals should be able to score some points, too. The Saints are the only team in the league to allow 20 or more points in every game this season.

"I mean, the one thing you can say about us is that we are exciting," said Bengals quarterback Jon Kitna, who has directed the Bengals to 20 or more points in seven of their past eight games.

"We've been in every game, and it usually comes down to the end of the game where we have a chance to win, and we haven't pulled it out. It's exciting. We're not going out and getting blown out 34-3 and (being) just a sleeper."

The Saints are on pace to allow 408 points, their most since yielding 434 in 1999.

The Bengals have allowed 416 points, 45 from setting a franchise record. The most they allowed in one season is 460, by the 1999 team.

New Orleans coach Jim Haslett, whose Saints teams come in with a 16-7 road record in two-plus seasons, said he is not looking past the Bengals.

"It's important for us. We need to get this win to try to be in the playoffs," Haslett said. "If we don't get a win, it hurts our chances.

"I looked at Cincinnati in the preseason game we played, and I thought, if this is a team we could beat, maybe we'd have a shot at the playoffs. I thought they were a playoff-caliber football team. I know they've got a lot of good football players on their team, and we've got to play our A-game to beat them."

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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