By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Shouts of "Who-Dey" emanated from the Bengals locker room Saturday night after the team's first victory under Marvin Lewis.

"We've watched a lot of old videos and talked a lot about our past traditions of winning," a hoarse Lewis told reporters after the 23-10 preseason victory over Detroit.

"I think it's something significant to our city. We're going to start a tradition."

The tradition, Lewis has said, will be built on fundamentally sound football, and the smile on his face after the Lions game had much to do with the improvement his team showed in a week's time.

"It's more important that we came out and played well in front of our fans," starting quarterback Jon Kitna said. "The ones who were here were treated to a pretty good game - in all three phases."

The Bengals offense, defense and special teams all performed better against the Lions than they did in the first preseason game, a loss to the New York Jets.

"There's no question tonight we executed better," Lewis said.

•  Offense: The Bengals scored on five of eight drives. A sixth drive should have produced points but ended on a Rudi Johnson fumble on the Lions 4-yard line, the Bengals' only turnover - compared to four vs. the Jets a week ago.

"We made some first downs again today, and that's good to see," said Lewis, whose Bengals had a 22-18 first-down edge and controlled the clock for 35:36.

The Bengals, for the second game in a row, averaged just 3 yards per carry.

"We've still got to get crisper in our running game," Lewis said.

Kitna led scoring drives on three of his four possessions, but they were all field goals.

"We broke down on some things at the end of the drive(s), which we can't have happen," Lewis said.

One of the problems, Kitna said, was that much of the red zone offense has not been installed, and that he is running base plays inside the opponent's 20-yard line.

Rookie Carson Palmer essentially played a perfect game, going 7-for-7 passing for 97 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions.

"My job is easy," Palmer said. "I get to go in and have the opportunity to watch Jon do it, follow his lead, and get a chance to see what the defense is doing. You're also going against the third- and fourth-string guys."

In all, Kitna, Palmer and Shane Matthews were a combined 25-for-33 passing for 254 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions for a combined passer rating of 117.5.

• Defense: The Bengals forced five punts and limited Detroit to 78 rushing yards. Their two-game average is 82 yards, down from 125.2 in 2002.

"We made plays, (but) we need to make the drive-stopping plays to keep people from scoring," Lewis said. "They don't have to score. I really believe that."

The Bengals didn't force a turnover and did not have a sack, though they consistently pressured Detroit's quarterbacks with a four-man rush.

"One thing I can say about this defense is, each week, it's improving," middle linebacker Kevin Hardy said. "It wasn't long ago that we were in the mock game (in) the scrimmage and our offense just went through us. We remember how that felt."

• Special teams: The Bengals won the field-position battle by 10 yards. Their average drive start was the 32-yard line, compared to the 22 for the Lions.

Holder Nick Harris rebounded to handle all snaps cleanly in the kicking game, and Neil Rackers was 3-for-3 on field goal attempts and had two touchbacks on kickoffs.

"Special teams, today, we picked up our tempo," Lewis said. "We've still got a ways to go, but we now have some fruit of their labor to show them."

The Bengals will play Tennessee in Saturday's third preseason game, traditionally the one in which starters play the longest. The Titans have played in the AFC Championship Game in two of the past four years, and Lewis said they would be a major challenge for his team.

"We got better but have a ways to go," he said. "We'll send our guys out a little further next week. It's a different style offense and defense of what we've played in the first two games, so we've got to get ready.

---

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

Return to Bengals front page...