By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

The boos started early and greeted Bengals quarterback Jon Kitna often in the second half today. In the minds of many of his offensive teammates, however, Kitna wasn't the only one at fault for a forgettable season-opening performance against the Broncos at Paul Brown Stadium.

"I don't think it was Kitna at all," Bengals rookie offensive guard Eric Steinbach said. "I thought it was all of us. He's the quarterback and he's the leader, but there are 11 guys out there.

"I took the boos as for the whole offense. I can't blame (the fans)."

The Broncos defense held the Bengals to 10 points and 4.7 yards per play during the game.

Kitna completed 20-of-37 passes for 264 yards and one touchdown. He also was sacked four times, intercepted twice and fumbled two times.

The offensive line, which met in the Bengals locker room after the game, accepted much of the blame for the performance.

"There's no secrets about it," offensive tackle Levi Jones said. "We didn't get it done up front. Kitna was touched way too much for my liking. I don't want him touched at all."

Denver, the sixth ranked defense in the AFC last season, capitalized on a number of physical and mental errors.

Cincinnati's offensive line was penalized twice for false starts and once for holding. Missed blocks led to an interception in the third quarter, a fumble in the fourth and allowed the Broncos to hurry Kitna numerous times.

"They didn't run anything that we didn't see in the preseason," Steinbach said. "There was some lack of communication. We were doing things, different techniques.

"If we just went out there and we all talked and all communicated and went out and did the things we practiced the last two months we would've been fine."

More telling than the overall numbers were the stats from the first three quarters.

The Bengals were held to 127 offensive yards - 50 rushing, 77 passing - and eight first downs entering the fourth quarter.

Running back Corey Dillon, who in 2000 rushed for an NFL record 278 yards against the Broncos, rushed 14 times for 34 yards.

"A lot of stuff showed a number of points we need to get better at," Jones said. "Now we've got the film. Now we've got exactly what we need to go out there and get it done, get it worked on and get it corrected."

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