By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

OAKLAND, Calif. - To call the Raiders' home-field advantage a 12th man is not entirely accurate. It's more like 11 men and a creature.

The Bengals will face the Oakland Raiders and their colorful home crowd today at Network Associates Coliseum. Though the Bengals last played at Oakland in 1998 - and lost by 17 - they haven't experienced the notorious Black Hole section since it came into full bloom during the 2000 season.

The crowd is traditionally one of the loudest in the NFL and will be today, even though the game did not sell out the 63,132-seat stadium.

Populated by costumed fans - among the regulars: Violator, Darth Raider and Pharaoh Raider - the Oakland crowd tries to distract visiting teams. The focal point is the south end zone - the Black Hole.

Fueled by Jack Daniels whiskey and the ritual 3:30 a.m. parking-lot bacon fry, Black Hole members are known to throw more than the standard abusive language, peanuts and beer showers at opposing players. Visiting players have said they've been hit with flying chicken bones, batteries, garbage and even live ammunition (thrown bullets) when venturing too close to the Black Hole.

Bengals quarterback Jon Kitna played in Oakland three times with the Seattle Seahawks.

"There's no place like it in the league," said Kitna, who will make his second start today. "The fans take pride in just being as crazy as they can and as rowdy as they can."

His advice to teammates who've never played there: Go out and experience it in warm-ups.

"And come back in (to the locker room) and get refocused," Kitna said.

The Raiders played in Los Angeles from 1982-94 and moved back to Oakland in 1995. They finished no better than .500 for five consecutive seasons before emerging in 2000 at 12-4 and hosting the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Championship Game.

"The fan base came back in 2000," said Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown. "It can be a very tough place. We don't have the brightest fans in the world. They are very into Raider football, and nothing else matters, so if that means throwing batteries at someone, then that's what they'll do."

Brown also told of a video crew that went into the Black Hole last season and asked fans what they did Monday through Friday.

"Lawyers, accountants," Brown said. "And we were like, '... If (professionals) are going ape wild in here on Sunday, what do those other guys do (during the week)?' "

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis was defensive coordinator of the 2000 Ravens that held Oakland's offense - second in the league with 479 points - without a touchdown in a 16-3 title game victory.

Lewis had this exchange with beat reporters on Wednesday leading up to today's game:

Q: Ever experienced the Black Hole?

Lewis: "It's just a stadium with just a bunch of guys with their face painted."

Q: Guys in masks?

Lewis: "Guys in masks, saying, 'Coach, can we get your autograph?' "

Q: Is it worse than any other place?

Lewis: "Nope, it's a stadium with people in masks."

Q: How did you quiet it down in the title game?

Lewis: "It's a stadium with people in masks."

Still, there's something about the marriage of the Raiders' bad-boy football and their badly behaved crowd that works.

The Raiders have won 75 percent of their regular season games in the past three seasons. Today is their home opener.

The Raiders are 18-6 and 4-1 in the playoffs at home since the start of 2000. The loss to the Ravens was the only one.

The fans' appearance belies their knowledge of the game. The golden rule in the south end zone is to keep quiet for the Raiders offense, so quarterback Rich Gannon's signals can be heard. Then make as much noise as possible to disrupt the visiting offense.

"If something goes wrong for you while you're there, " Kitna said, "that really gets them going."

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E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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