By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Having a 1-3 record at the end of September is nothing new for the Bengals; they were 1-3 after a month in 1997 and '98 and winless through four games in three of the past four seasons.

What's different now is the Bengals are still within reach of their preseason goal - the division title - and not satisfied with their first victory, 21-14 at Cleveland.

The Bengals are tied with the Browns behind the AFC North co-leading Steelers and Ravens, who are 2-2. The Ravens are off Sunday, and Cleveland plays at Pittsburgh on Sunday night.

"It's been a good 18 hours since yesterday," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said in the opening remarks of his Monday news conference. "We just won one, though, and we're not going to stop there. We're right back to work."

The Bengals play Sunday at Buffalo against the 2-2 and suddenly mortal Bills, who have lost their last two. A victory would match the Bengal franchise-long win streak - two games - since the end of the 1999 season.

The Bengals have had trouble playing two consecutive good games, let alone winning two in a row. Lewis is well aware of the inconsistency.

"We moved on at about 1:35 (p.m.) in that meeting room, when I went through the film and showed that we are not the '68 Packers yet," Lewis said. "It's always going to be that way. We have to point out the bad and the good and put the emphasis where we want."

Practice will be more demanding this week than last.

"The hammer went down yesterday at the end of the football game," Lewis said. "All that did was give (coaches) more legitimacy to what we're doing. The harder you practice, the better you play.

"We're not going to ease up. That's not rocket science to figure that one out."

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