Ask Mark

Slim pickings this week at the e-mail box. Bengals fans must still be celebrating the victory over the rival Browns.

Question, from Casey in Oxford: You know every week people write in and are saying its the same-old Bengals, but if you look at the schedule so far, the teams they have played will go deep into the playoffs. With the exception of Denver, the Bengals have hung in with all of them.

Coach (Marvin) Lewis will get this turned around. It's happening right in front of our eyes. Try to look at the positives, and it's obvious. I see the Bengals winning five or six games this year. What's your outlook?

Answer: Five or six victories are a likely total for the Bengals.

Yes, they hung in against Oakland and Pittsburgh and defeated Cleveland. Oakland is showing its collective age, and that three-point Bengals loss looks like less of a quality loss every day.

The Steelers are a hot-cold team. They looked terrible against Tennessee.

The Bengals did defeat the Browns, and they played nearly a perfect game. There were no turnovers and no big plays against special teams. The defense picked itself up after Cleveland's quick score with less than a minute gone.

The Broncos might be the best team in the AFC right now, and the road to the Super Bowl looks now like it will go through Denver.

What's most encouraging two days after the Browns game is how quickly Lewis turned the page to Buffalo. There is no time to enjoy the Browns game. The expectations are climbing in the locker room.

As for your remark that people should look at just the positives, the media, at least, has been extremely fair in reporting the progress that the organization has made since Lewis' arrival. The new strength and conditioning program is impressive. Several of the new hires on the coaching staff are bound to bigger things beyond Cincinnati. Lewis is enjoying an extended honeymoon with the media and fans alike. Credit fans for seeing the improvement, even if it doesn't yet translate into more victories.

But, with that improvement and understanding that there is a process, the NFL is defined by wins and losses. Lewis, to his credit, has preached that from Day 1. There are no moral victories. There is no mentality that being competitive is good enough.

After the Bills, who are another tall task, the Bengals are off for a week. Then they come home for four of the next five games. They will play host to Baltimore and Seattle before heading to Arizona. Then Houston and Kansas City come in.

Seattle and Kansas City are two of the six remaining undefeated teams. The Chiefs were expected to be this good, and they will be a challenge for the Bengals defense. The Seahawks' unexpected emergence as a contender is led by a defense coordinated by another Lewis mentor, new Seahawks defensive coordinator Ray Rhodes.

A 3-4 Bengals record heading into a very winnable game at Arizona on for the Nov. 2 game - especially in a weak AFC North - would be enough to fuel legitimate playoff hopes for the final two months of the season. Watching and reporting about games with post-season implications in November and December would be quite a change from the past 12 years of pro football in Cincinnati.

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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