By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

TAKING STOCK

Here's a closer look at the first half of the 2003 Bengals season. Team MVP Chad Johnson. The third-year wide receiver has evolved into the team's star player. He has an 18.2-yard average on 39 receptions with five touchdowns. Best acquisition Tory James. The cornerback has filled one of the biggest team needs and helped toughen the attitude of the entire secondary. He has intercepted three passes. Rookie of the year Eric Steinbach. He has started all eight games and improved with each outing. Under-sized cornerbacks and linebackers can't dodge him. Biggest disappointment The 31st-ranked running game and Corey Dillon's struggles with his groin injury. A healthy Dillon couldn't help but boost the 85.5-yard per game rushing average. Marvin Lewis' best moves Changing the organization's attitude by insisting that winning is the goal and stabilizing the quarterback position by sticking with Jon Kitna. Lewis' most questionable moves Sticking with Dillon during a game when Dillon was not 100 percent, at the expense of the running game, and some passive offensive clock management. Best performance The 24-7 first half vs. Baltimore. Worst performance Tie, Arizona and Denver games. Dangerous trends Failure to stop the run in all but two games and allowing the opposition to score first in every game. Positive trends Ability to force turnovers (plus-3 overall) and Kitna not throwing a killer interception in four of the past five games. Second-half forecast Having missed the chance to go 4-4 at Arizona, the Bengals are likely to go 4-4 in the second half and finish 7-9. They have to win Dec. 7 at Baltimore.

Besides being two games better at the halfway point this season compared to last, the Bengals insist they are a different team.

"Last season this football team was 2-14 with no hope, no sense of direction, no leadership, no nothing," right tackle Willie Anderson said Wednesday.

Anderson is among the dozens of Bengals players who say coach Marvin Lewis has changed the atmosphere - if not players' reading material.

Lewis' copy of Pat Riley's book The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players sat in Anderson's locker.

"We may lose another game, but you're not going to see it like it was in the past, where we get blown out and lose seven in a row," Anderson said. "Guys are eager to get back to work. Years past, guys didn't want to come to work."

Last year, the Bengals were 0-7 before winning at expansion Houston to close the first half at 1-7. The Texans are Sunday's opponent.

This year, four of the Bengals' five losses have come by a combined 19 points.

"We're about eight plays from being 6-2 or 7-1," Anderson said.

Lewis' message Wednesday was that the loss at Arizona doesn't wreck the season.

"We lost one football game last week and everybody (fans) jumped off," Lewis said. "We're fine. We'd love to be sitting here right now 4-4, but we're not. We lost. We learned from it. We go forward."

E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com