By Mark Curnutte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

In the waning minutes of the 18-point loss Sunday at Baltimore, a chant of "Same Old Bengals" rose from the stands of M&T Bank Stadium.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said he didn't like the derisive sing-song - though he wouldn't confirm what was being said - but knew what his team could do to answer.

"We get a chance to disprove that this week," Lewis said of the negative label. "When you get your teeth kicked in, you have to come back, and how it's time to come back."

Despite the loss that dropped them one game back of the Ravens in the AFC North, the Bengals (7-6) are still in the race heading into Sunday's game against San Francisco (6-7).

Besides fighting to stay in the playoff hunt, the Bengals will be playing before a sold-out stadium of fans who have bought into Lewis' program.

A strong finish, even if it ends short of the playoffs, will give the organization a positive springboard into the offseason. There will be free agents to woo, draft picks to sign, a prime-time TV game to land, tickets to be sold and revenue streams to create. Those efforts continue by focusing on the next game.

But rewind quickly to August: Even the most optimistic of Bengals fans would have embraced a seven-win season. But when the Bengals reached 7-5 on Nov. 30, expectations had grown.

"Now seven wins isn't good enough, and that's a good thing," Lewis said. "We don't want to be good enough. Our goal is a championship, and that starts with a division championship."

The Bengals could finish 9-7 by winning two of their last three games and still miss the playoffs. But that result should not be looked upon as anything but a success for a franchise that was 2-14 in 2002.

The team's focus remains on the 49ers.

"Every game is something to play for," defensive tackle John Thornton said Monday, "but this one will probably be our most defining game to see how we respond."

The Bengals' four-game win streak was snapped in the 31-13 loss to the Ravens. Still, the Bengals come home after a 2-1 road trip.

"It would be a sad thing if we let that game ruin the rest of our season," Thornton said. "You have to put wins and losses behind you quickly."

Lewis is almost at his coaching best after a loss. He didn't berate his team after the Baltimore defeat, and instead pointed toward the 49ers.

"(Lewis) came into the locker room and said, 'We're all disappointed. This isn't what we came here to do. We didn't get the job done. The bottom line is we lost. Let it go. Let's go back to work Wednesday and get ready for San Francisco,' " tight end Matt Schobel said.

The Bengals have listened. Since starting 0-3, they have not lost two in a row in the last 10 weeks. After beating Cleveland to go 1-3, the Bengals lost one, won two, lost one, won four and lost one.

"If we sit around and worry about (losing to the Ravens) and worry that we can't catch Baltimore, and then they get beat this weekend and we get beat, then it doesn't do us any good," Schobel said. "We have to go out this week and hope things will take of themselves if we do our part."

The last time a Bengals team played a game with playoff implications in the season's last month was 1990.

"That's what these guys work for, to play games that mean something in December," Lewis said. "You'd like to be doing it with a three-game cushion, but we're not.

"We don't need to press. We pressed (Sunday). We can't press. We have to play."

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E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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