Mark Curnutte

Question, from Daniel in Hyde Park: The 2003 Bengals suffered some lopsided losses while notching no lopsided wins. Coach Marvin Lewis seems to be dodging questions about the lack of winning any blowouts by saying that statistically, most victories in the NFL are by less than two scores. (Never mind that the Bengals beat those odds in some of their losses.) However, what about playoff teams? Don't the top teams usually notch a few regular season blowout wins, games in which they dominate opponents? While the 2003 Bengals were a vast improvement and fun to watch, don't you think a team of real championship quality should be able to demolish at least one or two of the weaker opponents in the schedule?

Answer: The Bengals had the Ravens on the ropes at home on Oct. 19 with a 34-10 lead at the start of the fourth quarter. Baltimore scored 16 unanswered points to pull within eight. The Bengals were up 31-13 in the third quarter at San Diego before the Chargers scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns. And the Bengals were up 14-0 early on San Francisco, a game they held on to win.

Your questions and comments lead to a larger issue: How small of a margin of error the Bengals had in 2003 and how miraculous the 8-8 finish was.

Bengals fans might want to brace themselves for another 8-8 season, or even 7-9, in 2004. The schedule is brutal. As a result of their second-place AFC North finish, the Bengals get a home game against Denver and a road trip to Tennessee. (That's two playoff teams.) They go on the road to New England, Philadelphia and Baltimore (three more playoff teams) and to revived Washington.

Their home schedule also includes Dallas and Baltimore, with another visit from near-miss 10-6 Miami. The Bengals have seven games against 2003 playoff teams.

The Bengals could be a vastly improved team and still miss the playoffs. The most difficult remedy and most sure cure would be to upgrade the leaky defense that allowed an average of 24 points a game (28th in the NFL).

And if Carson Palmer wins the quarterback job from Jon Kitna, Palmer can't be expected to replicate Kitna's performance as a second-year rookie. There will be big plays and big mistakes.

The challenge for Lewis is to somehow duplicate the energy he and his staff put out in the past year.

Lewis is optimistic that the team will be better.

"Guys improve a lot because they know what's expected of them," he said. "We know the ins and outs of our guys. I think we'll see a big jump in some of the new guys we have, whether they were the free agent players or the draft pick guys.

"You tweak it, they tweak it and everybody gets better."

Q, from Dave in the U.S. Air Force: Why is Coslet back in the Bengal organization? I'm sure he is a nice guy and all, but please tell me there are no plans to have him coach somebody. I don't even want him handing out water to the players. What is your take on this hire?

Q, from Greg: Bruce isn't able to see talent or judge talent. This is a step backwards. Mike Brown had to show his loyalty to coaches and players with ties to this organization sooner or later and now he has. I certainly hope he is done.

A: Well, fans liked Coslet a lot in 1996 and 1997. He had the same rep that Lewis did in 2003 - a tough guy who was going to right the ship.

Coslet has been in the NFL for 31 years. Whatever shortcomings he might have had as a coach, he was an outstanding offensive coordinator. He found the right kind of players to execute his offense - free agent quarterback Jeff Blake comes to mind.

Lewis said it best Tuesday. Fans and the media criticized the Bengals for not having enough people in the scouting department. Here is another veteran who wants to contribute.

Don't worry about the coaching thing, either. There's only one boss on the sidelines, and Lewis is amassing an increasing amount of control.

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E-mail mcurnutte@enquirer.com

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