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StumbleuponWinless Bengals coming unglued
Monday, September 29, 2008
CINCINNATI — Here's something I noticed after the Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Browns, 20-12 Sunday, Sept. 28, at Paul Brown Stadium.
As I was making my way into the small press room to hear coach Marvin Lewis' comments, the dressing room door just a few feet away opened wide for a late-comer.
The players' quarters are off-limits to the press until Lewis begins his session, but there, in the middle of the room, a few Bengals gathered in a huddle for a chant of unity.
Most of their teammates were sitting at their lockers, some with backs turned. And very out of character, Lewis already was in the press room ready to explain — without prompting — why his team had used up its timeouts with 13 minutes left.
Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but the we're-all-in-this-together attitude seemed eroded.
But when you're 0-4 — and, the way I see it, on the road to 0-7 and maybe a 4-12 season — unity can crumble quickly.
You see signs of it in games — from body language to sideline silence — and you saw it in the preseason. Chad Johnson changed his name, but not his petulance. The owner and head coach seemed to be in a power struggle — highlighted by the reinstatement of Chris Henry.
Worst of all, the club jettisoned two of its former All Pros, running back Rudi Johnson and offensive lineman Willie Anderson. Not only would they be helping on the field now — the Bengals can't run between tackles and offensive tackle Levi Jones is lost without Willie mentoring him — but they provided the kind of team glue in the dressing room a coach cannot.
And so the Bengals — in one of the sloppiest, least-inspiring encounters I've seen — went belly-up against a Browns team as bad as they are.
Sure, the Bengals were hurt when quarterback Carson Palmer — sacked six times by the Giants — was a last-minute scratch for an elbow problem apparently worse than the team let on.
Asked Sunday if the MRI exam showed "anything scary," Palmer — not one to lie — could only say "I'm not gonna comment on everything."
"Do you think it's long term?" he was asked.
With some hesitation, he said quietly, "I hope not."
That doesn't sound good for a team headed to Dallas and the Jets before facing Pittsburgh at home.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, Palmer's replacement? a guy throwing his first NFL passes since 2005, tossed three interceptions and fumbled. But this wasn't his loss. He was a sacrificial lamb.
The line can't protect, nor can it open holes for suspect running back Chris Perry, who had 12 carries for 28 yards and fumbled for his fourth time this year.
Meanwhile, Johnson — Ocho Cinco if you must — and T. J. Houshmandzadeh aren't getting the ball. So Johnson sits afterward in perturbed silence and Houshmandzadeh pours his heart out:
"I'm shocked. I never would have dreamed we'd be 0-4. I would have bet the house on this game.
"Obviously, when you're 0-4 you lose some confidence. It's embarrassing. I don't even want to leave the house."
As he dressed, he put on camouflage tennis shoes and dark shades and then slipped out a side door.
When you don't travel as a team, you go it alone — in disguise.
