CINCINNATI — The number is alarming, especially compared with the impressive total from last season.

Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer has been sacked 11 times in three games this season. That’s more than half the 21 the Bengals allowed in all 16 regular-season games a year ago.

The Pittsburgh Steelers sacked Carson Palmer six times Sunday, a week after the Browns sacked him four times. Last year, Palmer was not sacked more than twice in any game. New England, with coach Bill Belichick at the controls, will pose another stiff challenge Sunday.

By reflex, blame for sacks is usually placed on the offensive line. But it would be wrong to pin a scarlet "S" entirely on that unit. Sacks can happen because running backs fail to pick up blitzes and receivers fail to get open.

"We haven’t protected well," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. "We’ve missed some things in protection. We’ve got 11 guys in there and it hasn’t been just one area."

Sacks also can happen because the quarterback is slow to get rid of the ball. Palmer said that’s the biggest culprit.

"I’d say out of 10 sacks (the past two games), at least half are my fault," Palmer said.

Palmer is always quick to accept responsibility for any offensive shortcoming, but in this case, he’s right.

Many, if not most, of the Pittsburgh sacks came because Palmer hung in the pocket too long.

"I need to do a better job of realizing there’s nothing here, there’s nothing more that can be made of this play, and throw it away or go down early and not try to make something happen," Palmer said.

Still, Bengals linemen know they’re going to take the heat for the sacks. Understandably, right tackle Willie Anderson was a little defensive about the subject.

"We admittedly had a game last week that was not up to our standards," he said. "But we found a way to come up with crucial drives against a tough team on the road. It was loud, crazy. (We had) a new center. Pittsburgh has a great defense. We didn’t do the standard of what (we’re) used to, but we still scored 28 points."

Because of the crowd noise, Anderson said, Bengals linemen had to look at center Eric Ghiaciuc to see the ball snapped instead of going on Palmer’s hike call.

"You can’t hear and you take a bad step and he gets a jump on you because he sees the ball and sees you looking in, and he’s got you," Anderson said.

He said it would be more troubling if Bengals linemen were being physically dominated. That’s not happening, Anderson said.

"The stuff that’s going on with us right now is fixable," he said. "They’re not physical things. It’s not that guys can’t hold up."

The Bengals are playing without injured veteran center Rich Braham, whom his linemates regard as the brains of the unit. But Anderson and Palmer said Ghiaciuc shouldn’t be viewed as the reason for the elevated sack total.

"I’m confident in him," Palmer said. "There were a couple of miscues here and there. But there are miscues with 10-year centers. I think he’s done a really good job."

Both Palmer and Anderson said they weren’t worried about the number of sacks.

"We’re winning," Anderson said. "If those things are directly making you lose, then we care. (But) obviously, you don’t want your quarterback hit."

Columbus Dispatch
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