A day after losing for the third time in four games and a couple of players questioning the team’s strategy, coach Marvin Lewis tried to put a smiley face on the Good Ship Bengals: The Bengals aren’t the Titanic. They’re the S.S. Minnow, soon to be fine after a three-hour detour. Lewis spoke about the good things the Bengals did in their 29-27 loss to Atlanta. He dismissed the criticisms made by running back Rudi Johnson and offensive tackle Willie Anderson as mere frustration that comes after a loss. "We won the first three and I was just the same," Lewis said of his upbeat demeanor. "We’re not going to change. Unfortunately, there is only one team that has gone undefeated in the NFL. You are going to come up short once in a while. "But if we keep doing things the right way, we are going to be right where we want to be at the end of the year. We’ve got to keep doing things right, do it better, more efficiently and more often." Johnson complained that the Bengals stopped trying to run the ball against Atlanta’s smallish defense. "Do what works," Johnson said after the game. "I’m not saying I have to run 50,000 times, especially if it’s not working. I’m just saying you move up and down the field with what’s working. You do what you do until they find a way to stop it." Anderson isn’t sure what type of offense the Bengals are trying to be. "We try to figure everything out every week," he said Sunday. "We have no identity." He added that the team’s toughness as a whole was "spotty." "The good teams have that," Anderson said. "We don’t. Point blank, we don’t. I don’t care what everybody says tomorrow. We don’t have that. We’ve brought guys in here like that, but we don’t have enough. You’ve got to have enough guys like that." If the comments bothered Lewis, he shrugged it off. "It comes with the territory," he said. "It certainly doesn’t surprise me." He did take issue with Johnson’s complaint. Lewis said the running back touched the ball on 50 percent of the snaps he played. As for not pounding the ball after the first quarter, Lewis said, "We did pound Atlanta until they hit us for a 7-yard loss in the third quarter. Second-and-17, I don’t know how much pounding we are going to do at that point. We did pound. We went up and down the field. We do certain things on offense. I appreciate their thoughts, and if they were always 100 percent right, then we would really be in great shape." The loss dropped Cincinnati (4-3) out of a first-place tie with Baltimore (5-2) in the AFC North, and the Ravens play host to the Bengals on Sunday. Baltimore routed the New Orleans Saints in its first game after firing offensive coordinator Jim Fassel. Bengals offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski was the inferred target of the criticism by Johnson and Anderson. Lewis bristled when asked whether Bratkowski might face the same fate as Fassel. Affirming that Bratkowski was safe, Lewis said, "Was that in the bottom of the useless question list? "We’ve just got to win. That’s what it comes down to. When you win, you look kind of foolish when you are sitting in there complaining." Injury update
Lewis said center Rich Braham, offensive left tackle Levi Jones and receiver Kelley Washington will be out again this week. Defensive back Kevin Kaesviharn will be listed as questionable with a knee bruise. Columbus Dispatch http://columbusdispatch.com/bengals/bengals.php?story=dispatch/2006/10/31/20061031-C1-02.html |
