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There isn’t enough makeup in the world to make this pig look presentable. The Cincinnati Bengals’ 49-41 loss to the San Diego Chargers was a bad one, as bad as it gets in the ninth week of a 16-week season. In that narrow context, it may have been the clunker of all clunkers, a game that even the old Bengals — those Bengals — would have had trouble duplicating. Timing, as they say, is everything, and the timing of this debacle couldn’t have been much worse. This was a game Cincinnati almost certainly had to win to have a realistic shot at repeating as AFC North Division champs, and they were well on their way to doing that, with 28-7 halftime lead against a quality opponent, when their defense turned into 3,000 pounds of quivering jelly.
San Diego scored six touchdowns in the second half — ponder the defensive failures inherent in that short sentence for a moment — and the Bengals’ title hopes were reduced to a flicker. There isn’t an eternal optimist alive who can force a smile under these circumstances. Facing a difficult game on the road next week in New Orleans, facing a difficult schedule that also includes road games in Indianapolis and Denver and home games against Baltimore and Pittsburgh, the 4-5 Bengals are three games behind firstplace Baltimore. They probably have to go 6-1 in their remaining seven just to land a wildcard spot. Last season, San Diego put up a 10-6 record and didn’t qualify. "It sucks right now, it really does," defensive end Bryan Robinson said. "You want to remain positive because nothing is etched in stone that we’re not a good football team or that we’re not a playoff-caliber team; that’s something we still (aspire) to. It’s a tough loss for us, man, and it hurts really bad, but I don’t think New Orleans is going to care next week." To make matters worse, safety Dexter Jackson seemed to question whether some of the Bengals care now, charging some of his teammates with quitting in the second half. No one else would go that far publicly, although Chad Johnson’s comments made it clear that the Bengals’ locker room was pretty ugly before the press corps entered. Johnson had 11 catches for a career-best 260 yards and two touchdowns and he couldn’t have been more subdued. "We’ve had enough venting on camera," Johnson said. "That was talked about last week, so I don’t think anyone’s going to show their frustration as much. But believe me, before you all got in here, there were a lot of people (ticked) off." Given the Bengals’ current plight and the way yesterday played out, a lot of defensive players probably deserve to be publicly called out by their teammates. For a half, the Bengals looked like a playoff team. They jumped to a 21-0 lead and led the 6-2 Chargers 28-7 at halftime, a welcome sight for a .500 team that once viewed the playoffs as almost a natural conclusion. Carson Palmer was back. He was 20-of-23 passing for 282 yards and two touchdowns, and better still, he was finding Johnson, the once-unhappy "hood ornament," consistently. The offense that got the Bengals to the playoffs last year suddenly seemed likely to do it again, and just in the nick of time. Then the Chargers scored two touchdowns in the first six minutes of the second half and the Bengals’ season turned on a dime. "We’re not out of it," Palmer sat mlid. "We have just as good a shot as any. We could end up 11-5, if we go on a run. You never know what can happen in this league. You might get in the playoffs at 9-7. You don’t know right now, and we don’t care. We’re going to worry about New Orleans and then whoever is next on the schedule." As good a shot as any? To the credit of the press corps, no one in the room laughed. Columbus Dsiptach http://columbusdispatch.com/bengals/bengals.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/13/20061113-G4-00.html |
