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The numbers don’t lie. Or do they? The game today between the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals is more than a renewal of the Battle of Ohio. In terms of the Bengals defense and Browns offense, it’s a case of the movable object meeting the resistible force. After yielding 1,026 yards the past two weeks, the Bengals defense has plummeted to last in the NFL in yards allowed (342.5 per game). The Browns offense has done its best to (not) keep pace, ranking nextto-last (256.9 average), ahead of only moribund Oakland.
The outcome today could tip with which team defies its ranking. Bengals players had a hard time grasping that no other defense has given up more yards. "I don’t feel we’re the 32 ndranked defense," defensive end Bryan Robinson said. "I feel we’re a much better defense. But the reality is we’re last going into this game. Just talking to (fellow linemen) Sam (Adams), John (Thornton) and Justin (Smith), we have six games to go to right the ship and maybe get in the top 15 and make it more respectable." Though Cincinnati’s defense has certainly had its share of clunkers, not every game has been a disaster. In half of their games, the Bengals have limited opponents to 17 points or fewer. "Yardage has never been a big thing," Adams said. "Points are what you want to look at. "If you can hold them to field goals, they can move the ball up and down the field, especially with the prolific offense we have here. For the most part, they’re going to give us 21. If we can hold (the opposition) under that, it’s a done deal. But you want to be dominant on defense." Points may be more important than yards, but the potent Bengals offense has not been able to spend as much time on the field because the defense has a hard time getting off it. Cincinnati has given up a league-high 226 first downs. Like the Bengals, the Browns believe their offensive ranking is misleading. Cleveland’s woes, they believe, can be partly pinned on former offensive coordinator Maurice Carthon. Some Browns fans suspect that the Carthon playbook was so amateurish, it was scribbled in crayon. Though receiver Braylon Edwards implicitly criticized new offensive coordinator Jeff Davidson’s red-zone playcalling, at least the Browns seem to be attempting to play to their strengths offensively. "I still think we’re in the stages of trying to re-identify ourselves," Browns coach Romeo Crennel said. "Jeff had a few different ideas of what he wanted the offense to be, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to get it all done (all at once), so he’s been trying to piecemeal it together, week by week. "Overall, I think that we’re able to move the ball somewhat consistently, but we just haven’t been able to put many points on the board. We’ve ended up kicking field goals, rather than scoring touchdowns. But I think in time that’s going to come." For the Browns offense and Bengals defense, today would be an optimum time to show they’re not as bad as they look on paper. Columbus Dispatch http://columbusdispatch.com/bengals/bengals.php?story=dispatch/2006/11/26/20061126-E4-03.html |
