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Big Game Against Denver Approaching The mantra in the Bengals’ locker room late Monday night was to forget and move on. After being whipped 34-16 by the Indianapolis Colts in the RCA Dome, the Bengals have no choice. They have a short week to prepare for a game in Denver, and they still control their playoff destiny. "The biggest thing now is putting this loss behind us," right tackle Willie Anderson said. "We’ve had success. It’s not like we’ve lost six or seven games in a row. We’re still in the thick of the playoff hunt. Now is not the time to pull apart, and I don’t think we’re at that moment anymore." Still, it won’t be easy. Denver got back on track last week against Arizona, and Cincinnati’s regular-season finale against Pittsburgh looks far more challenging than it did when the Steelers were tanking in midseason. Besides, the Bengals (8-6) hardly looked like a playoff team against the Colts. Coaches made curious decisions and star players faltered. Coach Marvin Lewis defended his decision to kick a field goal early in the third quarter with the Bengals facing a fourth-and-1 at the Indianapolis 13-yard line and trailing 17-10. Lewis said he wanted to get points on the board. Ever the good soldier, quarterback Carson Palmer wouldn’t criticize the decision, saying Lewis is the boss and he supports whatever the coach wants. But he later added, "You can’t expect to beat Peyton Manning kicking field goals. You need to score (touchdowns) and we didn’t do that." Palmer blamed himself. "I played terribly," he said. "I missed too many balls that my teammates and coaches expect me to hit." Palmer wasn’t sharp, but his receivers were worse. Chad Johnson and Chris Henry dropped several passes, which for Henry has become a recurring problem. If the Bengals had run the ball the way they expected against a porous Colts run defense, the drops could have been overcome. But Rudi Johnson ran for 15 yards in the second half and finished with 79. "We felt we were the more physical team and we were going to get physical with them, but tonight they played more physical than we did," Palmer said. Defensively, the Bengals looked nothing like the team that had seemingly regrouped during their four-game winning streak. Cincinnati failed to adjust when Manning continually dinked the ball down the field. Cornerback Deltha O’Neal was picked on repeatedly, but this was a lack of team effort. The low moment might have come with the slow-footed Manning scrambled up the middle for a 22-yard gain. "He definitely put the ball where it needed to be," defensive end Justin Smith said. "He was money. But we didn’t play well. We were missing tackles across the board — everybody." Losing to Indianapolis is no shame. Despite struggling the past month, the Colts (11-3) are undefeated in their dome. "We’ve played well," Palmer said. "One game doesn’t wash away everything we’ve done." But the loss means the Bengals’ margin for error has shrunk dramatically. "We’re at a point now where we’re right on the line of going to the playoffs or going home," Palmer said. Columbus Dispatch http://columbusdispatch.com/bengals/bengals.php?story=dispatch/2006/12/20/20061220-F1-03.html |
