A pass slips through Chad Johnson's hands Monday night against the Patriots.  Teams normally don't take kindly to charges that they are in disarray.  Disarray is the national perception of the Bengals after a 34-13 loss to New England on Monday night. The nation saw inept play and bickering. Afterward, Marvin Lewis directed a profanity-laced tirade at his players.

Yet Lewis didn't take offense when the D-word was broached at his news conference yesterday.  "That's a good perception, if that's one they want to have," Lewis said. "Hopefully, the Kansas City Chiefs feel like we're in disarray. Or the team after that. We're going to play with a chip on our shoulder, and we'll get after it and be fine."

Cincinnati plays the Chiefs after its current bye week, which all agreed comes at an ideal time. The Bengals can mend their injuries and regroup.  After ripping the players after the game, Lewis presided over a meeting Tuesday, which had been a scheduled off day, that was a teaching session rather than another rant.

"Yelling only does so much, and that's what Marvin is so great at -- knowing how to pick his times to be fired up and when to just put it up on film and say, 'This is the mistake, this is how you fix it and this is what happens when we do fix it,' " quarterback Carson Palmer said. "That was kind of the theme of the meeting."  Palmer, like other Bengals players, brushed off the perception of a team on the brink of implosion. He said the frustration is the inevitable byproduct of a team that believes it is far better than its 1-3 record.

"It doesn't matter what the perception is on the outside," Palmer said. "It's what the perception is on the inside, and I'm content with what we have on the inside. We're fired up. We're disgusted at the way we've played and disappointed. You don't want a team that's OK with losing."  As for Lewis' comment that selfishness remains a problem, that's not so easily dismissible.  "It's disappointing we haven't learned from last year," safety Madieu Williams said. "The good thing is we still have time."

Whenever the topic of selfishness crops up, eyes instinctively turn to receiver Chad Johnson. Lewis said tagging Johnson as a culprit was unfair.  Johnson and Palmer bickered at the end of the first half after an interception on a miscommunication. On Monday, Palmer took the blame. After watching film, Johnson accepted responsibility yesterday, saying he ran too deep on his route.

The Bengals now have some time to work on correcting such errors and getting their minds right.  "Half of this thing is always psychological," Lewis said. "It's physical, it's mental. It all goes hand in hand. These aren't a bunch of little girls. I don't think we have to go out and raise up their psyche. They're generally big, bold men, which can sometimes be our issue. Big, bold men have to do it right all the time, consistently. We didn't beat our chests when we were 1-0, and we're certainly not beating our chests now."

Columbus Dispatch

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