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Fourth straight defeat has Bengals reeling, as only five 1-4 teams since 1990 have made playoffs. Can anything be done to save the Bengals' season? Slowly, surely, the Bengals' 2007 season is disintegrating, degenerating and disappearing before our eyes, and it's easy to see why. The offense isn't producing, especially on third down (1 for 11 Sunday); the defense keeps yielding explosive plays; and the special teams are anything but special. Sound familiar? It was almost as if the Bengals turned back time in a 27-20 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in front of 76,846 spectators at Arrrowhead Stadium on Sunday — back to the bad ol' days when Dave Shula, Bruce Coslet and Dick LeBeau coached the club.
Head coach Marvin Lewis tried to positively spin the fourth straight loss that kept the Bengals last in the AFC North. "I thought for the first time this season we played like a football team the second half of that game," Lewis said. "Although we didn't win, I thought we made some progress and showed some signs of a team, and not a bunch of individual guys." Now that the season is basically over — just five 1-4 teams have rallied to make the playoffs since 1990 — fans can look to the 2008 draft. Hey, the Bengals are on the clock. Star of the game: Chiefs star Tony Gonzalez caught two touchdown passes from Damon Huard, pushing his career total to 64 — the most scoring receptions by a tight end in NFL history. He entered the game tied with Shannon Sharpe (62). Goat of the game: Bengals left tackle Levi Jones got benched at 13:00 of the second quarter because he couldn't block Chiefs right defensive end Jared Allen. Allen had 21/2 sacks and a forced fumble on Palmer. Andrew Whitworth replaced Jones and neutralized Allen. "I obviously struggled for whatever reason," Jones said. "I couldn't get a handle on him." Quote machine: "There are no moral victories ... but we've got to start somewhere," defensive tackle John Thornton said. "We pulled closer in the second half and started playing better. That's the one thing we look at and say, 'This is how we've got to play.' " Dayton Daily News http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/pro/bengals/2007/10/15/ddn101507bengals.html |
