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To borrow a line from one of the Shirelles' 1961 smash hits, "Mama said there'll be days like this." Days when you run into a team that's superior, and you come away exposed, exhausted and embarrassed. That's what happened to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. They may have looked tiger-tough in their all-black uniforms, but they tackled like pussycats and got mauled by the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-13, at Paul Brown Stadium. It was the seventh straight victory here for the Steelers, who have turned PBS into "P(itts)B(urgh)S(tadium)." Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis' news conference was more like a confession: "We were outplayed. We were out-executed. Hell, I'm out-coached," he said. "I've got to do a better job of getting us ready. For whatever reason, we can't come out and get started at the beginning of the game, and I don't understand why. "We can do some things correctly later in the game. But for whatever reason, we have early breakdowns. We've got to look at who's breaking down and see if we've got a better choice."
The Bengals had only 10 defenders on the field during Pittsburgh's first TD — Ben Roethlisberger's 21-yard pass to Hines Ward. Nice tone-setter, eh? Star of the game: Roethlisberger threw for 230 yards and two TDs — both to Ward — and eluded at least a half-dozen sacks with his size (6-5, 241) and strength. He made so many plays with his arms and feet, he should be a candidate for ABC television's "Dancing with the Stars." "He's big — a lot bigger than the average quarterback," Bengals linebacker Landon Johnson said. "He's a little harder to get on the ground." Goat of the game: Marvin Lewis. Trailing 14-3 and facing fourth-and-1 at the Steelers' 2-yard line at 2:21 of the second quarter, Lewis called time-out ... then sent out the field-goal unit. Shayne Graham's 20-yard field goal represented the white flag of surrender. "I'm sure, in hindsight, we should probably go for it there on fourth down rather than taking the points," Lewis said. Quote machine: "We're not very good right now, and that's all there is to it. It's our job to dig out of it. You can't hang your head. Everybody else can whine and complain about it. We've got to come back and try to do something about it." — Bengals defensive end Justin Smith.
Dayton Daily News http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/pro/bengals/2007/10/29/ddn102907bengals.html |
