By Paul Daugherty
Cincinnati Enquirer
http://news.cincinnati.com/
October 20, 2008
The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger
Bengals fans could only show their disappointment as the Steelers fans celebrated a fourth-quarter touchdown.
Nobody wearing a POLAMALU jersey had to worry about getting his face smashed in. The black-and-gold-clad visiting home crowd twirled its Terrible Towels for three hours, shooting a figurative middle finger at the Bengals fans, as they have the last eight times their team has played at Paul Brown Stadium, all Pittsburgh wins. It's disgusting, really, but what else is new?
The Steelers beat Mike Brown's Cincinnati Bengals 38-10. The game was more competitive than that, if it matters. Right now, good teams can beat the Bengals by applying themselves for a couple quarters. In the Steelers' case, it was the first and last.
"For whatever reason, we just seemed to dissolve,'' said Marvin Lewis, describing an Alka Seltzer tablet, if not a football team. The Bengals coach, bless him, continues to shovel the motivational coal and chop the wood of positive reinforcement. He seems at the end of his rope. "I'm angry,'' said the coach, whose team now has lost 19 of its last 26, with no end in sight.
Who could blame him?
Ohhhhhhh-and-seven is here. If the Cincinnati Bengals can't create a win in Houston next week, oh-and-15 isn't an impossibility. They'll play the Kansas City Chiefs here, three days after Christmas. Ho-ho-hum.
With Carson Palmer, the Bengals were marginally competitive. Without him, they're a hiker waiting on an avalanche. And yet, with about eight minutes left Sunday, they trailed just 17-10. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was having an off day. Cincinnati backup Ryan Fitzpatrick had authored one beautiful drive: 92 yards, 14 plays, 9-for-10 passing, Bengals down just 10-7 at halftime.
Yet there is something in a losing team's DNA that makes seven points behind seem like 700. Early in the fourth quarter, Fitzpatrick took a sack on third-and-10 from Pittsburgh's 37. Lewis saw that as a melting point. "We take the sack there and we never recover,'' he said.
The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger
Bengals quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is rushed by the Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons.
As much as the defense has been praised, it has never been stout when stout was mandatory: At the New York Giants, against Cleveland, at Dallas, at the New York Jets and again Sunday.
After the sack, Roethlisberger threw 50 yards to Nate Washington, who was three steps behind cornerback Geoffrey Pope, an undrafted kid just signed off the practice squad. That made it 24-10. You could see the quasi-home team's shoulders sink, collectively.
Lewis has done a good job keeping his team's heart in the season. He has done a good job convincing young players of their worth. Playing hard means nothing in the NFL. That said, unselfishness is the first casualty when a team is sinking like this one.
But Lewis can't be inside every player's head, every play. He's a coach, not a therapist. The Bengals lose so much, they think losing is what they should do. It's self-perpetuating.
Plus, they don't have a lot of good players.
The dead horse has been flogged until its bones are ready for the soup pot. Needed: One general manager, four or five scouts. No coach is so good he can overcome a lack of players, week after month after year. Chances of that happening: Same as Mike Brown wearing nylons and doing a turn as a Rockette.
God only knows what inspires a man to hold a town and a franchise hostage to his leather-helmet way of doing things. But, knock, knock, Redeemer: It doesn't work.
The Enquirer/Amanda Davidson
Steelers running back Mewelde Moore (21) scores his third touchdown of the game in the fourth quarter.
The Steelers and their fans show the Bengals and theirs how it can be, when enough smart people are hired and allowed to do good work. When ownership simply owns, coaches and personnel people have a chance at enduring success. That's how it works in Pittsburgh. In Cincinnati, everyone ends up staring into the middle distance and saying, as Marvin Lewis did Sunday, "It's not what professional football is all about.''
Pittsburgh fans have enjoyed winning football for 30 years. They know what it's like to have their passion rewarded. That's why the black and gold hordes are here every year, buying Bengal Fan's tickets. It's almost always worth the trip.
E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com
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