By Paul Daugherty
The Cincinnati Enquirer
http://news.cincinnati.com/
November 21, 2008
PITTSBURGH - NOVEMBER 20: Cedric Benson #32 of the Cincinnati Bengals gets tackled by Troy Polamalu #43 of the Pittsburgh Steelers during a first quarter run on November 20, 2008 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh won the game 27-10. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)PITTSBURGH - Marvin Custer came to Little Big Horn with his Triple-A club.
The Pittsburgh Steelers weren't going to blow out the Cincinnati Bengals Thursday night, because the Steelers don't have the offense to blow anyone out. But the result should have been as certain as Fort Knox for the home club.
For three quarters, it was anything but. The Bengals came in a train wreck, but they didn't play that way. Until Pittsburgh finally took a 20-7 lead with 16 seconds left in the third quarter, Cincinnati's Pluck Factor was way up there. Multiple injuries and a one-game detention for Chad Eight-Five - last seen banging his spoon on his high chair - had left Cincinnati in the fetal position.
But until Gary Russell swept in from the 2 to end the third quarter, the Bengals hung around, bless their purple hearts. At 20-7, you figured Cincinnati would need an act of God to score. And you were almost right.
(For some reason, down 13 with 7 minutes to play, M. Custer ordered a field goal on fourth down from the Pittsburgh 8. That's putting lipstick on a dead pig.)
The left side of the Bengals' line was greener than money. Rookie left tackle Anthony Collins (six snaps all season) and rookie left guard Nate Livings (none) lined up against James Harrison and LaMarr Woodley, whose 21.5 combined sacks were 10.5 more than the Bengals' defense.
The Steelers defense ranks first in the NFL against the run and the pass. The Bengals offense ranked 30th when its line was together.
All these foreign names: Collins. Livings. Caldwell (Andre, made his first pro catch). John Thornton, a career interior defensive lineman, playing end after Robert Geathers hurt his knee.
Lots of try-hard happening, and while this is the NFL and not St. Cecilia's eighth-graders, trying hard was almost all you could ask from this bunch of bedraggled Bengals.
It was more than you could ask from their best-known dancer-entertainer, whose career and rep are sinking faster than the Dow. While his mates were at Heinz Field, freezing, Chad-O was at home, chilling. Most likely, he was in the living room of his condo just north of downtown Cincinnati, surrounded by the four massive oil paintings of himself.
This time, the emperor was totally and publicly disrobed.
PITTSBURGH - NOVEMBER 20: Ben Roethlisberger #7 of the Pittsburgh Steelers throws a second quarter pass against the Cincinnati Bengals on November 20, 2008 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh won the game 27-10. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
The details emerged throughout the day Thursday. Chad overslept and arrived late to a meeting of the offense at the team hotel Wednesday night. Or, Chad was on time, but slept his way through the proceedings. Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski told Chad to wake up and sit up straight - things you'd tell a third-grader. Chad couldn't deal with that, evidently.
He stormed out, chased by Marvin Lewis, who told him to go home. Chad was back in Cincinnati by early Thursday afternoon. Or something like that. It has always been hard to separate cold, hard fact from warm, soft coddling when Chad-O's been involved. A few things, though, have never been more clear:
Chad is a 30-year-old child. It affects everything he does. Attention means more to him than anything, including winning. His kid-ness hasn't been challenged. It has been enabled. From Mike Brown to Marvin Lewis to his mouthpiece Drew Rosenhaus - and to me and you and teammates who didn't go upside Chad's head when the moment called for it - no one has ever sent the kid to his room.
Veterans nicknamed the rookie Chad The Golden Child, for the gleaming set of 14-karat choppers he flashed before he'd ever caught an NFL pass. That name has added meaning over the years, as Johnson has been permitted by Lewis to do his own thing.
Many people have spent many years trying to keep Chad-O on the right path, Lewis not the least of them. The coach has compromised himself over the seasons, to accommodate Johnson. Lewis' action Thursday was too little, too late.
The locker room has been mixed in its feelings toward Johnson - and Lewis' enabling - at least since halftime of the playoff loss to the Steelers, in January 2006, when Johnson went nuts in a locker room that begged for cool.
Just guessing, but it probably won't be mixed now.
It's too bad about Eight-Five, because if ever an athlete held a town in his outstretched hand, it was Chad. And if ever an athlete needed love and acceptance it was The Golden Child. He is a very likeable person. Most kids are. He has entirely lost his way.
His mates could have used him Thursday night. He was far, far away. Dancing alone, around the room.
E-mail pdaugherty@enquirer.com
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