Bengals just can't quite get there

By Paul Daugherty
pdaugherty@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
http://news.cincinnati.com/
November 8, 2010

It was a push and shove game on a glitz and glamour night. Pittsburgh tends to win those. The Steelers can prevail without their A game. Maybe the Bengals can, too. This year, it’s impossible to tell. They haven’t brought their A game yet.

The Bengals were down 20 after one play of the fourth quarter. They rallied, they fought, they didn’t give up. Choose your cliché. They lost, 27-21, when Jordan Shipley couldn’t hang onto Carson Palmer’s pass at the Pittsburgh 4-yard line, after being sandwiched by Pittsburgh defenders James Harrison and Ike Taylor, with 34 seconds to play.

A noble L is still an L. And so the warmed-over leftover portion of the season has begun.

William Gay blocks a punt off the foot of the Cincinnati Bengals' Kevin Huber during the first quarter. (The Enquirer/Gary Landers)

For three quarters, it looked like this: Pittsburgh came to town, did what it had to do and left. The game wasn’t especially electric, unless you count the gold paint on Chad Ochocinco’s shoes.

The Steelers weren’t especially good. They lost two starting offensive linemen to injury (center Maurkice Pouncey, left guard Chris Kemoeatu) in one, three-play stretch early in the second quarter. They lost another lineman, Max Starks, in the third quarter, even as Pouncey returned.

Their front seven did not overly harass Carson Palmer. Their secondary allowed two TD passes to Terrell Owens. Cedric Benson had as many running yards after three quarters as the Steelers had allowed on average per game.

In short, it was another game for the winning, if the Bengals had been in the mood for it.

As it was, they didn’t do enough right, which about sums up the first, lost half of the season.

Losing teams look for something, anything good to happen. The Bengals got something very good, early on. Being the 2010 Bengals, they didn’t take advantage.

The Steelers had a series from hell to start the second quarter. In five plays, they lost Kemoeatu, Pouncey and the ball.

Leon Hall’s helmet found the football after Pittsburgh’s Hines Ward caught it. Roy Williams picked up the loose ball. Two minutes later, Carson Palmer located his favorite toy, Terrell Owens, with a 19-yard TD pass down the middle. Owens did a strange little dance and the Bengals were down just 10-7.

This was after the Bengals gave away 10 points to start the game. With losing teams, it’s always something. Monday night, the Bengals special teams took a turn modeling the horns. Bernard Scott fumbled the opening kickoff, which led to a 25-yard Steelers touchdown “drive.’’

Their next possession, the Bengals had a punt blocked. William Gay steamed in unbothered from Cincinnati’s left side. Six plays later, the Steelers had a 10-0 lead.

That should have been where the home team seized the day. Good teams smell a little blood in the water at that point: The other guys lose arguably their two best offensive linemen, they turn the ball over, the Bengals capitalize and, just like that, a season of missteps does a little dance.

The Bengals even forced a three and out.

Bengals' Bernard Scott, 28, fumbles the football on the opening play against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter of their football game played at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio November 8, 2010. (The Enquirer/Gary Landers)

Then, predictability set in, at least as it applies to the 2010, one step up, two steps back Bengals: Palmer tried to force a pass to Owens who was double-covered. Steelers linebacker Lawrence Timmons intercepted.

Pittsburgh took a 20-7 lead into halftime. The home crowd booed the home team as it left the field.

The game seemed to end on the first play of the fourth quarter, when the Steelers offense did something “innovative."

(In-no-va-tive: Advanced, forward-looking, modern.)

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took the snap and handed the ball to wide receiver Antwaan Randle El, who threw a very nice spiral to wide receiver Mike Wallace in the end zone. The advanced, forward-looking and modern play might have been entirely foreign to Bengals fans. But it worked just fine for the Steelers, who took a seemingly unbeatable 27-7 lead.

With the Bengals, you feel like you’re watching the same game every week.

Especially on offense, where the well of creativity continues to be a dry hole. The Bengals are very good at run-run-pass. They are accomplished at sending Ced Benson off the tackles for eight yards on two carries, then passing on 3rd-and-2.

Carson Palmer had plenty of time to throw Monday, which more often than not means he had plenty of time to lock on to one receiver. That’s what happened when Palmer threw the interception to Timmons. Palmer couldn’t have looked more intently at Owens if he’d been taking T.O.’s picture.

It got a whole lot better in the fourth quarter, if that thrills you. The Bengals have excelled at failed comebacks this year. This one was just the latest.

Thanks for coming, ESPN. Hope you enjoyed The Tiara.