Paul Daugherty, @EnquirerDoc
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/2018/12/30/paul-daugherty-column-future-marvin-lewis-cincinnati-bengals/2447305002/
December 30, 2018
Coty Sensabaugh breaks up a pass intended for Auden Tate to seal Sunday's 16-13 victory over the Bengals (Kareem Elgazzar)
PITTSBURGH – And now we await the papal smoke from the Vatican-on-the-Ohio. The Bengals Lost Season has come to a merciful end, just as the team was ready to call the Red Cross for players. It’s time for the other cleat to drop. Or not.
The outmanned Bengals played hard and kept it close, if that interests you. They fought hard and nearly stole the battle. Their problem is the war. Besides, in the NFL, effort is implied in the contract. There is no try, Yoda. With 1:56 left in the game, a kicker named Matt McCrane punched a 35-yard field goal, and the Steelers won, 16-13. Pittsburgh signed McCrane on Friday. And so it goes.
The Bengals finished 6-10 after starting 4-1. They lost seven of their last eight. They’re nine games under .500 in the three seasons since they last made the playoffs and lost for the seventh consecutive time.
Analysis: After another loss to Steelers, only one question remains for Bengals
Now what?
“We’ll handle it tomorrow,’’ Marvin Lewis said afterward, smiling. Three times, in case you missed the first two.
He and Mike Brown will hold their annual post-mortem Monday morning, evidently. What comes of it is anyone’s guess. Lewis called the questions about his employment “ridiculous (and) sad.’’ He might be right about that. That doesn’t detract from the importance of the answers.
It has been the story of the Bengals 2018 season since Thanksgiving, but they were contractually obligated to play all 16 games, so here we are.
Marvin stays, Marvin goes, Marvin slips away in the middle of the night to coach Parcheesi to 4th-graders in Djibouti.
His replacement is Vance Joseph or Hue Jackson or Joseph Jackson, a sanitation engineer from Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Meantime the Bengals, seeking sellouts, have asked Elder High School to consider opening The Pit for seven Sundays and a Thursday night next fall. When seen last, Mike Brown was on a corner in Del Mar, CA, wearing funny nose glasses, a fright wig and a sandwich board bearing the words, “I Like Pizza.’’
At least there was no feelgood finish to obscure anyone’s judgement. No obvious excuse for an accepting, permissive franchise that looks for anything to validate itself. (Unless you like the injury out, though it can be argued the Bengals were lacking before that plague struck.) Six-and-10 is six-and-10.
The Bengals were given every chance to win Sunday, against a Steelers team intent on living up to its rep as a club that plays down to the level of its competition. For three quarters, Ben Roethlisberger perfected his horizontal passing game, against a depleted Bengals secondary. The Steelers didn’t take a deep shot until late in the third quarter. Antonio Brown missed the game with a bad knee, but the strategy still seemed curious.
Meanwhile, the Bengals did as well as they could against a Pittsburgh defense that ganged up on Joe Mixon while daring Bengals QB Jeff Driskel to throw the ball to John Ross. Driskel led them on a 51-yard, second-quarter drive that ended with a field goal and a 10-0 lead. Driskel completed three passes to Alex Erickson on the drive, for 35 yards. Naturally, Erickson took a finger in the eye after the catch, and had to leave the game. (He did return.)
Erickson followed Cody Core, who left with an elbow injury in the 1st quarter. Cincinnati finished the half with the receiving trio of Tate, Malone and Lengel, which isn’t quite Green, Boyd and Eifert. That’s a nifty metaphor for the season, if you’re looking. And Matt Lengel got hurt after halftime.
(The Bengals also came into the game leading the league in false starts. Which is a good description for their first five games. Fourth-and-1, false start, offense. Five-yard penalty. Still fourth down.)
The Bengals had one last chance, from their 35 with 1:49 left and no timeouts. They false-started on first down. We’ll be leaving now.
Make the right call, Mike Brown.
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After it was over, the Steelers gathered on the turf at Heinz Field and watched the last few minutes of the Browns-Ravens game, on the big scoreboard. Their fans did, too. The team and town needed what it didn’t get: A Browns win. But Cleveland threatened to win at the end of the game. Fans and players watched with excitement.
It was fun. You might remember fun, BengalFan. It hung around Paul Brown Stadium, for a time. Might it again?
We await the smoke. That’s all that matters.
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