Monday, November 29, 1999
A victory: Great, but why now?
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
PITTSBURGH — Following the Cincinnati Bengals is the essential Wile E. Coyote experience. You know if they hang in there long enough, they'll run off a cliff or into a truck. Here comes the boulder, Cincinnati. Watch your ... never mind.
So when Doug Pelfrey hooked a 25-yard field goal try that would have put the Bengals up 10 on the Pittsburgh Steelers with less than six minutes to play Sunday, you slumped on the edge of your La-Z-Boy, hid the women and children and thought, “OK, Bengals. Abuse me again.”
They didn't. God love 'em, not this time. This may have had something to do with the Steelers. The Steelers — with a young QB who can't play and a coach who's rumored to be looking for a way out — are dead and don't know it.
But so what? The Bengals won. The Bengals beat Pittsburgh 27-20, with a team they borrowed from some other year or, arguably, some other decade. Rejoice, scoffers. The 2-10 Bengals' only road is up.
“We know we're better than we've played,” offered nose tackle Oliver Gibson. “Unfortunately, not everybody has come to play on the same day.”
Could drive you nuts
This team could drive you nuts, if you still care. The Bengals have played to their abilities exactly twice this fall, once if you don't count the season-opening loss at Tennessee. On Sunday at a Three Rivers Stadium cloaked in sunshine and boos, they put up 415 yards. They scored twice in the first seven minutes, three times in the first 16.
When the defense had to make a stand, it did, stuffing bullback Jerome Bettis on consecutive plays on 3rd- and 4th-and-1 in the fourth quarter, and sacking Kordell Stewart's ancient backup, Mike Tomczak, with the game in the balance.
So this is what a competitive team looks like.
"Different feeling'
“It's a different feeling out there now,” said Michael Bankston who, along with John Copeland, became intimately familiar with Tomczak and the Steelers backfield. “The sacks, Corey Dillon going wild, Rodney Heath's two interceptions. Maybe we found a cure.”
That's great. But why now? Why not find it in October or September or, if it's not too much to ask, in the preseason?
The Bengals are decent in December, 9-7 in their last four games of the year since 1995. They may be stiffs until then, but by the time they get to 2-10, look out. As Bankston said, “After the season, a lot of guys are going to focus on why we didn't do this earlier.” Strap yourself in for the final, fun month, when the Bengals strive for the more perfect 6-10.
The argument has been that the Bengals talent isn't good enough. That's about half right. Good enough for what?
To make the playoffs? Probably not. At least not in the AFC. In the NFC, Alcorn State could make the playoffs.
But to be competitive? To hang close in every game, with a fourth-quarter chance to win week after week? Absolutely. Pittsburgh's six losses have been by an average of eight points; Cincinnati's last nine have been by an average of 19.
Nobody would trade Cincinnati's offense for Pittsburgh's. The Bengals are better at every skill position. Defense is another story, but that doesn't explain why Pittsburgh has five wins and Cincinnati two.
Sunday, for whatever reason, the Bengals didn't play expecting the sky to fall. Not surprisingly, it didn't. “This is the only game we've played where things went right,” Copeland said. “Normally, everything goes wrong.”
It's a confidence game. Sunday, Cincinnati had some.
“It's not a lack of talent. It's a mindset,” Dillon said. “Play hard for four quarters. At this point, we ain't got nothin' to lose.”
A win like this only makes you wonder why there haven't been more.
Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454. Fair Game, a collection of his columns, is available at local bookstores.
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