Monday, September 27, 1999

Dim season turns dark for Bengals

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BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        CHARLOTTE — In the second quarter of an utterly miserable and irredeemable flop of a football game, the Cincinnati Bengals used up 16 plays and eight minutes to miss a 37-yard field goal. It was a lofty failure, even by Bengals standards. The Lost Decade never looked better.

        Naturally, Carolina scored on its next drive. The Panthers went 69 yards on six plays in 46 seconds, for a field goal. They were somewhat more efficient than the Bengals.

        It is three games into a 16-game season and already there is nothing left to say. How about it, Bruce Coslet?

        “I wish I knew,” he said.

        Heaven help you if you give your heart to this football team. You've got to be nuts. “It's dim in there right now,” was Coslet's assessment of his postgame locker room.

        Dim? It's the heart of darkness in broad daylight. The Bengals are the solar eclipse of the NFL, definitely, and perhaps of all professional sports.

Team (lack of) effort
        They were supposed to have had a chance against the Panthers. Carolina's run defense was miserable, the worst in the league. The Bengals would do what they claim to want to do every week: Pound Corey Dillon between the tackles. Establish a rhythm and some confidence on offense.

        They did run Dillon. The Dillonator had more than 100 yards after Cincinnati's first drive in the third quarter. But Doug Pelfrey missed his first three field goal tries, Jeff Blake was ineffective and everybody else contributed false starts, dropped balls and lousy tackling.

        It was a total team effort.

        Carolina ended the, uh, suspense with 4:47 left in the third quarter, on a play worthy of top billing in the Lost Decade archive. On second-and-one from his 33-yard line, halfback Tim Biakabutuka swept left and looked to be stuffed seven yards behind the line.

        But no-o-o-o. Biakubutuka — hey, I may have it bad covering the Bengals, but at least I don't have to type “Biakabutuka” every week — somehow eluded Bengals linebacker Reinard Wilson, who was only right in front of him.

        B-i-a-k-a-b-u-t-u-k-a reversed his field and sprinted 67 yards for a TD that gave Carolina a 20-3 edge. Only the Bengals defense can turn a 5-yard loss into a 67-yard gain. This was truly a Lost Decade greatest hit.

        Or, in Wilson's case, miss.

Tip of the iceberg
        Meanwhile, Blake's misery is your misery. But at least you're free to complain, and to officially launch the Akili Watch. If that thrills you.

        (Personally, I'm sticking with Blake, even if I do happen to like the guy. If a QB is going to get twisted and dizzy all season, it might as well be the guy whose bags are already packed.)

        I asked Coslet what he'd say to the people who have followed and supported this team year after lousy year.

        “Whatever I would say would sound real lame,” said Coslet, who could be right.

        “It's good to win a game easy when you didn't play all that great,” said Carolina QB Steve Beuerlein. That's where the Bengals are now: Losing big to bad teams who aren't playing their best.

        (It is also reassuring to know that in the middle of this absolute Hindenburg, this 10-year Titanic, this all-encompassing tribute to gross mismanagement, Bengals pilot Mike Brown still has time to deny the Reds a grass field for next season. Party on, Mike.)

        Dillon put it in perspective. If you're going to feel bad for anyone on this ghost ship, feel for Dillon, who never stops working. “If I sit back and think about what's going on, it'd be pretty easy to throw in the towel,” he said. “I can only do my part.”

        Three icebergs down in this Titanic season. Thirteen to go.

        Enquirer columnist Paul Daugherty welcomes your comments at 768-8454.

        DAUGHERTY ARCHIVE