The Cincinnati Bengals have played good defensive and offensive ball, just not during the same game.
The Bengals defense was good against the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were the first team to make rookie Ben Roethlisberger look like a rookie, putting him on his hindquarters 7 times costing him 54 yards. This was the most pressure that young Ben has seen in his star studded debut. But Cincinnati's rookie, Carson Palmer, fared much worse, as their seemingly inept offense failed to produce a single point in the last 34 minutes of play. This was exacerbated by very rookie mistakes at quarter back.
The first was made about mid way through the second quarter when Palmer, taking the snap in shotgun formation from the Bengals 4, looked up receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who was in obvious triple coverage. Apparently unaware of what the consequences of throwing it to him anyway may be, Carson delivered a quick strike into the awaiting arms of linebacker, James Farrior. Farrior, completely aware of the situation, returned the interception the 14 yards needed for the touchdown.
Strike One.
With just over 3 minutes to play Palmer was sacked on 1-10 from Cincinnati's 9 yard line for a 1 yard loss. But that wasn't the end. In keeping with what he had already established as the norm, Palmer, again from shotgun, got the snap and then proceeded to through the ball away when the pressure came. The problem was, he was still in the pocket and got called for his third intentional grounding of the half. This gave the Steelers the 2 point safety and the ball back, stifling any hopes the Bengals may have been entertaining about a come from behind victory.
Strikes Two and Three.
This did have some positive effects however.
For the first time since taking over as Head Coach, Marvin Lewis was visibly shaken. This was furthered evidenced by his verbal outrage, made publicly, about the poor play of his offense. Bengal's right tackle, Willie Anderson, got to the heart of the problem with his statement that, “To win games like this and to beat teams like this, football has to be your life. And offensively, it's really not our life. We're putting the work in, but it's the extra stuff you have to do ... We let (Lewis) down.” This was something from the heart, made by a player who has not been shy with his opinions about the coaching staff in his 9 years as a Bengal.
So we fast forward to November 28th and a meeting with long time rivals, The Cleveland Browns.
Carson Palmer took his second snap of the game and, throwing into well covered territory, tried to hit Houshmandzadeh for a 21 yard pass. Once again that plan went awry when conerback, Anthony Henry, decided he was in better position for the catch. Lewis, along with about 60,000 fans, had the sinking feeling that it was going to be another long day for the offense. Could they have been more wrong?
What followed can only be described as the single most spectacular display of offense that this fan has ever witnessed. In the second highest scoring game in NFL history the Browns Kelly Holcomb threw for 413 yards, 5 touchdowns and lost! Palmer's 251 yards on 22 completions looked downright pathetic by comparison. He did manage to find the endzone on four occasions but also found the opponents hands a good target 3 too many times. The standout for Cincinnati in this “Made for Madden” game was the performance of running back, Rudi Johnson.
Johnson averaged over 120 yards a game in his first six as the featured back (2003). This led Bengals fans everywhere to believe that with him, Corey Dillon could go away and never be thought of again. That belief was furthered by the drafting of Chris Perry out of Michigan (Wolverines), who had all the earmarks of a great all purpose back. Those beliefs were dashed against the rocks as Perry saw injury lead to injury and Johnson not producing numbers to solidify him as the back of the future in Cincinnati. That was prior to the Cleveland game.
After only three 100+ rushing games, Johnson carried the rock 26 times for 202 yards. He averaged nearly 8 yards a carry and saw the endzone twice. Does that mean that he is the back of the future for Cincinnati? Time will only tell, but thoughts are leaning towards a no.
The problem, if it's not already obvious, in this game was the utter lack of defense in the secondary. Again, Holcomb threw for 413 yards and 5 touchdowns. Brown's RB, William Green, may not have had a good day, gaining only 75 yards on 15 carries, but did find the redzone once. With the passing game clicking like it was, no one cared that they weren't very effective on the ground. Antonio Bryant had 8 grabs for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns, Dennis Northcutt snagged 5 for 87 yards, and the standout of the day, TE Steve Heiden, eclipsed everything he had done to date getting 7 catches for 82 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The offense still didn't mesh however. Palmer still threw 3 interceptions, all of which were converted into points. But that really wasn't the heart of the problem in this game, it was the innumerable missed tackles and broken coverages. This by a defense that in weeks prior had looked like the next big thing.
Repeat, good defense, good offense, just not during the same game.
Jumping ahead to Cincinnati versus Baltimore.
This seemed like an open and shut case for young Palmer and crew, and yet it wasn't. There were things that happened in the Cleveland game the Carson carried onto the field Sunday. He discovered how to look off a safety. This is what made Staubach, Montana, Marino, and dare I say it Elway, the players that they were. They all had one thing in common, they could read defenses and they could look off coverage. Palmer got a taste of what success that can bring you against Cleveland. He took that knowledge with him to Baltimore were he made a concerted effort to apply his newly acquired skill. It seemed to pay off.
With 80% of his passes completed, he hit his receivers, namely Chad Johnson and T.J Houshmandzadeh, for 382 yards and 3 touchdowns. His only mistake was an over thrown ball that found it's way into to the hands of Ravens safety Ed Reed. Does this mean that he is the next Montana or Marino? Doubtful, but it does mean that he his learning how the game is played and more importantly how to do the things that you have to if you hope to have success as a quarterback in the NFL.
As good as the offense played, it was the emergence of the defense through a whole game that made the victory possible. Finally both parts worked on the same day.
Lewis smiled during his press conference. Houshmandzadeh smiled in the locker room. Johnson smiled on his way to the bank. And Willie, well Willie just smiled.
