CINCINNATI ? The postgame assessments ? from both dressing rooms ? were damning.
Buffalo cornerback Drayton Florence said the Cincinnati Bengals quit in the Bills? unfathomable, come-from-way-behind 49-31 victory at Paul Brown Stadium.
Bills running back Fred Jackson, who rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns ? the last one coming on a late-game, 30-yard sprint where some Bengals defenders seemed to give only half-hearted pursuit ? said his team simply wanted Sunday?s game more.
Cincinnati players ? at least publicly ? said that was not the case. They claimed neither their effort nor their resolve was lacking.
But if that?s true, then you can assume only one thing after they blew a 17-point halftime lead and allowed the lowly Bills ? who had only won once this season ? to score 35 unanswered, second-half points.
The Bengals ? who have lost seven straight and eight of their first 10 games ? are just a lousy football team.
And that?s exactly what Terrell Owens said afterward.
Outside the team?s dressing quarters, the outspoken Bengals receiver took off his glasses, set them next to a microphone and looked squarely at a media assemblage in front of him:
?Let me look into your eyes and emphasize. We ... are ... terrible ... Terrible! ... We may go 2-and-14 at the rate we?re playing.?
This was another game of costly penalties, of Carson Palmer interceptions (he threw two) and of Cedric Benson fumbling (he?s lost four this year).
There was a shanked punt, receivers still not running the routes Palmer expects, blown coverages in an injury-depleted secondary and a Bengals defensive front seven that almost never gets to the opposing quarterback.
The game began with 10,000 empty seats and ended with most of the stadium vacated, save for the most ardent of the boo birds.
?I don?t blame the fans for booing us,? said Owens, who finished with three catches for 63 yards and a TD. ?I don?t blame people not wanting to come and see the performance we put up the last six games. I can?t blame them. It?s not fair to them.?
As for coach Marvin Lewis ? the man in charge of preparing the team ? either players aren?t listening or what he?s telling them flat-out isn?t working.
After the game, Lewis seemed weary and a bit defeated. When no media members asked a question after his initial comments, he said quietly, ?I guess you?re speechless, too.?
As he headed back to the dressing room, the scene seemed deserving of a subtitle: Dead Man Walking.
This is Lewis? contract year, and I don?t see him back here next season. Last year he declined to sign an extension ? he wants facilities and control that owner Mike Brown won?t give ? and now maybe the Bengals want him to move on, too.
The team is not responding. There seems to be little chemistry. And except for Johnathan Joseph, there?s no impact player on defense.
?If we take the disappointment into the short week and into the game with the Jets (Thanksgiving night), they may put 49-plus on us,? Owens said. ?If we come with the performance we did today, it?s over. It?s lights out.?
That last thought was T.O.?s only post-game bobble. It?s already lights out here.
The Bengals season went dark a few games ago.
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Buffalo cornerback Drayton Florence said the Cincinnati Bengals quit in the Bills? unfathomable, come-from-way-behind 49-31 victory at Paul Brown Stadium.
Bills running back Fred Jackson, who rushed for 116 yards and two touchdowns ? the last one coming on a late-game, 30-yard sprint where some Bengals defenders seemed to give only half-hearted pursuit ? said his team simply wanted Sunday?s game more.
Cincinnati players ? at least publicly ? said that was not the case. They claimed neither their effort nor their resolve was lacking.
But if that?s true, then you can assume only one thing after they blew a 17-point halftime lead and allowed the lowly Bills ? who had only won once this season ? to score 35 unanswered, second-half points.
The Bengals ? who have lost seven straight and eight of their first 10 games ? are just a lousy football team.
And that?s exactly what Terrell Owens said afterward.
Outside the team?s dressing quarters, the outspoken Bengals receiver took off his glasses, set them next to a microphone and looked squarely at a media assemblage in front of him:
?Let me look into your eyes and emphasize. We ... are ... terrible ... Terrible! ... We may go 2-and-14 at the rate we?re playing.?
This was another game of costly penalties, of Carson Palmer interceptions (he threw two) and of Cedric Benson fumbling (he?s lost four this year).
There was a shanked punt, receivers still not running the routes Palmer expects, blown coverages in an injury-depleted secondary and a Bengals defensive front seven that almost never gets to the opposing quarterback.
The game began with 10,000 empty seats and ended with most of the stadium vacated, save for the most ardent of the boo birds.
?I don?t blame the fans for booing us,? said Owens, who finished with three catches for 63 yards and a TD. ?I don?t blame people not wanting to come and see the performance we put up the last six games. I can?t blame them. It?s not fair to them.?
As for coach Marvin Lewis ? the man in charge of preparing the team ? either players aren?t listening or what he?s telling them flat-out isn?t working.
After the game, Lewis seemed weary and a bit defeated. When no media members asked a question after his initial comments, he said quietly, ?I guess you?re speechless, too.?
As he headed back to the dressing room, the scene seemed deserving of a subtitle: Dead Man Walking.
This is Lewis? contract year, and I don?t see him back here next season. Last year he declined to sign an extension ? he wants facilities and control that owner Mike Brown won?t give ? and now maybe the Bengals want him to move on, too.
The team is not responding. There seems to be little chemistry. And except for Johnathan Joseph, there?s no impact player on defense.
?If we take the disappointment into the short week and into the game with the Jets (Thanksgiving night), they may put 49-plus on us,? Owens said. ?If we come with the performance we did today, it?s over. It?s lights out.?
That last thought was T.O.?s only post-game bobble. It?s already lights out here.
The Bengals season went dark a few games ago.
Share this article
User comments are not being accepted on this article.
