CNATI: Cincinnati OH Sports Journalism

Cincinnati Bengals

Nearly perfect, completely satisfying

By Scott Priestle, CNATI.com Posted October 25, 2009 9:40 PM ET

Cedric Benson had reason to strut Sunday, Dhani Jones had reason to shout and Frostee Rucker had reason to sweat. Domata Peko and Tank Johnson had an opportunity to rest and Chad Ochocinco had an opportunity to dance.

After six weeks of hints and teases and fortunate bounces, the Bengals dismantled the visiting Chicago Bears 45-10 before a sellout crowd at Paul Brown Stadium.

It was the type of game that suggests the ugly victories of September and early October were the growing pains of a good club, and perhaps November and December will bring a playoff chase.

Carson Palmer savored the final moments from the sideline, with Gatorade in his hand and a baseball hat on his head. "It doesn't happen often in this league," he said.

It happened a few times a few years ago, when the Bengals routinely ran up multiple touchdowns in a game. Most of those players are gone, but the holdovers -- principally Palmer and Ochocinco -- have insisted since training camp that the potential is the same, even as the results fell short. Sunday's game was the best evidence yet.

"We finally proved it," Palmer said.

The veteran quarterback was on the field for seven drives and led the Bengals to six touchdowns and a field goal. He completed 20 of 24 passes for 233 yards and five touchdowns. Benson ran for 189 yards and a touchdown against the team that drafted and later released him. Ochocinco caught 10 passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns.

An angry Bengals defense forced four turnovers and repeatedly decked Bears quarterback Jay Cutler. The oft-injured Rucker had a sack and hit Cutler three times, while the recently injured Peko and Johnson played sparingly because of the large early lead, and the Bengals remained tied for first place in the AFC North Division.

"Dhani was talking every play, getting on guys," cornerback Johnathan Joseph said. "Coming back the way we did from the loss last week, that just shows the leadership we have."

The most encouraging sight was on the other side of the ball. The Bengals have committed to running the football this season, even when there is little room to run, so there have been some fruitless drives. On Sunday, their running game was enough of a threat to open huge holes in the Bears pass coverage, and Palmer took advantage.

"Carson was on fire," coach Marvin Lewis said.

The Bengals began the game with an extra tackle on the line, which has been a key part of their running game, but this time Palmer completed a 19-yard pass out of the jumbo formation. At various times, the Bengals also used an unbalanced line (with left tackle Andrew Whitworth lined up next to right tackle Dennis Roland), two blockers in the backfield with Benson (Jeremi Johnson and either Daniel Coats or J.P. Foschi), a direct snap to Benson and frequent play-action passes.

"It's a credit to the coaches," center Kyle Cook said. "They do a great job of figuring out things we can do and things we can't do against certain defenses and then relaying that to us as players so we can take it out to the field. The scheme works."

Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski credited his assistant coaches for devising ways to attack the Chicago defense and praised the players for their concentration and understanding of the game plan.

"You never have a perfect game, but that was certainly a very good one," Bratkowski said. "We needed to play well on offense. We're a good offensive team. We talked about that last night: `We can say all we want that we're a good offensive team, but we have to act like it.' We stepped up this week."

The Bengals were called for only one offensive penalty, dropped one pass and did not allow a sack. Numerous drives have stalled this season because of such mistakes.

By not shooting themselves in the foot, they were able to shoot holes in the struggling Bears secondary. Ochocinco, in particular, was open often down field. Palmer threw 11 passes his way and completed 10, including two touchdowns. The Bengals converted 8 of 12 third-down plays into first downs.

"The biggest thing was we didn't have those mistakes," Cook said. "We kept doing things right."

Bratkowski called the performance "a big step" toward meshing the new personnel and new, run-first mentality into a cohesive, consistent unit.

"I'd love to can that," he said with a smile, "and just have it to open up another nine, 10, 11 times."

 

Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories, News

Tags: Bears, Bengals, Bob Bratkowski, Carson Palmer, Cedric Benson, Chad Ochocinco, J.P. Foschi, Kyle Cook