Demoralizing Day at Paul Brown Stadium...

Week 1 is finally in the books; as the dust settles, all that’s left is another gut-wrenching beginning to a season for the Cincinnati Bengals. In two minutes, the character of two very different teams has been exposed. One team has a chance to prove proponents wrong; the other has to do some soul searching to find their identity after a devastating loss that will be talked about all season long.

The first 50 minutes of the game were far from telling. Each team did its best to throw away the game.  The highlights include a botched field goal that gave Denver field position that inevitably turned into their first points.  A six point swing and = the ‘new-look offense’ lost quite a bit of wind out of their sails. Still, the game was far from over.

Later, down 6 points…the Bengals were reeling from an inspired Broncos drive. Then, a twist in fate.  A holding call on the Broncos offense; next, a procedural…then, a Bengals sack.  The Broncos would have to punt. With less than five minutes on the clock, Carson orchestrated the first drive to truly inspire Cincinnati in more than 11 months..  When it was finished…a one-yard Cedric Benson scamper and the Bengals are up one with 20 seconds left on the clock. Then, travesty.  The officials review the clock integrity, a gift from the football gods, and the Broncos ended up with an extra 18 seconds. After inspired coverage on the kick, the Broncos looked were staring 90 yards from winning. What happened next is so unbelievable; I can only give you the account as it happened…I have no words to explain what I saw. This is what we witnessed, all 62,381 in attendance:

 First down…incomplete.  The crowd, finally recovered from the disbelief of the scoring drive, unleash on the Broncos. The defense responds, and you can see some spring appear in the secondary’s step.  2^nd down…Orton drops back…avoids a tackle and delivers a laser to his go-to man, Brandon Marshall.  At the last second, a glove appears in front of the ball.  Corner back Leon Hall makes an inspired break-up on the play.  The stadium goes crazy.  But, something’s wrong.  The ball’s still in the air. Three Bengals converge on the ball…and one Bronco.  Brandon Stokley. No…this can’t be happening…he came up with the ball. “Takle him!” I know I was screaming beyond my voice’s ability.  But, the tackle never came, and Stockley scored six.  To add insult to injury, drained were all but eleven seconds.  After a failed two-point conversion and a kick, the Bengals had five seconds to regroup.  Could it happen?  Could we bend fate our way once more?  One intercepted hail-mary and it was apparent that we couldn’t. Fans stood in disbelief.  I can’t describe how emotionally draining these moments proved to be.

So what was revealed? Kyle Orton is certainly not Jay Cutler, but he had enough in him to baffle a highly boasted Bengals secondary. He had all day to throw, the O-line in Denver is something to envy.  And though the stars in the backfield of days gone by may be missing, for three quarters the Bengals had all they wanted of the Bronco’s running game. I know it was the first week, but there are too many quality teams on the schedule to feel good about these ‘same ‘ol Bengals’.  The defense wasn’t great, but they weren’t abysmal, and they found a way to keep their follies off the score board until the immaculate deflection.  They were in the game, and they had bent without breaking.  In the NFL, that’s more important than statistics and rankings.

And the ‘new-look offense’? It looked pretty much the same to the fans in section 118.  We were taking turns calling out the plays we were going to run.  Run, run…pass from in a hole.  We did appear to convert with more regularity than what we’d grown accustomed to last season…but Fitzpatrick is hardly Carson Palmer.  Still, Carson appeared to be unsettled…he still seems to hear footsteps after being plagued by injuries.  One of the most accurate passers in Bengals history just wasn’t crisp.  Coles struggled, dropping several passes.  Chad was brilliant.  When the team needed a catch, he was there to come up big.  Even Henry managed to make a catch when we needed it. Benson’s conditioning appeared to pay off.  He looked good, even very good…but, our line play was awful.  Even Whitworth found himself on the losing end in the trenches.  Through it all, without a fluke, the team had the game to lose late in the 4^th.  In the NFL, that’s all you can ask.

The jury’s not out, but they are deliberating.  The Broncos don’t have a game changer at QB, but he picked up where he left off…and Orton’s not going to lose games for the team with his supporting cast.  He may not win them the game, but their D looked pretty good…they’ll surprise people. As for the men in stripes?  They’re going to struggle after this loss…this is a test of Lewis’ ability to lead through adversity.  Is this more of the same, or can the team pull together?  Only time will tell…