CINCINNATI — A man could spend a lifetime in the Cincinnati Bengals gulag and never see a Siberia like the one that visited Paul Brown Stadium on Sunday. Over the decades, the Bengals have discovered any number of new and interesting ways to lose. But never like this.
It was so over. The Broncos faced second-and-game from their 13-yard line. Twenty- eight seconds remained. The Bengals led 7-6. Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton could accomplish some things in 28 seconds: Throw a pick, take a sack, bounce one off the shoes of Brandon Marshall. Just Sunday morning, The New York Times had called Denver’s quarterback “nonthreatening.”
In 28 seconds, Orton might threaten himself, but not the Bengals’ win.
It was so over. The Bengals had just driven 91 yards in six minutes to take the lead. A day’s worth of ineptitude had yielded to the strange alchemy of talent and desperation. Carson Palmer rediscovered brilliance, and Cedric Benson barreled in from the 1. Seventy-five percent of the 62,831 in attendance spilled onto the concourse and into the street, offering happy “whews” to their buddies and trying to beat the traffic.
It was so over, players on both sidelines weren’t even watching.
“Did you think it was over?” someone asked Benson.
“Of course,” Benson said. “Everybody did.”
It was so, so over, a certain columnist was writing in his notebook: “The win wasn’t impressive. The loss would have been disastrous.”
And then . . .
Orton threw to Marshall, near the left sideline at the Denver 35. Bengals cornerback Leon Hall tipped the ball high into the air. Brandon Stokley caught the tip at the Broncos 44. And then he ran.
“I heard them tip the ball,” Bengals defensive end Antwan Odom said. “I saw Stokley sitting right there. I said, ‘No.’ He caught it, and that was that.”
Stokley even had the presence of mind to stop just short of the goal line and tightrope the visible plane, jogging left to right along the line, so as to eat up as much time as possible. It took the nearest Bengal three seconds to make him scoot into the end zone.
Broncos, 12-7.
This only happens in video games and volleyball. And here. It happens here. A black cloud lingers, on the bluest of days. The Bengals are a shrink’s life’s work. Their fans make Sisyphus look like a girly-man. What happened Sunday amounted to cruel and unusual, though. Even here.
“We didn’t do enough things correct to win the game,” coach Marvin Lewis judged afterward.
