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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > October > 25
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Benson struts his stuff as Bengals embarrass the Bears
CINCINNATI — Get me rewrite!”
That’s what the Chicago Tribune columnist should be shouting tonight after the Cincinnati Bengals — fueled in a big way by the determined, almost possessed running of Cedric Benson — stomped all over the Chicago Bears, 45-10, Sunday evening at Paul Brown Stadium.
The premise of the piece in Sunday’s Tribune was that the only running the former Bear was good at was running his mouth. The columnist said Benson’s problem in Chicago — along with being a constant whiner — was that he was “too slow, too soft and too much of a distraction.”
While there may be plenty of truth in that during Benson’s three troubled years with the Bears, it’s not been that way since he joined the Bengals 13 months ago and it certainly wasn’t the case Sunday when he battered the Bears for a career-high 189 yards and a touchdown on 37 carries.
“There were a few times were I may have gotten a little too hyped up, a little too antsy,” Benson said. “A couple of drives, I found myself having to calm myself down and gather my emotions to stay poised. Once I got past that, we were good to go and I kept it rolling.”
Seven weeks into the season, he’s the NFL’s leading rusher with 720 yards.
When the Bears cut Benson last year — after disappointments on the field and two scrapes with the law off it — he said he thought they spread “negative” information about him around the league and because of it he was “black-balled” and couldn’t find a job until the Bengals finally threw him a lifeline.
Although he downplayed those claims with the local media this past week, Benson brought it up in a conference call with Chicago sportswriters. Bears coach Lovie Smith denied that claim the other day and said sometimes a change of scenery is better for a player.
That’s been the case for Benson in Cincinnati and Sunday all his teammates seemed inspired to help him rub the Bears’ noses in the dirt.
“i’ll tell you the truth, almost every guy in this room has a little chip on his shoulder about something,” said Bengals center Kyle Cook as he stood in the middle of his team’s jubilant dressing room afterward. “Guys here were cut by another team, let go and then nobody else wanted them.
“And today we all rose up together. It’s almost like we lived up to the hype with the Ced story and the Tank story (Bengals defensive tackle Tank Johnson is another former Bear) that everybody made a big deal about in the paper and on the streets, even though that wasn’t about (the rest of) us.”
This was as good as the Bengals have looked in years.
Carson Palmer and Chad Ochocinco reconnected like they haven’t for at least a couple of years. Or, as Ochocinco said afterward about he and his quarterback as he held court at his locker: “We’re back, baby. We’re back …and better than ever.”
Palmer was exceptional completing 20 of 24 passes for 233 yards and five touchdowns. His prime target was Ochocinco who caught 10 passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns.
The Bengals defense — even with a front line decimated by injury and the flu — was just as dominant as was the offense. It picked off Jay Cutler three times and recovered a Bears’ fumble.
“Everybody knew it was going to be an emotional day — everybody knew,” Benson said. “What a wonderful day and a wonderful thing, to go out there and strut your stuff.”
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