Bengal Goal: Make Jackson Work : AFC: In each of the Raiders’ past two games against Cincinnati, he has had the NFL’s longest run of the season.

They see him on television and in their nightmares: Bo Jackson, launcher of a thousand ad campaigns and destroyer of the Cincinnati Bengals’ collective heart.

Sunday, when they travel to the Coliseum to play the Raiders in an AFC divisional playoff game, the Bengals will see if they can break his heart, for a change.

Oh, they know there’s a Marcus Allen and a Willie Gault and a Tim Brown and a Jay Schroeder in the Raider offense. But the resurgent Cincinnati defense is obsessed with Jackson.

In each of the Bengals’ last two games against Bo and Co., they have allowed him the league’s longest run from scrimmage that season. In 1989, Jackson took off on a 92-yard jaunt. This season, during a 24-7 Raider victory on Dec. 16, Jackson reversed field and cruised for 88.

Sunday, the Bengals know Jackson will get his yards--but please, not 90 or so at a time.

“I’m pretty good friends with Bo,” Bengal safety David Fulcher said this week. “But, man, you get tired of seeing him. Especially when he goes for those long runs against you, like he has the last two times we’ve played them. Seems like every time we play the guy, he’s going for 90 yards on us.”

Then Fulcher set the Bengals’ defensive tone: “I don’t think he’s going to get a run like that this time. He may get 100 yards, but he’ll have to do it carrying the ball 20 times, not two.

“If we play the type of football we’ve been playing the past few weeks, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Stopping Jackson becomes even more of a priority for the Bengals’ defense because their offense is wounded. Starting tailback James Brooks (dislocated thumb) and starting left tackle Anthony Munoz (shoulder) may not play.

One untimely Jackson burst could turn what the Bengals hope will be a tight, low-scoring affair into a game out of their offensive reach.

“(Defense is) how we’re going to win this game,” Bengal Coach Sam Wyche said. “They’re going to have to keep us in the ballgame.”

Lately, the defense has done exactly that, shaking off a season-long bout of inconsistency and playing tough while leading the team to three consecutive victories. Their last loss was to the Raiders.

This, the Bengals say, is the best they have played on defense since the 1988 season, when Cincinnati made it to the Super Bowl, where it lost to the San Francisco 49ers. It’s enough to stir Super-talk again.

“If you look at ‘88, we came into the playoffs that season not playing very well,” Fulcher said. “Then we beat Seattle, Buffalo, and we played the 49ers real well.

“You look at who wins in the playoffs. It’s who has the best defense. Right now, I think we definitely have things rolling along, maybe to the point where we’re one of the top-notch defenses in the league.”

The Bengal defense doesn’t have a lot of glamour--Fulcher is the only Pro Bowl selection and rookie linebacker James Francis the only consistent pass rusher--but when all the parts come together, it can be effective. Ask the Houston Oilers, who had one first down in the first half of last Sunday’s 41-14 loss. Can Cincinnati’s defense do the same to the Raiders?

Said cornerback Eric Thomas: “It pretty much comes down to just stopping that one big Bo Jackson play. If we can do that, we feel pretty good about our chances of stopping their offense.”

The Bengals are of the opinion that, especially in this season’s loss at the Coliseum, they did a relatively decent job of containing Jackson--until the big bang.

If you throw out Jackson’s two long runs against them, the Bengals have held him to 96 yards in 19 carries during their last two meetings.

“The last couple times we’ve played him, he had two tremendous runs,” said the Bengals’ other starting safety, Barney Bussey. “Other than that, we pretty much shut him down.

“Take this year’s game. The thing is, we had him stopped. He just reversed field and got a couple good blocks from some people. He just got outside with the speed he has. Once he gets outside, it’s good-by. But we’ve got some guys on the team who can run, too.”

Jackson’s 1990 vintage sprint through the Bengal defense had a catch--Cincinnati cornerback Rod Jones caught him at the one-yard line, the first time anyone can ever remember that happening.

But all that meant, besides giving his teammates ammunition to tease Jackson with, was that it took the Raiders a little longer to score a touchdown.

“We know what they’re going to do, it’s no secret,” Bussey said. “They’re not going to try to trick us. They’re going to come after it with big plays passing and run Bo, try to get him outside. If we can prevent that, we’ll be OK.”

And if they can’t . . . hey, what’s the record for longest run in a playoff game?

Maybe Thomas has the most realistic hope: “What’s to our advantage is that they keep Bo on the sidelines sometimes. Hope they do it a lot.”