Bengals Are Just Paper Tigers Against Ravens

The Cincinnati Bengals were the trendy team of the moment, the NFL’s coup du jour. They had risen from the ashes of a 1-4 start to win six of seven. They were tied atop the AFC North. They were looking forward to their first meaningful December game since 1990.

They were suddenly relevant.

But the Baltimore Ravens were unmoved by all that.

“They’re still Cincinnati,” said Baltimore cornerback Chris McAlister, whose 8-5 team took sole possession of first place in the division Sunday with a 31-13 victory at M&T; Bank Stadium.

The Bengals are the Bengals, and Jamal Lewis is Jamal Lewis. The Raven running back ran for 180 yards in 30 carries -- pushing his league-leading yardage total to 1,622 -- and set a team record with three rushing touchdowns.

With three games remaining, his 2,000-yard goal is within reach; he’s on pace to finish with 1,996. There have been four 2,000-yard rushers in league history: O.J. Simpson, Eric Dickerson, Barry Sanders and Terrell Davis.

In each of his six games against the Bengals, Lewis has surpassed the 100-yard mark. With steam rising off him into the bitter-cold air, he plowed over people Sunday locomotive-style, scoring on runs of one, three and 13 yards. He had six runs of 13 yards or longer, and overcame the frustration on fumbling away his third carry of the afternoon.

“[The Bengals] play good, sound football,” said Lewis, who briefly left the game with a sprained wrist. “It’s just that we dominated. We played more physical than they did.”

It was Baltimore’s fifth consecutive victory at home, where the Ravens have outscored opponents, 212-113, this season. All-Pro linebacker Ray Lewis likes to say they play by “House Rules.”

“It’s not like we boast about it, but it’s something we take pride in,” he said. “Once again, it carried us through today.”

Now, the Bengals (7-6) will find out if they can regroup after a deeply disappointing loss, one in which they surrendered five turnovers, six sacks -- and quite possibly their chance to make the playoffs.

“We’ll prove what we’re made of these next three weeks,” Coach Marvin Lewis said. “The fun part of this is we get a chance to prove that we have some substance to us.”

Substance would be nice. The Bengals have already proven they can talk a great game. Chad Johnson, who came into the game with an AFC-best 1,105 yards receiving, bragged last week that he’s open so much he should be called 7-Eleven.

Sunday, he looked more like Vons. Even the heartiest of picket lines would pale in comparison to the defense McAlister put up, limiting Johnson to two catches for 15 yards.

In the seven games since the Ravens started putting him on the best opposing receiver, McAlister has shut down, in order, Rod Smith, Jimmy Smith, Torry Holt, Chris Chambers, Koren Robinson, Terrell Owens and Johnson. That magnificent seven accounted for a total of 25 catches for 269 yards and one touchdown.

“Modestly putting it, that’s what a shut-down corner is supposed to do,” McAlister said. “Keep people to three, maybe four catches. I mean you’d like to go out there and give them none, but that’s impossible in a game.”

Johnson, who shares his cousin Keyshawn’s gift of gab, didn’t have much to say after McAlister put the clamps on him.

“We lost,” he said. “That’s it. We lost.”

The Ravens play two of their final three games on the road, traveling to Oakland and Cleveland before finishing their season at home against Pittsburgh. The Bengals, who were riding a four-game winning streak, play San Francisco at home, St. Louis on the road and Cleveland at home.

“I don’t think we played bad football today, we just didn’t play good enough to win,” said Marvin Lewis, who was Baltimore’s defensive coordinator from 1996 through 2001. “We turned over the ball. When you turn over the ball like this against a good team, you’re going to get beat.”