CINCINNATI - As blue-collar philosophers go, it's hard to beat Andrew Whitworth, who mixes his down-home Louisiana roots with some succinct lockerroom reflection. "It's an old cliche, but the hungry dog fights better, the hungry dog hunts better ... and, the person who has more to prove is gonna come out and perform better," said the Cincinnati Bengals massive left tackle, who, with his shaved dome and those 338 pounds lumped beneath it, looks a little like a big boiled potato. But as he stressed, looks are deceiving with this team.
"We might not have the prettiest 53 guys in a Football locker room and they aren't going to make a lot of Pro Bowls or be the highest-paid guys in the league, but they are going to come out every week and for 60 minutes they're going to fight. And if you play that way, you're gonna win some Football games."
And that's just what happened Sunday, Sept. 27, as the Bengals rewrote their wellworn script with the Pittsburgh Steelers at Paul Brown Stadium and - in what may well prove to be the watershed moment of this team - rallied from behind with an against-the-odds scoring drive at game's end to topple the defending Super Bowl champs, 23-20. Whitworth was right, the Bengals had something to prove. Going back to 2001, they had lost eight straight to the Steelers at PBS.
"Last year - no matter who or where it came from - we were front-runners, Whitworth said. "When things went well, we played well, but when they went bad (people) laid down. It's different this year."
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said this team - which but for a freak play in the final seconds of the opener would be 3-0 now instead of 2-1 - has gotten a makeover.
"They're a bunch of castoffs," he said with chuckle. "They're grinders. When you bring together a group of guys collectively that understands what being a team is all about - that's the fun of it."
In the Bengals' final 16-play, 71-yard drive - which culminated with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Carson Palmer to Andre Caldwell with 14 seconds left - several Cincinnati players who kept hope alive were true grinders.
A year ago this time, tailback Cedric Benson - dumped by Chicago - was out of Football. Sunday, he had a 23-yard TD run earlier in the fourth quarter and added another 16 yards in the final drive.
Laveranues Coles - let go by the Jets after last season - caught two passes on the final drive including one on fourthand-2 with 60 seconds left.
And the biggest grinder of all was third-string tailback Brian Leonard, who St. Louis gave up on after injuries limited him to two games in 2008.
With the Bengals again down to one play - facing a fourth-and-10 at the Pittsburgh 15 with 36 seconds left - he was Palmer's last option on a desperation play and caught a short pass. With Steelers linebacker James Farrior hanging on to him, he dove to the 4 for a first down to set up the Caldwell pass.
"I got hit at the 8- or 9-yard line, and I knew I had to make it to the 5," he said. "That's where you need extra effort. It's the grinder mentality and we've all got it."
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