European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - December 1, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse % wednesday december 1, 1993 sports the stars and stripes Pago 35 bengals Over 1 hurdle Bengali Steve Tovar 5l and James Francis celebrate Francis theft against raiders. By Joe Kay Cincinnati a for 12 weeks the Cincinnati bengals could t figure out How to win. Now that they have a with a lot of help from the los Angeles raiders a they Nave to figure out How to act like new experience could be just As Tough. The bengals 1-10 Fly to san Francisco to play the 49ers next sunday night and a drubbing on National television could make that Long awaited Victory seem like even More of a Fluke. T a no wonder there s Little celebrating in Cincinnati. Quot we be won a game but it s just one game a offensive lineman Bruce Kozerski said. Now we be got to go to the West coast and play the 49ers. That a not an easy a the bengals have generally responded to losing by going our and playing just Sloppy enough to lose again. The nil s least experienced roster kept losing games in the second half getting out scored 110 to 41. They played a typical bengals game sunday a Only 157 Yards passing a leading rusher who gained just 53 Yards a defense that let the raiders average 5.1 Yards per Rush. But they finally avoided their self destructive tendencies with no turnovers no Bonehead plays a against a team that played its. Worst game of the season. _ while the bengals played mediocre but by Dennis Georgatos Santa Clara Calif. A offensively the san Francisco 49ers Are on a Roll averaging 38 Points during a five game winning Streak. Defensively they re limping. The 49ers 8-3 Learned monday they could be without Kevin Fagan their Best run defender for the rest of the season. Fagan a seventh year defensive end who already has had operations on both his Knees sustained a severe left knee sprain Early in the second Quarter of the 49ers�?T 3510 Victory sunday Over the los Angeles rams. He i med arthroscopic surgery monday night for the lat Agan est injury. Quot he was our Anchor up front a Strong safety Tim Mcdonald said. Quot he was the kind of Guy you could count on when he was out there to make plays he made things happen at the line of scrimmage. We re going to miss that. Somebody is going to have to step up the injury to Fagan was the latest to hit the defensive line Ted Washington shoulder and Larry Roberts knee Are expected to miss their second consecutive game sunday night when the 49ers play Cincinnati 1-10. Martin Harrison a pass Rush specialist strained his Groin during the rams game and also could miss the bengals game. _. Coach George Seifert said because of the injuries the 49crs will switch their base defense from a 43 to a three Man front plus a pass Rushing Quot elephant line Backer at least until Washington is Able to return. Quot right now that s what we re kind of Down to Sei of t j3 j. 4 1 san Francisco began the season with a 3-4 alignment but switched to the 4-3 six weeks ago to try to solidity the run defense and increase inside pressure on pass Rushing Downs. In the 34 alignment Dennis Brown will remain at end Rookie Dana Stubblefield will move Back to nose tackle from defensive tackle and rookies Artie Smitt and Troy Wilson will come off the Bench to fill in at a or flawless football the raiders missed four Field goals dropped a lot of. Passes and set up Cincinnati a touchdown with a penalty. Quot it really Felt Good for the first time to see things go our Way Quot cornerback Mike brim said. _ the question now is whether the Victory docs anything More than assure that Cincinnati wont become the a Fly a first 0-16 team. If it turns out to be the beg also Only Victory it wont mean much to them. Are they capable of it they re not sure. By avoiding mistakes sunday on a cold snowy afternoon the bengals proved to themselves that they can Plav Well enough to win. But they figured they were going to get one of those games sooner or later. A we knew it was just a matter of time Quot Kozerski said. Eventually things were going to happen. Wed made enough plays and come up Short. In this game we made enough plays and then several raiders indicated that perhaps they d taken the bengals too lightly and wound up paying for it. Quot they did no to do anything unexpected Quot raiders coach Art Shell said. Quot they maybe played at a higher level than our players at next sunday the bengals will find out whether the Victory was purely Luck or a sign that they re finally improving. Season end and pass Rushing linebacker respectively. It Stubblefield said he did no to think a second mid season switch in the base defense would cause any problems. Quot each week we have changes depending on the Type of offence we re facing. Its just another change that we have to make Quot Stubblefield said. End linebacker Todd Kelly a first round pick who got off to a disappointing Start also May see More playing time after picking up his first career sack in the rams game. A Seifert meanwhile downplayed the possibility of looking outside the organization for defensive line help. We feel pretty Good about our Young players Quot he said. Quot and at this late stage generally the players that Are out there Are the ones that have not played for a Long time whereas our players have been narc with us and working we talk to them All the time about having to step and be the Man now and get the Job done. A Well now we re to that Point. They be Ghi to do it. We re All depending on it my wife and my kid a san Francisco also May have to juggle its line backing corps. Outside linebacker John Johnson sprained his right ankle during the rams game and was questionable for the Cincinnati game. Two Blowout losses have Steeles Oil ropes a. A _ _ _. A t aaa n4l _ Al a. A a. L a i m a a a1 Pittsburgh apr two weeks ago they were billed As a super bowl successor to the Buffalo Bills. Two Blowout losses later the playoffs suddenly Aren t even a certainty for the Pittsburgh Steeles a maybe they got too complacent after that 23-0 monday night dismantling of the Bills. Maybe they relaxed last week when coach Bill Cowher said they still had plenty of time to accomplish All their objectives. Cut since winning six of seven games to wrest the acc Central division Lead Way from Cleveland the Steeles 6-5 Bave looked anything but super in consecutive Road losses to Denver 37-13 Houston 23.-3. And now they re looking up to the Oil ers 7-4 in the division race with five weeks a ind several More Tough Road games to go. The Way their once to rated defense is giving away Points neither a division title nor the playoffs is a 61 cow Cropes his team is worried because he thinks it should be. A a a in a not going to sugarcoat this cow her said after sunday night s m stake filled loss in the Astrodome. Our defense in t keeping us in games our offence Isnit playing Well a our kick my game in t giving us a spark. We Don t de serve to and Thev Arentt. 4 the Iasi Lime the Steeles were so out and 41-10 to Cincinnati a in 1989. They recovered to make the playoffs for the final time under coach Chuck Noll but there no guarantee that will happen this time. A a their Best Chance a and perhaps their Only Chance a to make the playoffs is to overtake Houston in their final five games. With a rematch against the oilers in three Rivers stadium on dec. 19, its a possibility but not necessarily a probability. A we re worried and we have reason to be worried Quot running Back Leroy Thompson said. Quot there was a lot of trash talking out there and they the oilers have reason to feel Good about themselves. But i m definitely looking Forward to playing them both teams have three Homes games left the Steeles against Houston new England 1-10 Ana Cleveland 5-6the oilers against Cleveland Atlanta 5-6 and the new York jets 7-4the Steeles also must play Seattle 5-6 and Miami 92 on the Road the oilers play at san Francisco 8-3 and Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh probably must win the division outright to Advance to the postseason for the second straight year because the sleepers Trail six other acc teams in the race for six playoff berths. Miami 9-2which entertains the Steeles in a monday night game dec. 13, has the nil s and of cd a Best record followed by Buffalo 8-3kansas City 83the new York lets 7-4houston 74 and Denver 7-4
