National Football League

Young Bengals have mastered the late comeback

Published Nov. 29, 2011 4:34 a.m. ET

foxsports

The young Bengals have mastered something that usually takes years to learn - the art of pulling off the late comeback with a season's worth of hopes on the line.

Instead of tensing up, they turn it on.

Cincinnati did it again on Sunday with its rookie big-play tandem setting up a 23-20 victory over the Cleveland Browns. Andy Dalton's 51-yard pass to A.J. Green kept the Bengals (7-4) in the thick of the playoff chase, a game behind Baltimore and Pittsburgh in the AFC North.

Each comeback makes the next one a little easier.

''It keeps stomping it home and nailing it down that this is what counts and this is really what matters at the end of the day, so let's keep it up,'' coach Marvin Lewis said on Monday. ''If we've got breath left, let's keep using it.''

They've already matched one league record for big comebacks. Three times, they've overcome a double-digit halftime deficit and won, something only four other teams have accomplished in a season: the 1980 Kansas City Chiefs, 1984 New England Patriots, 1986 Indianapolis Colts and the 2011 Detroit Lions.

And, they've narrowly missed out on a few other last-minute wins.

They were driving for a winning field goal in Denver but ran out of downs and lost 24-22 in the second game of the season. Two weeks ago, they fell behind Pittsburgh 14-0 at Paul Brown Stadium but were driving for a tying touchdown when Dalton threw an interception inside the Steelers 20-yard line in the closing minutes.

A week ago, they fell behind 31-14 at Baltimore in the fourth quarter but got to the Ravens 7-yard line in the closing seconds with a chance to score a tying touchdown. They ran out of downs again.

Young teams don't normally do those kinds of things. Dalton and Green have played more like veterans in those moments, making the final 2 minutes very interesting.

''We're just finding a way to win,'' Dalton said. ''It doesn't matter what goes on or when it goes on. We've been in every game that we've played.''

They've become very comfortable making comebacks, which is a change from the last few years in Cincinnati. With veteran receivers Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco last season, the Bengals wasted chances and finished 4-12.

This team is a lot different in the fourth quarter.

''We have a lot of guys in the locker room that want all the heat on them,'' left tackle Andrew Whitworth said Monday. ''They want to take on the biggest challenges. They don't want the attention, they don't want the media, they don't want any of that. They want the opportunity to win the game.

''We know whoever it is that's got to make the next play for us to win is going to make it, and we don't doubt that at all.''

There's one big drawback to so many big comebacks: Usually, they don't get a team to the playoffs.

Those other three teams that finished a season with three comebacks after double-digit deficits at halftime? The 1980 Chiefs finished 8-8 and failed to make the playoffs. The 1984 Patriots went 9-7 and missed the playoffs. The 1986 Colts went 3-13 - yes, the only wins were those comebacks.

The fourth team is the current Detroit team, which is 7-4.

For weeks, Lewis has been stressing the need to get off to a better start so a comeback isn't needed. The Bengals don't want to fall behind 14-0 in Pittsburgh on Sunday, a game they need to win in order to stay in the AFC North race.

''I raised Cain last week in the locker room about that,'' Lewis said. ''We seem to be comfortable being behind and fighting back.

''We are going to work hard to fix that. I would love to learn how to play with the lead. We have to work hard to reverse that if we can.''

Notes: Lewis said the Bengals came out of the Cleveland game with no significant injuries. ... The Bengals have to decide by Tuesday afternoon whether to activate LB Keith Rivers, whose three-week roster exemption expires. He had surgery on his right wrist in the offseason and was on an injury list for the first six games. Cincinnati has to decide whether to activate him or put him on injured reserve for the rest of the season.