ShareThisBy LONNIE WHEELER
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
It has nothing to do with the Mohawk, the mouth, or the number of men assigned to him. Over the past two weeks, Chad Johnson has made that perfectly clear.
After half a season of not being himself, the Cincinnati Bengals' loquacious playmaker has suddenly discovered a self that beats any previous model _ and for that matter, outdoes any receiver who has come before him. A week after setting a team record with 260 yards worth of pass catches, Johnson schooled the New Orleans Saints for another 190 in Sunday's win, including three touchdowns. If you're counting, that's 450 yards in two games. And that's a league record, breaking John Taylor's two-game mark of 448 set in 1989.
Yardage has always been Johnson's thing. He's led the AFC in it for the past three years. This season, though, he was lagging far behind. Through eight games of muted results and imperfect synchronicity, the self-dubbed "Ocho Cinco'' had managed just 482 yards and a pair of touchdowns. After 120 more minutes, he now has 932 and seven.
"With that guy," marveled tight end Reggie Kelly, "you're never surprised. You see him do stuff that, after the play, you just scratch your head and wonder what happened."
Sunday, the best example of that came on one of the three balls Johnson caught that didn't go for touchdowns. It was after he and Carson Palmer had improvised on a 60-yard scoring pass to give Cincinnati the lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game, and Johnson had limped off the field holding his hamstring. When the next series started, No. 85 was not involved in it. Then he was.
And he was running full-speed downfield past poor Fred Thomas, the Saints cornerback and Johnson's foil for a day. Palmer's arcing pass appeared to be just beyond the great receiver's reach, but Johnson conjured up one of those very things Kelly was taking about, extending himself to the fullest, securing the ball with his fingertips, and hanging onto it as he crash-landed on the Superdome turf.
It was a 48-yard gain to the New Orleans 4. On the next play, Johnson got the four.
"He's Chad Johnson," explained Palmer. "He makes big plays."
"He knew what to do when they needed plays," confirmed Thomas, upon being toasted like an English muffin.
That, of course, is a welcomed development for the Bengals, who for half the season had mostly done without Johnson's spectacular usual. For whatever reason, he and Palmer had lost their rapport. And the Bengals, in turn, had lost the explosiveness that last year took them to the playoffs.
The last two weeks, though, the big plays have returned in spades. The only discernible difference is that offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski _ the man who took the most heat for Cincinnati's relative conservatism _ took over the play-calling from Palmer. Relieved of that burden, Palmer suddenly seems freer with his choices, not so wary of throwing deep or into double coverage.
"We were aggressive," Johnson said, "and that's something I've always talked about regardless of the coverage. We dictated what we wanted to do regardless of what the coverage showed. They were doubling and we still went deep, anyway."
At least twice _ both times for touchdowns _ Palmer went deep to Johnson when the play didn't actually call for it. The first instance, from 41 yards away, came on the Bengals' fourth snap of the game, when both the quarterback and receiver noticed an irregularity in the New Orleans pass defense. The safety had squeezed up much too close.
"They busted the coverage," said Johnson, who celebrated with a little dance he attributed to Josephine Johnny, a New Orleans hip-hop artist. "It was a lucky situation and Carson was able to see it. I think he was waiting for me to break my route off. I kept waving and waving and letting him know I was going to keep going, and he saw it."
Then, in the fourth quarter, Palmer was avoiding a rush, rolling out of the pocket to his left, when Johnson took advantage of the extra time by turning on Thomas and heading for the end zone. Palmer lofted a long, soft pass on the run, and Johnson got to the goal line just before a Saints safety could arrive.
"The last two weeks, we've been fortunate and gotten some blown coverages," Palmer observed. "It doesn't happen very often in this league. Chad and I are just making eye contact.
"I know he's always looking for the big play. This is our fourth year together. We understand each other. In your fourth year, you're supposed to do stuff like that."
Not, though, for 450 yards and five touchdowns in two games. Nobody's supposed to do that.
