In a season of great expectations for the Bengals, this was about the last thing that anyone had in mind. While the Bengals had aspirations of handing the Patriots their first home opener loss at Gillette Stadium, New England sliced and diced them with the ease of a Fusion razor going through a five o’clock shadow. The final score shows that the Patriots won by two touchdowns – 38-24 – but the score and the stats don’t come close to telling the story. When there was still something to be played for, the Patriots flat out dominated the Bengals – offense, defense, special teams and coaching – triggering a whole lot of soul searching going into next Sunday’s game against Baltimore. “Not the start of our season we would have liked, but I told those guys basically the same thing that I would have told them had we been on the other side of it,” coach Marvin Lewis said. “Next week becomes the focus and we got to move forward and we’re going to certainly start the grind and get things fixed and corrected.” The 38 points are the most the Bengals have given up on Kickoff Weekend since they lost 45-14 to the Broncos in 1991. As far as margin of victory in an opener, it is the worse since Marvin Lewis’ first game in 2003, also against the Broncos (30-10). It is the also the third straight year they have started 0-1. Meanwhile New England has won seven straight openers and is unbeaten in home openers since Gillette Stadium opened in 2002. Read more: http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100912/SPT02/309120040/1062/SPT/Bengals-get-beat-down-38-24
