Bengals hoping for wire-to-wire run from Johnson

If I'm Marvin Lewis, coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, I don't care if wide receiver Chad Johnson has his "sexy" back, whatever that means. I want his timing back, which is another way of saying I want him to show up when it matters most.

That didn't happen last season when the Bengals fizzled down the stretch, and Johnson fizzled right along with them.

If you think there's a correlation, you must have been listening to Lewis, because he's done his homework on the subject. And what he discovered is that Ocho Cinco delivered Mucho Nada the last three games of 2006, none of which the Bengals won.

Chad Johnson had only 10 catches during a three-week stint late in '06. (Getty Images)

You can look it up. In one game he had four catches; in the two others he had three apiece. He never had more than 53 yards in receptions, and he didn't score.

Bottom line: An impact player he wasn't.

Now, let's get something straight: I'm not suggesting Johnson was responsible for the three-game plunge that cost his team a playoff spot. There were plenty of strange things going on, including a missed field goal that cost the Bengals one game and a botched extra point that cost them another.

What I am suggesting is that Johnson disappeared. If, as he proclaims, he's one of the game's elite receivers, then he should play like one when it counts. And he didn't.

Trust me, that didn't go unnoticed, and I know because I spoke with the head coach who, as it so happens, also spoke to Chad Johnson.

"He knows that the last three games it was: How many balls did you catch? And how many did you drop?" said Lewis. "And the last three the year before. How many did you drop and how many did you catch? And the year before that.

"So we showed it to him statistically. I showed it to him last year before the last game of the year. Graphically and statistically, there is something to when your team can count on you and when you should perform at your finest. So where are you doing it?"

Well, he did it over an eight-game stretch that preceded the Bengals' last three losses. In that period, Johnson had four 100-yard games, one for 200 yards and six TDs.

He did it in his last three starts of 2005, too, with 24 catches for 271 yards and two TDs.

Then came that stretch run. When Cincinnati absolutely, positively needed him to make a play, he wasn't home. Bad enough that he didn't score the last three games; but his 10 catches marked his worst three-week performance since the start of the 2002 season.