Bob Bratkowski is the architect of the blueprint that has taunted and tormented the Steelers this season. He's the guy who devised the offensive plan that other teams copied and used to take apart what was once the National Football League's No. 1 defense.
Too bad the Cincinnati Bengals didn't follow their own plan.
While the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders borrowed the strategy to stretch the Steelers defense like a piece of taffy, the Bengals began the 2002 season with a different approach.
Instead of sticking with Jon Kitna, who passed for 751 yards and produced 49 points in the final two games of the 2001 season, the Bengals decided to start Gus Frerotte at quarterback. The only thing the Bengals spread with that decision was discord.
In three games, Frerotte produced one touchdown and passed for 437 yards -- just 26 more than Kitna had in Week 15 against the Steelers.
"That was a coaching decision that I made," said Bengals Coach Dick LeBeau. "Obviously, it was not the greatest decision in my life. But we are not looking backward. We are looking forward."
Kitna re-emerged as the starter last week against the Indianapolis Colts and, not surprisingly, the Bengals' offense began to look like it did at the end of 2001. The Bengals produced a season-high 410 yards and three touchdowns in a 26-21 defeat.
That's what wrong with the 0-5 Bengals -- they devise a blueprint good enough for the Patriots and Raiders to copy but ignore it themselves.
"Being in this league now seven years, nothing surprises me anymore," Kitna said. "I'm disappointed we didn't have a chance to build on how we finished the season last year. We had fought through 15 games and went through a seven-game losing streak. I really felt like it would be nice to have that opportunity to build on the way we finished. That didn't happen and, hopefully, it's not too late to get headed in the right direction now."
Bratkowski, the Bengals' offensive coordinator and a former wide receivers coach with the Steelers, thought that was happening at the end of last season. It began Dec. 30 at Paul Brown Stadium, when the Bengals rallied for a 26-23 overtime victory against the Steelers. In that game, the Bengals ran 97 plays and held the ball for 36 minutes, 26 seconds. They did it by having Kitna throw 68 times, completing 35, for 411 yards and two touchdowns.
The following week, Kitna passed for 340 yards in a 23-21 victory in Tennessee.
The blueprint was formulated, for the Bengals and Steelers.
"I don't think we went in saying we were going to throw 60 times," Bratkowski said yesterday on the phone from Cincinnati. "After the first game we played them [in October], we came away thinking we should have thrown more. I don't know that it was a blueprint, but some of the things we did I've seen other people do this year."
When the Steelers lost the season opener in New England, a game in which Tom Brady attempted 43 passes and threw on 25 consecutive plays, defensive coordinator Tim Lewis intimated the Patriots were copying what the Bengals did to them last season.
When the Raiders tried a similar approach the following week -- Rich Gannon attempted a club-record 64 passes, completing 43, for 403 yards -- that was confirmation Bratkowski had unlocked the key to beating the Steelers' defense.
The secret is to spread the 3-4 defense and make linebackers Jason Gildon and Joey Porter drop into pass coverage. That negates the defense's greatest strength -- rushing the passer from the outside.
"With their defense, you take a standard I-formation, they'll kill it," Bratkowski said. "The thing that is so good about their defense, they have all those guys who have been running that same defense -- the blitzes they use with Lee Flowers, everything -- those guys have been running those blitzes 1,000 times. They're really hard to play against if you run from the standard I-formation.
"If you spread the defense, now you can take advantage of some things. If you put four wides out there, now you might get some of those guys out of there."
The Bengals want everyone to believe they did not unearth some dark findings about the Steelers' defense, which has dropped from No. 1 to No. 18 in the NFL this season.
They want the Steelers to believe they threw the ball 68 times last year out of necessity, because they were trailing 23-10 heading into the fourth quarter. They want the Steelers to believe they spread the field with three and four wide receivers because two of their tight ends, Tony McGee and Marco Battaglia, were out with injuries.
"I think that is overblown," LeBeau said. "It is really a statement after the fact. If you look at the Steelers season last year, after they played us, they did not really give up any yards and they did not give up any points. They won the next game and then they went into the playoffs and they lost a really tough game [to the Patriots], a three-point game. If anybody uncovered any great secret, I think it would have shown up in those games."
Kitna said: "People look back and say that it was rallying success; it really wasn't. We completed just over 50 percent of our balls and we needed every single yard that we got just to get a victory. I don't look at it as that's the way to beat them."
Apparently, the Bengals do not want the Steelers to believe they will try it again Sunday in Paul Brown Stadium. But even the Bengals would be foolish not to follow their own blueprint.
"They have figured out ways, after the first two games, to combat that," Kitna said of the Steelers. "I think you have to be a sound offensive team to beat this team. They are just not going to give you things."
Gerry Dulac can be reached at gdulac@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1466.
Bengals should use their best-laid plan against Steelers 
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