The New England coach, Bill Belichick, has made a rigorously applied science of his craft, poring over its geometry and game-planning like Bobby Fischer. Monday night against the Bengals, however, his challenge was not quite so complex.
All he had to do was count linebackers.
Cincinnati started the game with four of them, three of whom, late arrivals by way of waivers and release, have never seen the club's training camp in Georgetown, Ky. The one who has, Landon Johnson, left the game in the second quarter with an eye injury, never to return. He followed Lemar Marshall, who sat out the game's first play and was injured - Achilles tendon - on the next.
That left Anthony Schlegel, the former Ohio Stater who, before being waived by the Jets and arriving here on Sept. 2, had recorded exactly one NFL tackle, and Dhani Jones, signed on Sept. 19 after he was let go by New Orleans. Belichick, as you might imagine, noticed.
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The Cincinnati Post - Patriots pounced on Bengals weakness