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Cincinnati Bengals

Palmer comes through

By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com Posted September 27, 2009 11:35 PM ET

For a California guy, Carson Palmer isn't exactly Hollywood.

But the decisive drive in the Bengals' 23-20 victory sounds like the typical Hollywood cliché, and even some of Palmer's teammates recounted it just like a screenwriter would.

"Carson said, 'When we score, we're going for two,'" said wide receiver Chad Ochocinco. "That's all I remember, but we were nowhere near the goal line."

Another teammate said he remembered Palmer saying in the huddle that they were going to score.

Palmer, despite looking like a leading man, said that is more fiction than reality.

"Nothing inspirational (was said)," Palmer said. "There was nothing from a book or movie ... No pumped-up speech needed. We knew what we needed to do, and we got it done."

It sums up Palmer perfectly - California cool.

"He feels comfortable and he's very collected at those points in the game," Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said. "It just speaks to his maturity - his leadership abilities and his command of what we're doing."

The expectations have been high around Palmer since he was drafted first overall in 2002. Despite his accolades, he's yet to lead the Bengals to a playoff victory. What he hasn't done is more often talk-show fodder than what he has.

Palmer's frequent foil is the Miami University product now in black and gold with two Super Bowl rings dangling from his fingers. So often, it's what Ben Roethlisberger does and Palmer doesn't instead of the other glaring differences between the organizations in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

That chatter was bound to get louder after Palmer and the Bengals stumbled through a terrible first half. The Bengals had negative-10 yards in the first quarter as Palmer threw three incompletions while taking a sack. He and his receivers were on different pages and a couple of his throws were to different zip codes.

"It was a struggle," Palmer said. "For the whole first half, we were a little bit off and seemed timid."

But for the third time in as many weeks this season, when his team really needed him to step up, Palmer was the comeback kid. Sunday, Palmer led his team to two fourth-quarter touchdowns to upset the defending Super Bowl champions.

The final drive was the one seen in films, when the quarterback tells his team to rally behind him and he'll see the game through - and then goes on to complete 7 of 11 passes (not including two spikes to stop the clock) for 61 yards, including the touchdown with the clock winding down.

That's what Palmer did - without the speech.

"I'm not a big cheerleader, rah-rah guy. It's business as usual," Palmer said. "That's how I want to portray it to the guys around me. We've got a job to do. You don't need to do anything special, you don't need to do anything you didn't do in the second quarter, the third quarter, you just need to go out and execute and do your job. When everyone handles their job and executes their job, good things happen and you score touchdowns."

But that doesn't make a good scene, the Hollywood ending with two fourth-down conversions and a ball zipped past defenders into the arms of a young receiver like Andre Caldwell.

"We've got a lot of veteran guys, guys who have played in big games and played well in big games," Palmer said. "There's no special line that needs to be said, something from a movie script (that) needs to be said. Just do your job and score."

For Palmer, it's nothing out of the ordinary. But from the outside, it's hard to imagine him as anything other than the leading man. He's the Bengals' leading man, that's for sure.

"He was calm and collected," said running back Brian Leonard. "He feels no pressure."

New receiver Laveranues Coles said he's been impressed with what he's seen so far from his new QB. "He ranks up there with the best of them - not just the ones I've played with," said Coles, who played with Brett Favre last season. "He's the face of the team and we all understand that."

Said Lewis: "He's invincible."

Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories, News

Tags: Bengals, Carson Palmer, Chad Ochocinco, Laveranues Coles, Steelers