Updated: 4:50 p.m.
Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco said before getting on the bus for Tuesday's indoor workout in Mason, Ohio that he'll practice with the knee bruise he got slipping in warmups Sunday night at The Meadowlands.
"There were little, mini-ice rinks outside of the hashes. When you're on ice, you have no grip," The Ocho said. "There were little, mini-ice rinks which caused me to fall. I was going full speed at the time and I wasn't expecting it. Before the game, Carson (Palmer) and I were working inside the trenches throwing the ball. When I fell, I fell hard and wasn't able to recover. I hurt myself pretty bad. I tried to play."
Head coach Marvin Lewis clearly grew tired of last week's Twitter War The Ocho had going with Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis and he's done with the fun and games.
"Ocho got his ego bruised when he fell before the game, so he'll be real rested today," Lewis said in a Tuesday news conference. "He's healthy as I think he's Twittered all over America. But that's what happens. The way you come back from that is to come and put up now. So now it's time for all of us to put up."
The only injury Lewis referenced was tendinitis in running back Larry Johnson's knee. Safety Tom Nelson (knee), who also got hurt Sunday night, said he'll be limited Tuesday but should be OK. Lewis expects his three defensive starters who were inactive, defensive tackle Domata Peko (knee), left end Robert Geathers (knee), and safety Chris Crocker (ankle), to be ready.
» The only guys not dressed for practice were Nelson, Larry Johnson and defensive tackle Tank Johnson (foot). Tank Johnson is really playing tough and hurt. He's had to take a lot more snaps than usual because of the injuries at defensive tackle as he fights plantar fasciitis.
» One of the rights the Bengals earned with the AFC North title was the ability to basically choose their first-round opponent. They may have set a franchise record for offensive futility last Sunday night in the 37-0 loss to the Jets and one of the many reasons is that they apparently played it pretty vanilla.
The Ocho said it was preseason simple and while Lewis was upset with the way his team looked, he knew his guys knew it wasn't do or die.
"It's a tough mental thing," he said. "Everybody is making their predictions and perceptions on what should happen. These guys are human and we're through it, OK? We need to show our resilience and show what this football team has shown throughout the season and get down to brass tacks and fundamentally executing.
"You get to make the choices you get to make. That's why you get the spots when you earn them. Did I want to come out playing as poorly as we did? No."
» It must be the playoffs because Lewis is talking about Jones Junior High again. Some of the New York papers staffed the news conference (*The Daily News, The Post, The Star-Ledger *in Newark) and were treated to Lewis' ideal of a post-NFL job: Helping out at Jones Junior High.
"If we got 12 guys from Jones Junior High we could have probably played better," Lewis said of Sunday night. "(Jones) is in every city in America. They've got a good coach in-waiting. But it's not going to be volunteer, it's going to be just the help-out coach. Where is he? He's just helping out. He'll be here when he gets here."
» Saturday's game is shaping up to be one of the coldest days in Bengals history. The National Weather Service in Wilmington, Ohio, says the 4:30 p.m. start will feel like it is six degrees with a game-time temperature of 18 degrees buffeted by a wind out of the north and west at about 10 miles per hour under mostly cloudy skies with a slight chance of a snow shower.
» The offense has certainly heard the boos this season from the Paul Brown Stadium crowd. Since the Bengals scored 45 points against Chicago Oct. 25, they've broken 20 points once in the last four games. But Palmer is hoping the fans hold off on Saturday.
"Hopefully no boos. That would be nice for once this season. Boos do not help us win football games," he said.
» Even though the Bengals gave up their most yards rushing in 97 games (the Browns 264 in the 2003 finale) when the Jets went for 257, Mike Zimmer's defense finished fourth in the NFL for the Bengals' highest finish since the '83 club led the league. It is also was their first top five finish since then and just the fourth in history.
Although Zimmer is less than pleased about what transpired Sunday, he's confident the Bengals will play a lot better Saturday simply because of this season's track record following bad performances.
After they gave up 472 yards to Houston (385 coming from quarterback Matt Schaub), the next week they picked off Bears quarterback Jay Cutler three times and held the Bears to 279 yards. After giving up two touchdown passes at the end of each half in Oakland, they gave the Browns just 111 yards passing the next week.
After the Vikings gouged the Bengals for 142 yards rushing and 30 points the defense went to San Diego the next week and kept the red-hot Chargers offense relatively in check compared to everyone else by limiting them to 70 yards rushing and holding an offense that finished seventh in the league on third down to five out of 11.
