Pass Or Fail

WITH A TOWEL on his head and a scowl on his face, Carson Palmer walked slowly through the rain, his postgame mood matching the gloomy weather. Eight months after shredding his left knee, the Cincinnati Bengals' All-Pro quarterback had just made a triumphant return to the NFL, smoothly guiding his team to a season-opening 23--10 road victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. In his first real game since being carted off from last January's crushing playoff loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Palmer had stood tall in the pocket while uncorking some exquisite spirals, reminding everyone why he's regarded as the brightest young talent at his position. Yet as he prepared to leave Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday, the fourth-year passer gave himself a failing grade. � "That was ugly," Palmer said of his performance--13 of 19 for 127 yards and zero touchdowns. "I know you don't throw for 400 and rush for 200 every game, but when you don't, and you're used to doing it, it doesn't feel right. It feels like we didn't do our job. It feels like we lost." � Perhaps Palmer felt guilty for having dashed the hopes of all those fantasy football players who had salivated over what he might do to the Chiefs' shaky defense. Maybe he doesn't believe in rust. Most plausibly, living up to the standards he established last season is a source of ongoing frustration for one of the NFL's least-patient men.

Although Palmer expected bigger and better things from himself on opening day, he can at least take some encouragement from the impressive comebacks of some of his peers. With Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb, the Jets' Chad Pennington, Chicago's Rex Grossman and New Orleans' Drew Brees returning from injury-marred 2005 campaigns to lead their teams to victories, this was Revival Sunday. Throw in the solid, winning efforts by relocated veteran Steve McNair with the Ravens and besieged Falcon Michael Vick, and battered quarterbacks were flexing their throwing arms as though their careers depended on it.

"We've all got a desperate hunger to get back to our old selves, and we're motivated to come back even better," said McNabb, who passed for 314 yards and three TDs in guiding the Eagles past the Houston Texans 24--10. "We're like a fraternity, and when you see other quarterbacks and the stuff they have to go through--people talking bad about them, guys coming back from injuries--it's exciting to watch them bounce back and see their teams rallying behind them."

Of course, every action triggers an equal and opposite reaction, and for once-lofty passers like the Packers' Brett Favre and Dallas's Drew Bledsoe and on-the-spot youngsters like David Carr of the Texans and Buffalo's J.P. Losman, Sunday's disappointments could portend an inglorious demise. Seldom has a season begun with so many signal-callers in such precarious positions, as Chiefs veteran Trent Green pointed out last Saturday following the team's walk-through at its practice field. "Everyone talks about the 10 new head coaches, but there's a whole lot of quarterback upheaval, too," Green said. "It seems like everywhere you look, there's a quarterback who's in a new place, coming back from an injury, or who, if he doesn't play well the first few weeks, could easily get pulled."

On Sunday, Green, who enjoys one of the league's more stable situations, served as a chilling reminder of the inherent fragility of an NFL quarterback: While ducking into a slide after scrambling for a first down with 4:28 left in the third quarter, he took a shoulder-to-helmet shot from Bengals defensive end Robert Geathers that knocked him cold and shook up the 77,956 fans at Arrowhead. After a delay of 11 minutes Green was strapped to a backboard and gurney and transported to a local hospital, where X-rays on his head and neck were negative. Green's severe concussion will keep him out indefinitely (a source close to the Chiefs on Monday said late October is a realistic return date), ending his streak of 81 consecutive starts, the third longest among QBs after Favre (222) and Peyton Manning (129).

By the time Green went down, the Bengals had control of the game and had already grounded their high-powered passing attack, allowing running back Rudi Johnson (28 carries, 96 yards) and an aggressive defense (seven sacks, two takeaways) to grab the glory normally reserved for Palmer and flamboyant wideout Chad Johnson. Playing his first game as a blond--the color he recently dyed his Mohawk--Johnson had more fun in the first half, when he caught five passes for 48 yards. Yet on the first play of the second quarter, with the Bengals trailing 3--0 and facing third-and-15 from the Kansas City 19, Johnson lost a chance to unveil his latest touchdown celebration. After he cut from left to right and flashed open across the front of the end zone, Palmer zipped a ball that hit Johnson in the foot. Though it appeared that Chiefs defensive end Jared Allen might have tipped the ball, Palmer, when asked later if that were the case, shook his head and said, "I just missed him." Johnson couldn't wait to forget about the play, saying, "Oooooh, my goodness. Don't remind me."

Both players had been bubbly after the Bengals' practice at Paul Brown Stadium last Friday, immediately heading into a small room for their daily Ping-Pong showdown. Standing back from the table to showcase his ferocious slam while emitting Sharapovaesque screams, Johnson swept five games to claim bragging rights. An hour later he sat in a booth at the Hyde Park restaurant where he eats lunch every day and solemnly recounted his reaction to the quarterback's devastating injury in the playoff loss to the Steelers. Palmer had just released his first pass of the day, a 66-yard beauty to wideout Chris Henry, when a hit from Kimo von Oelhoffen left Palmer sprawled on the turf and hushed a stadium of stunned Bengals fans. "I was crying," Johnson recalled. "I was standing over him thinking, You've got to be [kidding] me; this ain't happening."

The loss of his quarterback triggered Johnson's infamous halftime tirade, in which he dislodged an IV needle from his arm, causing blood to spurt, as he implored an assistant coach to involve him more in the offense. He settled down considerably in the off-season as Palmer kept blowing away teammates, coaches and trainers with the pace of his rehab. "At the start of camp, when Carson came back and started running around the way he did, I knew he was going to be all right," Johnson said.

It's possible Palmer looked too good--at least that seemed to explain the controversy concerning the timing of his return. Palmer had long planned to be back for the team's third preseason game, on Aug. 28 against Green Bay. But before Cincy's exhibition opener on Aug. 13, two NBC announcers told him that Bengals coach Marvin Lewis was pushing for Palmer to play the following Friday at Buffalo. Palmer bristled, and when he confronted Lewis, the coach relented, affirming that he could wait to play until the third preseason game and still start the opener. "The original plan was that he'd return for that game," Lewis said, "and he's so strong-willed he wasn't going to let anything alter it."

Any doubts about Palmer's knee were ended when he debuted against the Packers on national TV and threw three first-half touchdown passes. Suddenly, after an off-season that included the arrests of five Cincinnati players--which turned the team into a national punch line--all was well in the Bengals' universe.