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Graham, Benson carry Bengals past Chiefs

Dec 29, 2008 - 1:14 AM CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Shayne Graham kicked three field goals and Cedric Benson ran for 111 yards and a score as the Cincinnati Bengals posted a 16-6 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

Cincinnati (4-11-1) outgained Kansas City, 329-220, en route to its third straight win.

The Bengals did so without wide receivers Chad Johnson (hamstring) and T.J. Houshmandzadeh (back), who were both inactive.

Tony Gonzalez caught a touchdown pass for the Chiefs (2-14), who wrapped up the worst season in the franchise's 49-year history.

The Chiefs have lost 23 of their last 25 games, and it may spell the end of the line for head coach Herm Edwards. Longtime general manager Carl Petersen abruptly resigned earlier this month.

"I thought early in the football game, we didn't have energy," Edwards said. "You have to play with energy. We generally play with a lot of energy. We struggled some offensively but I felt like defensively, we did pretty well.

"This is probably one of our worst offensive outings in a while."

What's worse for Kansas City is that the franchise running back wants out of town. Larry Johnson carried 10 times for just 18 yards and spoke of his future afterward.

"Hopefully, my future is not with this organization," said Johnson, who was suspended by the team for an arrest on simple assault earlier this season. "It's not (the Chiefs) fault. Half of it is mine. Half of it is my off-the-field situation and other things that occurred.

"On the football field, my role definitely diminished when I came back. ... I felt like I could have helped as much as I could have but they shifted their powers to other players on the team. I feel as though the time is up in this city and this program."

Meanwhile, the Bengals finished off the season strong and are likely to keep Marvin Lewis around after the team finished 4-3-1 after an 0-8 start.

"It was a good way to finish the season," Lewis said. "Our defense came out and did a good job of getting them off the field on third down. Offensively, we were efficient throwing the ball early.

"We got better at doing the little things that maybe you don't notice, the miscommunications. We eliminated a lot of the negative plays. Early in the season we had a lot of penalties on special teams but at the end of the season we fixed some of that."

Benson, who was signed on September 30, put Cincinnati up, 10-0, with his 2-yard score with 10:57 left in the second.

Graham kicked a 30-yard field goal just before halftime to make it 13-0 and added a 43-yarder with 6:21 left in the fourth.

Gonzalez's 5-yard score with 2:20 remaining helped the Chiefs avoid being shut out. Tyler Thigpen completed 19-of-36 passes for Kansas City, which managed just 31 yards on the ground.

Edwards said he is preparing as though he will be back next season.

"It is absolutely business as usual," he said. "I'll be in the office all week. I'll be around. We'll evaluate our team and go from there."