News & Info/Headlines

As reported by Cincinnati Enquirer staffer Mark Curnutte, Chad Johnson was a late addition to this week's injury report, but head coach Marvin Lewis fully expects his star receiver to start and play as usual against the Raiders tomorrow.

"Everybody's fine," Lewis said.

Johnson, who is bothered by a sprained ankle, is listed as probable but was able to practice without difficulty Friday.

Also of interest. ...

Receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh (hamstring) will again be out, but Lewis is hoping for a return in the near future. "I think he's getting closer, but right now we'll just have to see how he progresses next week," Lewis said.

According to Curnutte, Houshmandzadeh's return would be of greatly benefit depth on the outside, where beyond Johnson and Peter Warrick, the Bengals have only rookies Kelley Washington and Lawrence Hamilton.

The Bengals did try out veteran wide receivers Troy Edwards and Trevor Gaylor on Monday.

"We could have had anybody, but we decided to stay pat," Lewis said. "We feel our young guys are progressing, and so we're just going to go with these guys. We feel comfortable with them and we feel we're going to get T.J. back soon. ..."

According to the Sports XChange, the Bengals need to do what they failed at in the opener -- control the ball with the running game. Corey Dillon had only 14 carries last week, and that puts too much pressure on the pass offense. The Bengals would like to accomplish what Tennessee did in Week 1 against the Raiders -- control the ball for nearly 35 minutes which will give Oakland's pass offense fewer opportunities on the field.

And finally. ...

Jon Kitna made his first NFL start at Oakland for the Seahawks on Dec. 14, 1997 and led Seattle to a 22-21 comeback victory. The Seahawks trailed 21-3 at the half. Kitna threw for one touchdowns and 283 yards with two interceptions.