INSIDE SLANT

NFL Team Report - Cincinnati Bengals</h2><br>Mistakes still doom Bengals best efforts<p></p> The four-man rush was humming, the performance was better. Yet, the Cincinnati Bengals are on a five-game losing streak because the mistakes still persisted.<p></p> No, they weren't as frequent as the previous two weeks when a combined 25 penalties contributed to home losses against the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos.<p></p> Yet they were enough to push the Bengals to 5-8, forcing them to win out to avoid a third straight losing season for the first time since six straight sub-.500 seasons from 1997 to 2002, resulted in the Bengals hiring Marvin Lewis.<p></p> Mistakes are mistakes. Some can be overcome and some cannot but two eventually killed the Bengals in their 26-21 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers and those are things they will be looking to correct heading into their home finale this week against the Oakland Raiders.<p></p> The Bengals took their second close loss of this skid and among the things that cost them was two key first-half penalties.<p></p> The Bengals had fourth-and-goal from the one-inch line with 5:19 left in the second quarter while trailing 14-6 but settled for a field goal when Alex Richmond was called for a false start.<p></p> Then Jordan Willis was called for offside with one second remaining just as the Chargers moved past midfield right before halftime. The mistake allowed the Chargers to get a field goal after a Hail Mary attempt was incomplete and would have ended the first half.<p></p> "That killed us," Bengals linebacker Nick Vigil said. "That wins or loses games. Moments like that. And the score before the half. You either win those situations or lose them. Today we lost them."<p></p> Cincinnati's latest loss featured some encouraging things like running back Joe Mixon's effectiveness, a decent performance from quarterback Jeff Driskel in his second straight start and an improved pass rush.<p></p> But encouragement no matter where it comes from does not win games if mistakes keep happening and while the playoffs are not officially out of the realm of possibility, they still remain unlikely.<p></p> "That's some rookie (expletive) I can't be letting happen. It is frustrating," Redmond said. "I just made a critical mental mistake, probably cost us the game. I have no excuses."<p></p> Especially when the Bengals can't take advantage of aggressive play-calling from Lewis, who tried to go for it on fourth down three times and even tried a two-point conversion in the first half for the time as a head coach.<p></p> The decisions are good ideas and when the previous strategy led to this point it's worth attempting but the Bengals struggle to execute on many things and because they do, they're likely playing for pride the rest of the way and hoping to get a win in their home finale on a day when some fans may opt to skip attending the game.<p></p> "As players, we can't do anything about who is showing up," Driskel said. "All we can do is put in the effort during the week and play our tails off on Sunday. That's what we're going to do - continue to compete, continue to not just play for the people in this building but for this city as well. We're not counting ourselves out, so we hope the people in the city aren't counting us out either. We're excited about the rest of the games, and I hope the fan base can get excited as well. We understand we need to prove that on the field."<p></p> SERIES HISTORY: 29th regular-season meeting. Raiders lead series, 18-10. 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