I was always told as a kid, Little Timzilla, the day the coaches stop doggy you is the day they don’t care anymore. The same’s true for Chris Perry, I guess.

Once the scourge here and at other blogs (and in the hearts and minds of Bengals fans, too), today he’s the never-mentioned guy (like Barney Frank and Chris Dodd’s roles in the economic crash). When the 2009 Bengals running game is discussed, Perry is seldom if ever mentioned. I’m probably in a camp of one on this, but it was quite notable how quickly Lewis threw the bad-luck Perry under the bus.

Yup, to hear Lewis tell it, it was all Perry’s fault:

“Hey media, we can’t run the ball, and it’s all his fault. He can’t hold onto the ball. His fault. The fact we were too stupid to properly plan for Rudi’s obviously deteriorating skills (even though most fans saw it for the past 2 years), we’re blaming Perry. It’s all his fault.”

Okay, Lewis didn’t say it in those exact words ... but hey, not only can I read, I can read between the lines. Yeah, sure, it was all Perry’s fault.

Look, it was obvious 5 minutes in the last year’s preseason opener that the Bengals offense was Tim Geithnerin jock straps and helmets—they were in way over their heads. So, what did opposing D’s do? Put 8 and 9 in the box and got to the RB (Perry) like water between fingers, or steamrollers over wet asphalt. It was ugly. Remember?  

Think about it. Perry hadn’t played in what was essentially 2 years? Didn’t matter ... “hey kid, we know you haven’t played in years, but we just cut our starting RB, and you’re in there! ... so go strap ‘em up! But oh, we forgot to tell you, we can’t block ... we can’t throw ... we can’t coach ... we can’t game plan ... and we can’t draft ... frankly we just weren’t smart enough to plan for dumping Rudi, and we’re a fake NFL team this year. But hey, you go out there and knock ‘em dead ... make us all look good, kid.”

That’s like you and I being in a coma for 18 months, waking up in a fog and having the CEO say, “Welcome back, Bob. Hey, we’re making a big presentation to Spacely Sprockets in 5 mins, so get over to Men’s Warehouse, suit up ... you’re heading up the presentation!””

Yeah, okay, granted .... he had 5 fumbles last year ... but that was 3 more holes that the OL actually opened for him.  

Look, running backs that can actually catch the ball are a premium in the League. I don’t just mean those ‘lil swing pass, baby lob ups. I mean guys that can run routes and catch Palmer bullets.  I don’t know where Perry’s head is these days—is he focused and determined. Or whiney and pitiful. More importantly, I don’t know where his feet and ankles are.

Having taken a stance of defending Perry, here’s the deal-breaker—Perry’s health. If he has not (or can never) regain the physical skills of ’05, that’s an entirely different story. But he’s still young, and if he can be 90-95%, or better yet, 110%, of the Chris Perry we had in ’05, I say suit, kid.

Personally, I’d like one more Perry encore (but a completely healthy Perry, with a completely healthy Bengals offense).