CINCINNATI – The last 25 games have been tough ones for the Chiefs. Whether your last name is Hunt, or you are a fan who lives and dies with your red and gold, there hasn’t been much good that’s come from the 2008 season and the final nine games of last season.

Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium was just another chapter in that story. It was a sad end to a sad season.

There have been so many emotions surrounding the 14 defeats the Chiefs have suffered in ‘08. Some were embarrassing, others heart breaking, others were blow outs, and there were a few that the Chiefs really had no way to win.

The loss to Cincinnati was only by 10 points and they got drubbed earlier in the season by teams like Carolina and Tennessee by wider margins than that. But those teams are in the playoffs and rank near the top of their conferences. The Bengals at 4-11-1 are not.

The Chiefs are not a good football team. Same for the Bengals; on top of that, Cincinnati started this game without starting wide receivers T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson . Both were inactive. Also out of the game were the starting tackles Stacy Andrews and Levi Jones. And, the team’s franchise quarterback Carson Palmer was the third inactive quarterback who couldn’t throw the ball in anything but an emergency because of a bum elbow.

You think things have been bad with the Chiefs, consider that the Bengals have had only four players who have started all 16 games this season. The Chiefs had 10.

Yet somehow, the Bengals controlled this game from start to finish. The Chiefs couldn’t score until the final minutes of the game. Cincinnati came into the game with the league’s worst offense, but they simply befuddled the Chiefs defense and stayed on the field for a time of possession advantage of more than 15 minutes. There were not a lot of big plays, and only a single touchdown scored by the Bengals. But that offense led by quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick got the job done and did not turn it over.

For the first time since they went to the spread attack some two months ago, Tyler Thigpen had problems throwing the ball in the first quarter. Whether it was the windy conditions or the fact the Bengals were blitzing on just about every pass, Thigpen did not throw the ball well. He was off the mark, more often throwing high than anything else. On several plays he was thinking zig, and his receiver was thinking zag.

The Bengals had one thing going for them that the Chiefs lacked: they had won the two previous games. They had some momentum and they also had the belief that they could win.

Herm Edwards acknowledged that his team came out sluggish in the first half and just didn’t seem to be in synch. That’s not how they are coached and that’s not how they talk, but there’s no question they were not all their in body, mind and spirit to start the game.

They didn’t wake up until the second half. By then it was too late.

And another sad chapter of the 2008 season was written.

Thankfully, it was the last.