The Sports Xchange

The Cincinnati Bengals’ tour of the AFC West continues with the San Diego Chargers as their guest on Sunday.

If it goes as well for Cincinnati as it did last week in Oakland, the Queen City team will be serving notice of evil intent this year.

The Chargers don’t figure to play the role of an easy opponent, as did the Raiders. While the Bengals pushed Oakland around with ease, that doesn’t seem likely against the Chargers on Sunday.

San Diego not only beat the Detroit Lions in its opener, but it did so in dramatic fashion.

“In the first half, the offense wasn’t playing its best football, (but it) basically stormed back and came out of the locker room in the second half, and in the third quarter basically took over the football game very quickly,” Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said of the Chargers. “That’s the football team that they are and the one we know that’s going to show up here on Sunday. They’re led by a tremendous quarterback in Philip Rivers.”

Among the Bengals’ tasks is slowing Rivers. When last seen in coming back from a 21-3 deficit, he completed his final 20 passes as the Chargers prevailed, 33-28.

The Bengals were impressive, too, in their workmanlike performance in disposing Oakland, 33-13.

Now they get to show the home folks what they have in store for the next 16 weeks.

“It’s the start of the new year, new season, and hopefully we’ll have the whole city involved, everybody will be here,” quarterback Andy Dalton said. “It’ll give us a great atmosphere for the game. It’s exciting. Every year, every chance you get to have your home opener, it’s a big game.”

The Bengals have a big score to settle. When they last saw the Chargers in January 2014, the boys from Bordertown were slapping a playoff loss on a Cincinnati team that, like this year, had high hopes.

However, Lewis doesn’t want his charges focusing on last week, let alone the 2013 season.

“I think we have some guys with experience who know the ups and downs and weekly grind of the NFL,” Lewis said. “What you did last week doesn’t get you much the next week. It’s something to build upon or correct, but you have to go out and restart every week.”

Gentlemen in stripes, start your engines.

SERIES HISTORY: 33rd regular-season meeting. Chargers lead series, 19-13. The Bengals owe the Chargers, and all it takes to prove that is to look at San Diego’s last two visits. The Bengals lost in January 2014 in a playoff game, 27-10, that still stings. Before that, the Chargers shocked them in 2006 when San Diego prevailed, 49-41. The Chargers trailed 28-7 at halftime. The Bengals did get the Chargers in a significant game, the frigid 1981 AFC Championship Game, heading off to the Super Bowl after a 27-7 win.

INJURY NOTES

–S George Iloka (ankle) didn’t practice Wednesday.

–S Reggie Nelson (groin) wasn’t able to work Wednesday, but the team hopes he can work Thursday.

–CB Jose Shaw (groin) was sidelined for practice and didn’t work at all.

–DT Marcus Harrison (knee) didn’t practice in the first session of the week.