They're back at the bottom of the NFL with an 0-6 record. Only one other team - 0-5 Detroit - has yet to win a game in a league where it's very difficult to go so long without so much as one victory.

"It's just frustrating," said quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who was the team's leading rusher Sunday in a 26-14 loss to the Jets. "Everyone in here wants to win so bad."

Wanting to win and getting a win are two very different things in Cincinnati, where the season-scuttling start is no stranger. The Bengals have been here many times before.

Since franchise founder Paul Brown died before the 1991 season, the Bengals have started a season with six losses far more times than any other team. It's the sixth time in those 18 years that they've done it.

The Bengals also had notable 0-for starts in 1991 under coach Sam Wyche (0-8), in 1993 under Dave Shula (0-10), again in 1994 under Shula (0-8), in 2000 under Bruce Coslet, who quit halfway through an 0-6 start, and in 2002 under Dick LeBeau (0-7).

Now, Marvin Lewis joins the list of Bengals coaches who have presided over the type of start seldom experienced in the NFL. Since 1991, only 21 times has a team opened the season by losing its first six game. The Bengals have six of those; no other team has more than two.

In the NFL, the Bengals are still the standard for misery.

"Everybody wants to win, and I'm sorry they're disappointed," Lewis said Monday, referring to long-suffering fans. "So am I. But unfortunately, that's where we are right now. But hang on. They could see something special here."

Special? What they're seeing is familiar.

The constant through all the losing is owner Mike Brown, who took over when his father died and has run the front office through one of the deepest stretches of futility in league history. The Bengals have only one winning record since he became the de facto general manager in 1991.

Successful teams develop an identity and acquire players who fit the mold. The Bengals haven't maintained an identity or a course for very long during the last 18 years. Often, the roster moves don't add up.

With receiver Chris Henry released following his latest arrest and Chad Ocho Cinco threatening to hold out last April, the Bengals decided to load up on receivers early in the draft. They got Jerome Simpson from Coastal Carolina in the second round and Andre Caldwell from Florida in the third.

Neither rookie is playing. Simpson got into three games, but hasn't caught a pass. Caldwell missed two games with a foot injury and has yet to get on the field. Brown's decision to bring back Henry - over the head coach's objection - makes it easier for the two high draft picks to get lost in the shuffle.

In two games since returning from his latest suspension, Henry has caught one pass for 13 yards.

Problems permeate the offense.

Lewis tried to set a course in the offseason by insisting the Bengals get back to running the ball instead of relying on Carson Palmer's passing to Ocho Cinco and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, a pair of Pro Bowl receivers. Instead, the running game has disintegrated.

Fitzpatrick has filled in twice while Palmer recovers from an injured passing elbow, and wound up as the team's leading rusher in both games. He and Palmer are second and third, respectively, in the team's rushing statistics - a very bad sign.

The offensive line got pushed around by the Jets, who limited Chris Perry to 14 yards on 11 carries. The Bengals ran for 43 yards on 21 tries.

"It's also demoralizing offensively," Palmer said. "We need to find a way to keep our spirits up and keep our heads in it."

That sure sounds familiar.

During the other bad starts, different groups of Bengals players learned what it's like to see a season snuffed out after a half-dozen games. Offensive lineman John Jackson signed with his hometown team in 2000 after glorious years in Pittsburgh, only to learn that one person can't make much of a difference when things start going bad in Cincinnati.

"I've aged since I came here," he said at the time. "I don't take losing lightly. I don't accept it. That's not me. I'm surprised some of these guys aren't insane. I've only been here for one year. Some of these guys have been here for their whole career. I wonder why half the team's not going to a psychiatrist."

The bad days are back again.