CINCINNATI (AP) -- Separately, the Bengals and Browns have accomplished little since that overcast day two months ago when Akili Smith lobbed a game-winning pass in Cleveland and pounded his chest.

Cincinnati and Cleveland have spent the last two months side-by-side at the bottom of the NFL standings, sparring for the title of Ohio's worst team.

Like a Dawg chasing its tail, Cleveland (2-11) has made little progress in its epic journey from established team to expansion team and back again. Tim Couch has many more bruises than bright spots with a woeful offense.

At the southern end of the state, Cincinnati (3-10) has redefined NFL futility. The Bengals have lost 106 games, the most in this decade and tied for the most in any decade.

The two teams with so much shared history have won only two games apiece since parting company in Cleveland on Oct. 10. They've spent the last two months elbowing each other for a lower standing in the league and a higher pick in the draft.

A wasted year in Ohio? Not by any means. The Browns and the Bengals have been extremely successful at one thing: restoring one of football's best grudge matches.

When Smith pounded his chest, pointed at the Browns' bench and taunted the Dawg Pound after his game-winning pass, he put the passion back into one of the NFL's most acrimonious rivalries.

Paul Brown vs. Art Modell. Boomer vs. Bernie. Sam Wyche vs. the entire city of Cleveland. And now Akili Smith vs. the Browns' front office.

When they meet for the rematch Sunday in Cincinnati, it won't matter that they have more Ls together than any other two teams in the American Conference. It's the ill-will they share that makes it special.

"Why wouldn't it be a rivalry? It has to be," Browns linebacker Jamir Miller. "We have to have that fire on both sides. That's how both teams should feel."

Smith won't play Sunday -- a sprained right foot has sidelined him for the last five games. But the spirit he infused into the rivalry after that game in October hasn't evaporated.

While starting quarterback Jeff Blake talked to reporters last week in the dressing room, Smith yelled out, "Cleveland week!" Smith then walked up to Blake and put his arm around his shoulder.

"He's already guaranteed us a victory," Smith joked.

It was no laughing matter in Cleveland in October when Smith carried on after the 18-17 win. Couch was angry, the Dawg Pound took umbrage and the wife of punter Chris Gardocki wrote a newspaper column saying Smith's display showed a lack of class.

The Browns' feelings weren't the only ones bruised. Bengals cornerback Artrell Hawkins remembers sitting in a hotel lobby in Cleveland the night before their game and overhearing the banter.

"The people at the front desk were saying, 'We're going to kill the Bengals tomorrow,"' Hawkins said. "I was like, 'You guys aren't that good. We might not be winning some games, but you guys aren't good enough to just say you're going to just kill us.'

"I remember one (Bengals) fan said, 'You know, you guys haven't had a team for a while, so the Bengals might have the edge.' And the guy behind the desk said, 'You guys haven't had a team for the whole decade.' That's part of the rivalry, something that keeps it going."

Their next game will be a milestone in the rivalry. It's the final NFL game scheduled for Riverfront Stadium/Cinergy Field, where the teams have shared a lot of history since 1970.

Paul Brown got his revenge on Browns owner Art Modell, who fired him, by beating Cleveland there for the first time in 1970. Boomer Esiason and Bernie Kosar decided championships there in the 1980s. The final game before word of Modell's move to Baltimore leaked out was played in Cincinnati in 1995 -- Cleveland won in overtime.

The Browns didn't win another game that season until the final game ever at Cleveland Stadium. Appropriately, the opponent was Cincinnati, and the Browns closed that chapter of their history with a 26-10 win.

Now it's the Browns' turn to play the final game in Cincinnati's stadium. The atmosphere is entirely different -- the Bengals are only moving a few blocks away to a new stadium -- but history is again the setting.

"I talked to the team a little bit about it, just trying to give them a little bit of the history of Cincinnati," Browns coach Chris Palmer said. "The blood, the sweat, the tears and the joy that the Bengals have had in that stadium will all be shown on the (video) screen at the stadium as the game goes on.

"The closing of a stadium is always special, just like the opening of a new one."

Asked if the goal is to ruin the closing, Palmer chuckled and said, "I'm not giving them any locker room material."

There's plenty of that already.

CLEVELAND Season schedule and results

CINCINNATI Season schedule and results

September 12 Pittsburgh L 0-43 September 19 @Tennessee L 9-26 September 26 @Baltimore L 10-17 October 3 New England L 7-19 October 10 Cincinnati L 17-18 October 17 @Jacksonville L 7-24 October 24 @St. Louis L 3-34 October 31 @New Orleans W 21-16 November 7 Baltimore L 9-41 November 14 @Pittsburgh W 16-15 November 21 Carolina L 17-31 November 28 Tennessee L 21-33 December 5 @San Diego L 10-23 December 12 @Cincinnati 1:00pm ET December 19 Jacksonville 1:00pm ET December 26 Indianapolis 1:00pm ET

September 12 @Tennessee L 35-36 September 19 San Diego L 7-34 September 26 @Carolina L 3-27 October 3 St. Louis L 10-38 October 10 @Cleveland W 18-17 October 17 Pittsburgh L 3-17 October 24 @Indianapolis L 10-31 October 31 Jacksonville L 10-41 November 7 @Seattle L 20-37 November 14 Tennessee L 14-24 November 21 Baltimore L 31-34 November 28 @Pittsburgh W 27-20 December 5 San Francisco W 44-30 December 12 Cleveland 1:00pm ET December 26 @Baltimore 1:00pm ET January 2 @Jacksonville 1:00pm ET

Records source: STATS, Inc.

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