CINCINNATI - Two years ago, Ravens coach Brian Billick would have been ecstatic about yesterday's 27-23 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. He had a veteran club then, one that could turn it on and off when it wanted.

Billick was happy yesterday, but there was guarded optimism. The Ravens are 6-6 and still have a remote shot at the playoffs with four games remaining, but there have been signs the past two weeks that this team is starting to run up against "The Wall," the period after Thanksgiving when first-year players begin to tire.

It's not just physical, but mental. So after yesterday's win in another one of those ugly NFL games that have now become common on fall and winter weekends because of parity, Billick came out with the good, the bad and the ugly speech.

The theme is now consistency.

"What I told them in there, the character, the whole thing, phenomenal, but we did a couple of dumb things today that should have cost us the game," Billick said. "We've got to jump on it, or that stuff starts to creep in. We did not play a good mental game today, whether it was penalties, blown assignments, whatever.

"Compared to where we started, we've made a lot of improvement. The problem is where you make that quantitative leap that we had to make as young as we were, as new as we were to it, there comes a point where you hit a bit of a ceiling, and the improvements are incremental, and they are hard to see. Like I said, we had more mental errors today than in quite a while.

"We have four games left, we're at .500, we're active and alive. We've got to play both Cleveland and Pittsburgh in front of us, and we'll see how this thing plays out."

That's why he was a little subdued. Billick is very good at getting the pulse of his team. He also knows that there are no longer veterans such as Rod Woodson, Tony Siragusa, Rob Burnett, Shannon Sharpe and Qadry Ismail around.

Those players knew about playing into December. They conditioned their bodies to gear up for the late season and the second season known as the playoffs. The Ravens have four games left: New Orleans, at Houston, Cleveland, at Pittsburgh, and three of the four are in playoff contention.

In two games this season that had a playoff atmosphere, the Ravens were physically handled by the Miami Dolphins and the Steelers. It's getting down to money time, and regardless of whether the Ravens are young or not, Billick is striving for consistency. That's the Ravens' best chance for winning.

The Ravens didn't have it yesterday.

Oh, you're thinking, it was only the Bengals. Even their fans have a hard time getting up for the Bengals. The stadium was only half-filled, and fans wore paper bags over their heads. "Mike Brown Sucks!" was being chanted throughout the stadium in a salute to the Bengals' owner.

Just how disrespected are the Bengals?

After the Ravens' Chad Williams blocked a punt and Ron Johnson returned it 22 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, the public-address announcer in the press box referred to his team as "the Bungles."

"When you play teams that have a different caliber, you play to their level," Ravens quarterback Jeff Blake said. "It's a lot easier to go out and play a team like Pittsburgh than it is a team like the Bengals because you try not to play at their level. You want to play at a higher level. When you play a team like Pittsburgh, and it's the last game of the season - for all the marbles - you don't have anything to lose."

Speaking of marbles, Blake has a few loose ones. Excuse me, but the Ravens aren't exactly the Green Bay Packers of the 1960s. The Ravens know how to win, and they have some playmakers, but another key is consistency, and the Ravens haven't been that in the past two games, even though they were both victories.

Tennessee outgained them, 402-199, in total offensive yards a week ago and had 20 more offensive plays, as the Ravens failed to score an offensive touchdown. If Steve McNair wasn't worse than Blake last week, the Ravens would have lost. Yesterday, Bengals quarterback Jon Kitna threw for 308 yards, and the Ravens' defense almost allowed 400 yards for the second straight week.

Blake was sacked three times and hurried numerous others as the offensive line failed to protect him consistently. You look out on the field, and you see several of the young players starting to slow down and become indecisive, like safety Will Demps and cornerback Gary Baxter on passing plays, and a young defensive line that is starting to yield a little more yardage against the run.

Young receivers like Travis Taylor and Ron Johnson are starting to slow down, too, and getting less and less separation from defensive backs. Billick knows he can't count every week on a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, or a poor throw that was returned 98 yards for a touchdown.

Or a Kitna fumble to kill a drive. Or a running back like Corey Dillon, who didn't play with much enthusiasm.

Not every team is the Bengals. The Ravens had eight penalties for 79 yards.

That's why Billick wasn't jumping up and down and doing cartwheels after the win. He is a happy man these days, and the Ravens are well ahead of the learning curve.

But there is a new lesson to be learned this time of year. Next up: consistency. The Ravens have to find some.