Who’s to blame for the Cincinnati Bengals going 4-12 last season? Terrell Owens says that’s an easy one: The owner and the coaches.

“You start with the head coach, and then you start with the staff on both sides of the ball,” Owens said on NFL Network’s Total Access. “Offensively, we really didn’t have the coaching that we really needed to muster what we had on the offensive side of the ball.”

But Owens wasn’t done with head coach Marvin Lewis and his staff. Responding to NFL Network analyst Warren Sapp naming Bengals owner Mike Brown, Owens said Brown also deserves a heaping help of blame.

“I’ve made a comment about if you’re trying to win some championships, it starts from the top down,” Owens said. “[Sapp] mentioned Mike Brown; I think even before I got there, they said the owner was a little different. Obviously, I saw that.”

According to Owens, the players were good enough that the Bengals should have been a good team. But the players couldn’t do it alone.

“I think if you look at the talent we had in that locker room this year and we mustered four wins, that should let you know something is not right,” Owens said. “Throughout the year, I saw some things that really wasn’t right.”

Of course, there were reports during the season that one of the things that wasn’t right was Owens himself not being a good teammate. And there have been indications that the reason Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer wants out is that he’s sick of having bad teammates, including Owens.

But Owens says the blame for Palmer wanting out starts at the top, too.

“Obviously if you have your franchise quarterback who is supposed to be that guy for your team trying to get out of there, that’s kind of telling the organization something, and that’s telling a lot of people out there something as well,” Owens said.

It also tells us something about Owens that he doesn’t seem to consider the possibility that his arrival in Cincinnati had something to do with the Bengals’ decline from first place to last.

But in previous seasons that was more of a luxury. This year drafting Palmer’s replacement is an absolute necessity.

Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesThe Bengals must draft a quarterback to replace Carson Palmer this year.

Palmer, who is signed through 2014, recently turned the Bengals’ draft plans upside down by demanding a trade and threatening retirement. This is a situation that needs to be taken very serious by the organization. Therefore, the Bengals would be unwise not to consider drafting a quarterback in the first or second round.

Perhaps the Bengals can try to find “Palmer insurance” in free agency. But there won’t be many options for a team like Cincinnati, which is not an attractive landing spot for free agents and typically searches for bargain-basement players.

You can try that route at cornerback (Adam Jones) and running back (Cedric Benson). But trying to find a cheap alternative as your starting quarterback is a recipe for disaster.

We’ve said for months that it’s time to blow up the Bengals. This roster won just four games last season and it’s hard to envision the team doing much better in 2011 without significant changes — especially in this brutal division led by the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers. Palmer obviously sees that from the inside and he wants out.

Cincinnati has other needs. So using the No. 4 overall pick on Missouri quarterback Blaine Gabbert, Washington’s Jake Locker or Auburn’s Cam Newton may not be the first option. But if the Bengals pass on a quarterback in the first round, they better consider someone like Arkansas’ Ryan Mallet in the second round in case they have to start the season with a rookie quarterback.

How will the Palmer saga end? Who knows?

But the Bengals likely will have plenty of uncertainty at quarterback entering April’s NFL draft, which is the best time to find Palmer’s immediate or eventual replacement.

CINCINNATI — The front office won’t change significantly. The Bengals still will be practicing in the cold. Even with all that, Marvin Lewis decided to stay.

Lewis agreed to an unspecified contract extension Tuesday that will make him the longest-tenured coach in club history. Owner Mike Brown agreed to changes in the coaching staff and the roster as part of a deal that left both sides comfortable.

The Bengals are coming off a 4-12 season and have had only two winning records in the past 20 years — both under Lewis, who is 60-69-1 in eight seasons, including losses in both playoff appearances.

“We are close to being the kind of team we can be,” Brown said. “I think continuity will give us the best shot at becoming that team. We have a good relationship, Marvin and I. We work well together. It isn’t an easy relationship, but it’s a good one.”

Lewis wanted to stay, but only if there were changes in how the team operates. The team initially offered an extension last season, when the Bengals were on their way to winning the AFC North title.

The coach and owner met Monday and talked about what Lewis needed to stay. They had more discussions Tuesday morning and reached an agreement in the afternoon.

“When you consider all things, looking forward and so forth, I think this is the right spot for me to be,” Lewis said. “I’m not happy with where we are. It’s not finished. I came here to do a certain thing, and we’re not done. I just felt that way.

“I really came to the realization this morning that this is what I wanted to do.”

Brown said the uncertainty over the collective bargaining agreement was a factor, though not a major one, in wanting to keep Lewis. He implied that the extension was for at least two years but wouldn’t be more specific.

“And I would say this: I think we’re going to have a better year next year, and it might get longer than that real fast,” Brown said.

“I want to emphasize there is very little difference between us ever,” Brown said.

“It isn’t as though I’m dictating, and Marvin’s a puppet. That’s not the way it works. He does have real control — not influence, control — over his area, and that should be understood.”

Brown said there won’t be changes in the scouting department — the NFL’s smallest — or other front-office operations. He also said that a covered practice facility isn’t an immediate priority but will be considered in the future. The Bengals are the only northern team without one either completed or planned.

It’s not the first time that Brown has kept a coach coming off a lousy season. He gave Dave Shula a two-year extension in 1993, when the Bengals were completing a 3-13 season that would stand as the measuring stick for franchise futility — until this year.

Like the ‘93 team, the 2010 Bengals lost 10 straight games, the franchise record. Unlike the ‘93 team, this one had a lot of talent and high expectations.

Cincinnati won the AFC North last season, when Lewis won the Coach of the Year award. The Bengals kept the core of the team intact and added receiver Terrell Owens, hoping to repeat as division champions for the first time in franchise history.

Instead, the offense crumbled. Owens blamed the coaching staff for much of the problem. The Bengals failed to sell out their final four home games.

There is likely to be at least one significant change in the coaching staff. Offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski finished his 10th season and might take the fall for the offense’s struggles.

“There will be changes considered with the coaches,” Brown said, declining to be any more specific. “We’ll examine how they all fit and make decisions after we’ve had an opportunity to consider that more.”

CINCINNATI — A weathered banner on the side of a downtown sports bar proclaims the area “Marvin-nati.”

Time to start considering another name.

One of the longest Bengals coaching careers could be ending Sunday. Marvin Lewis declined an extension in 2009, when the Bengals won the AFC North and Lewis won Coach of the Year. He wanted to see if the organization made some changes before agreeing to stay.

A year later, his contract is running out and it’s looking unlikely that he’ll be back, but given the way owner Mike Brown operates, nothing can be ruled out.

“My focus is really the Baltimore Ravens, and we’ll cross that bridge when it comes to that time,” Lewis said Wednesday. “I don’t think much about it.”

A decision is likely right after the Bengals (4-11) finish one of the worst seasons in franchise history. The coach meets with Brown the day after the final game to talk about the future.

The last coaching change came fast. Dick LeBeau finished the final year on his contract with a 2-14 record in 2002. Brown informed him during a brief meeting the next morning he wouldn’t be coming back. Then, Brown did something totally out of character, going outside the organization to hire Lewis.

In other NFL cities, Lewis would have been fired by now. The Bengals had only two winning records and lost their two playoff games in his eight seasons. He has a 60-66-1 record heading into the game against Baltimore (11-4).

His final year under contract is ending in circumstances much like those that led to his hiring.

Lewis arrived when fan interest was at a low. The Bengals couldn’t come close to filling Paul Brown Stadium, prompting Brown to bring in a new face for the franchise.

Lewis got more clout than his predecessors, and turned the Bengals into an average NFL team. They’d gone 15 years between winning records when he led them to the division title in 2005. They won it again in 2009, and splurged on the payroll to try to win their first back-to-back division titles in franchise history.

Instead, Lewis has presided over perhaps the franchise’s biggest disappointment. The Bengals tied the team record by losing 10 in a row, and receiver Terrell Owens blamed the coaching staff for the offense’s troubles. Cincinnati failed to sell out the last four home games.

The first indication Lewis might leave came during the scouting combine in the offseason, when he said he’d declined a contract extension because he wanted to see more changes in how the front office operates.

“There were things when I started in this job in 2003 that were important, and we can’t change those,” Lewis said in February. “They have to stay on track, and I have to make sure we’re continuing to progress that way. Those are the things that are more important to me as anything.

“I’m talking about structure, decisions and how we do things and how I have the ability to do things that give us an opportunity to win football games.”

The Bengals don’t have a general manager. Brown functions as one, making personnel decisions. He and Lewis have disagreed on moves, most notably the decision to bring back receiver Chris Henry after letting him go for repeatedly getting into trouble. Questions also have arisen about the team’s scouting and medical staffs.

Lewis repeatedly has lobbied for a covered practice field. The Bengals had to get on buses and make a 45-minute trip to an indoor soccer facility to prepare for a playoff loss to the Jets in 2009. The team can cover one of the practice fields adjacent to Paul Brown Stadium, but would have to pay the entire cost.

So far, Brown has declined to pay for a covered field, leaving the Bengals as the only northern NFL team without one. Even the University of Cincinnati has a practice bubble.

Players said Lewis hasn’t given any indication of his fate, leaving them to wonder what comes next.

“We definitely have some young talent,” left tackle Andrew Whitworth said. “I don’t think talent is the issue on this team at all. I just think we’ve got to get to where we play and execute at a high level. That’s what we haven’t been able to do this year is execute it. Sometimes you can’t put a finger on why that is.”