CINCINNATI - Carson Palmer ignores the spotlight. Chad Johnson can't live without it.
Palmer doesn't care if he gets credit for anything. Johnson wants to make sure everyone knows when he does something good.
The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Southern Cal doesn't do much more than point to the sky when he throws a touchdown pass. When he catches one, the Pro Bowl receiver from Florida performs carefully choreographed moves, hoping to make the nightly highlights.
Opposites, indeed, but they're getting closer all the time.
The Cincinnati Bengals' unlikely throw-and-catch tandem has developed into one of the NFL's most dangerous - and most intriguing - pairings. During a 23-20 loss in Jacksonville on Sunday night, the nation saw them at their best and worst. They scored, and they squabbled.
"We're married," Johnson joked on Wednesday.
In Jacksonville, they looked the part.
First, they teamed up on one of the Bengals' most impressive plays of the season. Rolling to his right with a defender about to level him, Palmer lofted a 14-yard touchdown pass to a diving Johnson, who then gave the ball CPR.
Funny, for the moment.
Johnson wasn't amused when he caught only one more pass the rest of the game because of double coverage. At one point, he fussed at Palmer on the sideline to get him the ball.
"I feel for him," Palmer said Wednesday. "I understand that he's competitive and wants the ball. I tell him I'm trying to get him the ball, but I'm not going to force the ball into double coverage. There's no point. All that does is create turnovers."
And, potentially, some hard feelings that the two of them talked out.
"He understands that being a premier player in this league, you're going to have to fight through some stuff," Palmer said. "He understands what his skill level has brought him. People aren't going to leave him one-on-one because he'll beat you. He understands that.
"On the flip side, he's an emotional, demanding player. He wants to win. He wants the ball in his hands. He wears the emotions on his sleeve sometimes."
There didn't appear to be any hard feelings Wednesday, in part because the two seem to understand each other.
Since Palmer was elevated to the starting job last season, the two of them have spent a lot of time together after practice, honing their timing so they could become one of the league's top tandems. They even drove to Indianapolis to watch Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison work their magic in a Monday night game last year.
Johnson doesn't want to have a relationship like Eagles receiver Terrell Owens has with quarterback Donovan McNabb in Philadelphia.
"That would be hard for me because for one (thing), Carson and I are learning," Johnson said. "Carson and I take trips to other people's games, for instance like the Monday night last year when Minnesota played Indy and he and I were trying to get our growth going.
"I couldn't even think or try that. I don't think I'd be able to function."
Both said their disagreement Sunday looked worse than it was. Johnson finished with five catches for 52 yards, and leads the AFC in receptions. Palmer finished with his eighth consecutive passer rating of better than 100, leaving him one shy of Manning's NFL record.
Johnson hopes the Bengals find a way to get him the ball on Sunday in Tennessee even if the Titans stack their defensive secondary to prevent him from deciding the game. He's convinced he can get open no matter how many defenders are covering him, as long as the play callers give him a chance.
"Just run right by them, like we did last year in the first game at New York," Johnson said. "Chad runs by them and (Palmer) launches it, but that's kind of a school-yard, draw-in-the-dirt play and that's not part of our system. I have to stay within the system and if being double covered opens everybody up, then I'll have to stick with it."
It appears that Johnson's complaints got some results. Both he and Palmer talked Wednesday about finding different ways to get the receiver open.
"We're working on that right now," Palmer said.
Johnson seemed satisfied.
"We have to be creative and were going to do that, so I'm not worried about that," he said.