Domata Peko prides himself on being a nice guy off the field, but the Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle said that’s the last thing he wants to be called when he’s playing football.

Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis threw out the “nice” word Sunday in his postgame press conference, saying the team needs to play a little nastier following a 34-24 loss to previously winless Cleveland.

“You don’t ever want to hear anybody say you’re too nice, so we’ll take it as a challenge,” Peko said. “It’s just a little motivation I guess for all of us to go out there and really give it our all.”

Lewis was asked Monday what kind of feedback he received from players after his comments were published.

“I don’t know if I need feedback,” he said. “It’s not like I only told you (the media) — I told them, too. You’ve got to be able to stomp on the back of somebody’s neck and go. That’s what this is all about. We don’t get mulligans. We are playing for lunch tickets, and we are playing for keeps. You’ve got to go when it is time to go, and you’ve got to put them away in every way.”

Peko said the comments certainly got the attention of the players.

“As a defensive player and a player in the NFL you don’t ever want to be called a nice player,” he said. “Off the field, that’s cool. But on the field, that stuff doesn’t sit well with a lot of the guys. We’ll see how nice we are this weekend.”

Third and wrong

In six games this season, the Bengals have been outscored 57-10 in the third quarter — including 33-0 the last four weeks.

Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said he isn’t sure why the team has struggled so much coming out of halftime.

“If I knew, I’d turn it on and fix it quickly,” he said. “I can look at years past, particularly last year, and it was a strength of ours. It was a strength of ours in the preseason. But right now, it’s not. And it’s not that the defense has been dreadful, it’s just that we’ve been dreadful on offense in the third quarter.”

Sunday against the Browns, the Bengals ran 13 plays in the third quarter and gained 29 yards. They had as many first downs (one) as they did turnovers.

Last year the Bengals outscored their opponents 86-50 in the third quarter, making it their best quarter defensively and second best quarter offensively (116 points in the fourth).

Leonard sore

Bengals running back Brian Leonard re-aggravated a rib injury Sunday in the loss at Cleveland, but Lewis said it doesn’t appear serious.

“He’ll be probably day-to-day,” Lewis said. “We’ll see how he feels Wednesday.”

Leonard left the game in the second quarter after an awkward landing on a special teams play.

If he is unable to go Sunday vs. Pittsburgh, the Bengals will be left with BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Cedric Peerman as their only running backs on the active roster.

Green-Ellis is averaging just 3.6 yards per carry this season, while Peerman has just 11 career carries — although he did set career highs Sunday with eight catches for 76 yards.