Bengals at Lions

[Stripes]

Sorry but one preseason game is not enough for me to call for Rowe to replace Doug Johnson. I don't want a rookie picked in a 5th round backing up Palmer. He has every opportunity to prove he's capable of that in time, but not yet.

Johnson got off to a horrid start, but he picked it up later.

[HoTbOy]

I did not see the game because I went to a friends house who doesn't have the NFL Network and had to watch the Cowboyz and Colts, but when I got home I saw highlights of the game and I saw something like 489 yards passing on the Bengals...I know it is only PS but WTF...I saw something about KIrons leaving the field on crutches and maybe done for the season, and I'm like here we go again with a RB...Me personally I don't care if it is only PS I did not want to see almost 500 yards passing in the 1st game on our already suspect D...

[Stripes]

The vast majority of those passing yards came after the starters left the game. That may not speak well for our depth, but it does not at all reflect on the Bengals' struggles against the pass last season.

[DesperateDerelict]

our defense played alright...

What game were you watching?

The vast majority of those passing yards came after the starters left the game

Actually, we had a big mix of 1st, 2nd, & 3rd stringers in and out most of the game.

My thoughts after studying the TIVO:

On Defense

GOOD: Rush "D", with active LB play and safety support. The d-line won some one-on-one battles.

BAD: Our zone - either the safeties are too deep or the LB's not deep enough - a decent TE will kill us unless we cover 15 - 25 yards downfield. Also, there were several pass pays that we didn't get close to the QB.

Offense

GOOD: Draw plays, running quick-outs and come-back routes.

BAD: Dive plays, crossing plays. Did we even run a deep "GO" or post pattern all night? Also, the 2nd string o-line was HANDLED.

Special teams

GOOD: Our return punt team, with Skyler (the game MVP) in there. Shayne for 59 minutes. Kyle Larson.

BAD: Punt blocked, and kick-off coverage was loose.

In all, some good plays, and lots of stuff for the coaches to yell & scream about.

I'm actually happy we won't go 4 - 0 again this preseason....kind of.

[combatbengal]

When do we start seeing players cut? Why in the heck didn't we resign Wright? Great thought process on that decision.

- The long snapper was on it last night!

- I agree with moving Johnson to 3rd string. If Palmer goes down, we're screwed.

- Some of the WR were dropping balls that were thrown to the wrong place, their hands!

- Justin Smith is a great asset. Resign him.

- Rudi is a god.

- Palmer and Chad are great.

- TJ looked great.

- Def still sucks. I agree with scoring 30 points to have a chance to win some of our games.

[agreen_112]

TD Matt Toeaina, 81 Yd interception return (Shayne Graham kick is good), 10:16.

Lol I can't wait to see that.

ahmad brooks.. why didnt he record a stat

You're right man were the hell was he? I seen him shine his speed on one play.. I hope he was just going through the motions and instructed by the coaches not to really "hit" anyone to spare his health... Jeez, I miss Odell man!

DB's: Ndukwe and White looked pretty good in their 1st game. I believe it was Ndukwe that blew the coverage on the pass from O' Sullivan to McDonalds, this must be the awareness that the coaches said he was lacking. Ratliff looked just as s**tty as he always has, nothing new there! Deltha just went through the motions, no problem, he'll be fine. Leon couldn't cover, looked a little timid to me, he get over that.

LB's: Landon Johnson's arms looked huge, he also looked like he gained a step or two, he was flying out there. LJ, Brooks and Hartwell/Jeanty have the ability to do big things this year. Hopefully Brooks will start to show us what he's got, the dude's a monster!

D-line: Wow! They were the highlight of this game. The depth looks great and even though they really didnt' get many sacks that 1st group looked tremendous! And speed to, they looked really quick to me. Can't wait to see more out of the 1st group with the backups getting in on those situational plays.

Overall, the D still has A LOT of work to do, but I did see potential.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

A disappointing night.

Irons could be out the entire season already.

Leon Hall looked terrible against #3 and #4 WR's - cmon. JJ can't get back fast enough.

Stacy Andrews and Guy-chick are still below average NFL lineman, and had trouble with their run blocking and picking up blitzes.

The 1st stringers are what they are - very good and they would beat the Lions silly with a healthy group.

Shayne Graham is becoming a choker.

Yes Henry is awesome

The Bengals' have some depth issues

Still not impressed with Ahmad Brooks at all, and am starting to wonder if Hartwell could do a better job

Caleb Miller is still....Caleb Miller

Oh well I hope they find a RB to replace Irons if he's out

[kenyon1977]

This morning I woke up and started drinking Bloody Mary's after calling in sick to work. This looks like a long season coming up. I'm not happy after last nights debacle of shame and embarrassment. Call it preseason if you want but these guys are supposed to be professionals regardless of what the damn date is. Doug Johnson should be dragged out into the street and beat to death so we don't have to worry about him anymore. What an untalented piece of S%^t. We'd have better luck selecting a QB out of the crowd. Turn it into a raffle. Who ever is in Sec 115 row 3 seat 7 gets to play backup. An 80 year old lady has better legs than his ass.

Irons??? What the hell. WHy do we get someone that seems to be an awesome counter-point for Rudi and then he gets hurt. Damn I'm pissed about that. God must be a Steelers fan and hates the Bengals. Chris Perry is a sissy that's always hurt like Carter was and now this.

Yes I'm a little drunk so be nice.

I don't blame the DB's for the O'Sullivan 83 yard TD. Calvin Johnson was coming underneath on a 7 and out and they bit on it. Calvin looks like a damn manchild. He's going to be a good one no doubt even if all he has to throw to him is Kitna. It'll be a lot like when he was in college. Under throw passes that he has to go get or jumping over DB's to make a catch.

Rowe looked good and poised, that made me happy. I'd like to see him play second stringers though so it doesn't seem like a fluke.

Chris Henry though impressive seems to be a waste of snaps in game time conditions. 8 games without him. Bennie and his jets is fast as greased owl s**t on a brass doorknob but that's only effective if he catches the damn thing.

Scared me a little when CJ got plowed early like that. I was afraid he got a concusion and would be out for the first couple games.

Normally winning a preseason game isn't all that important as getting roster spots figured out but after how they finished the season last year I think they need to get back to winning not jsut for themselves but for us fans. I spent my left nut last year to go to that Steelers game damnit.

This Bloody Mary needs a lot more Vodka.

When was the last time we ran a kick or punt back for a TD???? Have we had the same coach at Special Teams this whole time? Green looked good and fearless trying to get a few yards but what the hell. Are we going to go another year without a TD? How many teams have a drought as long as the Bengals at running back a TD from a kickoff? I'm curious.

I loved watching the big man get a TD and whoever that was that gave him a great block halfway down the field Thank You, that's a team player.

Grahm. Shane. What the hell? It's okay for now because it's preseason I guess but damn the only time you should miss a field goal is if it's blocked. I had a friend that showed up to a party one time with a blond on his arm. She seemed okay and a party girl. She said she met Shane at a party down in Cincy and screwed his brains out on a one night stand. I thought that was cool for some reason.

I'm sorry if this seems long or negative but damn I scheduled my vacation time this year for the days after Bengal games because I figured this was the year and I'm going to party for every win. I'm taking the wife for our long overdue honeymoon to CLeveland in week 2 to watch the Bengals crush up on the Brownies. I want to see some improvement in all facites of the game. Where's the pop and excitment on defense? Someone needs to sacrifice their body for some bone rattling, teeth falling out, crushing hits to make the wide outs and QB anxious. Hear them footsteps a comin.....

Peace,

[HoosierCat]

The vast majority of those passing yards came after the starters left the game. That may not speak well for our depth, but it does not at all reflect on the Bengals' struggles against the pass last season.

I think the larger point is this: how many years did we watch the exact opposite happen? How many preseasons did out first team go out and struggle, get shut down or run over? Only to then watch our backups come in against their backups and pull close or win at the end? As I recall, it was a running joke for years: we had "the best backups in the league." "Our backups can beat anyone else's backups."

Last night we saw our first teams do well -- not perfect but IMHO just fine for outing No. 1 of the year -- and certainly better than our opponents' first teams. And that was without any game planning or watching film or any of the usual stuff that teams do and just running basic vanilla stuff. In short, in talent versus talent the Bengals starters handily won the battle.

As for the depth issue, well, we knew some of it was there. Take the o-line. With Koo and Whit starting, our "second team" o-line is more like our 3rd/4th string o-line. It's also worth remembering that once the games start to count, our "depth" will be in there in bits and pieces, not wholesale as it is in preseason.

Looking ahead to the next preseason game, only thing I'm looking to see happen differently is some TDs instead of FGs by the first team.

[markymark69]

I think the scheme was a part of the problem. Staying with zone defense and not making any adjustments, just like the Indianapolis game last year. I realize that most of the guys on the field at the end of the game will not be on the team or at least be in a position to be on the field late in the game, but I'm not sure that Bresnahan or whoever makes the calls put the players in positions to be successful.

[The PatternMaster]

My observations:

- Eric Henderson is a beast, that guy was everywhere throwing his body around like he wants to be somebody. #50 kept flashing, keep up the good work Henderson.

- Madieu looked really good, he was aggressive and if he can stay healthy he could be a Pro Bowler.

- I really like the new and improved D-Line, I think we will be solid on the line.

- Ahmed Brooks showed some progress, the play early in the 2nd quarter on 3rd and short Brooks avoided the center by making an athletic play and met the rb in the hole to stuff him for no gain, I hope we see alot of that.

- The offense is already clicking on all cyclinders, the rest of NFL better be glad we don't have Henry for the first 8 games or it wouldn't be fair.

- Stacey Andrews is ready for the big show, he really impressed me with his progress.

- It's going to be a tight race for safety, some really good players are going to get cut.

- Bennie Brazell is still pretty raw but he needs alot of game time reps, I don't want to see CJ or TJ again until Sept. We need to develop the young guys not named Chris Henry and game reps are the only way guys like Brazell, McNeal, Green, Holt, etc are going to improve. They have the natural talent, they just need the reps to build confidence and to prove to the coaches they can get the job done.

- Deltha O'Neal looked gimpy, is he hurt?

Overall I think the first units looked really sharp for the first preseason game, especially Carson. If you compare his first pre-season performance last year to this one you will see the reason for excitement, Carson could break some records this year. Even with our starting OT's on the bench the o-line still dominated, which is great!!!

The defense looked very good as well, I think we will be top 15 unit vs. the run. Our pass defense is still an area of concern, O'Neal didn't look to hot, Hall looked like a rookie who is half a step slow, and Keiwan is still Keiwan. D Jax is the leader of that unit, his play vs. the run is very underrated. There was a situation were it was 2nd & 3, D Jax came up and forced the runner into a 2 yard loss turning a 2nd & 3 into a 3rd & 5, great play by Jackson. The young guys like Chide, White, B. Williams, etc..all made some good plays but they are were out of position on a few plays as well.

All in all alot guys got in some good work and I will be looking to see improvement in the next game.

[skyline]

Don't you people ever learn? How many preseasons do we have to go through before we realize that it means next to nothing other than getting a chance to see how the young guys react to game situations?

Maybe it's an omen of bad things to come, and then again, maybe not.

The only thing that got me overly worked up last night was seeing Irons go down. It's not the end of the world. As someone else said, we didn't have him last year either. Still, I see it as a pretty big blow. Here's hoping for some good news from the medical staff today.

[redsbengalsbucks]

I'm taking the wife for our long overdue honeymoon to CLeveland in week 2 to watch the Bengals crush up on the Brownies.

Honeymoon in Cleveland, that is disturbing.

[membengal]

Good lord, I had forgotten that bengalszone staple, the "over-react much?" reactions to games. Especially pre-season games.

Good times.

For my part:

1. I was actually heartened by the D. The first team took care of business, the pressure was steady all night from the d-line without much if any blitzing. And it was a fantastic learning night for Hall, White, and Ndukwe. Did they get schooled at times? Hell yes. They should have. It was their first game ever, against a Mike Martz offense. What a fantastic way to learn. And they layed some solid hits on people. Look me up when O'Neal and JJ are getting gashed for 500 yards passing with no pressure from the D-line. Then I will get concerned. Not off of last night.

2. I am just begging the football gods that Irons doesn't have an ACL. He looked like exactly what I thought he was in his few carries, decisive speed. We have no manner of luck with rookie RBs making debuts in Detroit.

3. The first team offense was on comfortable cruise control. They came nowhere near Carson and Rudi had huge holes to run through.

4. To bitch about special teams in the 4th quarter is really stretching. In real life, you have an actual hands team in there on the onside kick full of actual pros. In real life, your punt protection is from regulars, not back-ups. Would have been nice to have Graham nail the last figgie though. Maybe he can get his miss out of the way now.

5. The run defense was indeed solid. Nice to see. Good effort at the point of attack.

Hoosier is PRECISELY right, this was the exact opposite of so many years of the past. This time around, our regulars beat the s**t out of their regulars. Isn't that what matters? Seriously? If you are going to take things away from pre-season games, take that. So the team's 4th stringers let a 26-10 lead with 8 minutes to go bleed away. Pardon me for deciding the sky is NOT falling this morning.

The main thing is Irons' MRI. We're do some good injury news for a change. Let's cross our fingers and hope it is today.

[DC_Bengals_Fan]

Sorry but one preseason game is not enough for me to call for Rowe to replace Doug Johnson. I don't want a rookie picked in a 5th round backing up Palmer. He has every opportunity to prove he's capable of that in time, but not yet.

Johnson got off to a horrid start, but he picked it up later.

Doug Johnson's career is enough to tell me he shouldn't be in the NFL.

[kingwilly]

Sorry but one preseason game is not enough for me to call for Rowe to replace Doug Johnson. I don't want a rookie picked in a 5th round backing up Palmer. He has every opportunity to prove he's capable of that in time, but not yet.

Johnson got off to a horrid start, but he picked it up later.

not sure Rowe should replace Johnson at this point but have to disagree abot Johnson "picking it up"...all he did was switch to a very measured west-coast play scheme. Quick outs and short timing patterns, high percentage and low risk...it was an artificial "pick up" the INT to the corner to Henry and the blown passes to Breazel and Green were troubling...he also looks cross-eyed, maybe that is the issue?

[Stripes]

Sorry but one preseason game is not enough for me to call for Rowe to replace Doug Johnson. I don't want a rookie picked in a 5th round backing up Palmer. He has every opportunity to prove he's capable of that in time, but not yet.

Johnson got off to a horrid start, but he picked it up later.

Doug Johnson's career is enough to tell me he shouldn't be in the NFL.

He certainly stunk up the place when he filled in for Mike Vick, but even so... his NFL career is more impressive than Jeff Rowe's NFL career.

He's not a great backup by any means, but he's the obvious choice among the players on the roster.

[HoosierCat]

As usual, Goheen gets it right...

http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar...PT03/708100306/

[jjakq27]

Goheen was on the radio a few minutes ago and threw out the name Kelly Holcomb should he become available.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

I've only seen one over-reactive post, by a drunk Bengalszoner - it happens.

It's ok to be critical or concerned about certain players/positions based on a preseason game. They're played for a reason.

As for myself I am not concerned about any of the proven starters of course and know they would probably beat the Lions in a regular season game with Willie/Levi in there - or maybe even not. No one can stop Carson/Chad/TJ/Henry/Rudi. That said I wouldn't call a 6-0 lead when the left as a "beating." But yeah they moved up and down the field - just didn't do well in the red zone or on 3rd down - need to improve there. Some of that was due to blocking breakdowns.

I was NOT impressed with Andrews and Guy-chick up the middle - too many missed blocks and poor run blocking and missed blitz pick-ups for #1 guys.

Whitworth does a good job - he's a good lineman.

Santucci wasn't very good and got hurt.

The defense still has pass coverage issues galore - the CB's were soft and the zone they were playing was probably part of it - Chinny's blown coverage cost them a TD and THAT was ugly as hell. But Chinny made some nice hits/run support stops. He could be a productive player in his role - but pass coverage is still a weakeness over-all.

[ckj414]

Wow, a lot of you guys are overreacting to this game. Evaluating preseason performance is a lot easier if you just ignore the score completely and focus on individuals. Most experienced NFL coaches aren't even trying to win, so the score becomes virtually meaningless.

And what is up with people complaining that their kicker only went 3/4 from beyond 45 yards? Christ, get some perspective. Forget griping, you should all be kneeling down and puckering up; Graham can bring it from long range better than most kickers in the league.

Ugh. Kicker-hatred is a pet peeve of mine. There hasn't been a kicker in NFL history who lines up for the game winner and suddenly 'turns it on'. Its a crap shoot by nature, learn to deal with it.

[kingwilly]

Wow, a lot of you guys are overreacting to this game. Evaluating preseason performance is a lot easier if you just ignore the score completely and focus on individuals. Most experienced NFL coaches aren't even trying to win, so the score becomes virtually meaningless.

And what is up with people complaining that their kicker only went 3/4 from beyond 45 yards? Christ, get some perspective. Forget griping, you should all be kneeling down and puckering up; Graham can bring it from long range better than most kickers in the league.

Ugh. Kicker-hatred is a pet peeve of mine. There hasn't been a kicker in NFL history who lines up for the game winner and suddenly 'turns it on'. Its a crap shoot by nature, learn to deal with it.

hold up. what I am reading above is individual evaluations. also, winning does matter..what the pre-season offers is the chance to see how the new/young guys handle the situation but the objective stays the same: winning. If winning did not matter, they would not keep score.

Now, the concern in the kick game is that this is part of what killed the season late last year. Noone hates the kicker, and yes, there is a kicker who does "turn it on", his name is Adam Vinitaeri.

[ShulaSteakhouse]

Wow, a lot of you guys are overreacting to this game. Evaluating preseason performance is a lot easier if you just ignore the score completely and focus on individuals. Most experienced NFL coaches aren't even trying to win, so the score becomes virtually meaningless.

And what is up with people complaining that their kicker only went 3/4 from beyond 45 yards? Christ, get some perspective. Forget griping, you should all be kneeling down and puckering up; Graham can bring it from long range better than most kickers in the league.

Ugh. Kicker-hatred is a pet peeve of mine. There hasn't been a kicker in NFL history who lines up for the game winner and suddenly 'turns it on'. Its a crap shoot by nature, learn to deal with it.

Crap shoot my ass. Give me a break. Tell the Colts and Pats that. And who is "focusing" on the score? Who exactly?

This team missed the playoffs last year because Graham couldn't make a rather NFL routine 35 yarder. He is paid well to do just that when they need him to.

They compete for jobs like anyone else. So please spare me the lowered standards/expectations. It's all too Bungle-like.

[Kazkal]

Sorry but one preseason game is not enough for me to call for Rowe to replace Doug Johnson. I don't want a rookie picked in a 5th round backing up Palmer. He has every opportunity to prove he's capable of that in time, but not yet.

Johnson got off to a horrid start, but he picked it up later.

Johnson has always played horrible,Rowe is unproven but johnson has proven he blows....

[Kazkal]

Scared me a little when CJ got plowed early like that. I was afraid he got a concusion and would be out for the first couple games.

They probably want henry to get as many snaps as possible so he's not as out of it week 9 when he comes back....if I was him I'd invite carson over on my days off to throw me the ball during regular season.

Grahm. Shane. What the hell? It's okay for now because it's preseason I guess but damn the only time you should miss a field goal is if it's blocked. I had a friend that showed up to a party one time with a blond on his arm. She seemed okay and a party girl. She said she met Shane at a party down in Cincy and screwed his brains out on a one night stand. I thought that was cool for some reason.

Yes he shanked a 47 yarder but he still hit a 48 and 50...even adam vinatieri shanks 40-50 fg's

our defense played alright...

What game were you watching?

The one that was 26-10 that our defense just had scored a 80 yard defensive touchdown after getting drived down the field and having to go back and never getting a chance to catch wind from there on out .