Even I'm rolling my eyes

[walzav29]

I'm Johnny Blueskies when it comes to the Bengals. I can find hope usually anywhere. I must admit though that pulling the positives out of 1 drive is insane. I didn't get to see the game yet, but I was listening and those 1st 5 drives

Dalton’s first drive: Three and out.

Second drive: Interception off a bad drop from receiver A.J. Green.

Third drive: The Bengals go way backwards after Dalton made a bad handoff to Cedric Benson.

Fourth drive: Another interception by Dalton.

Fifth drive: Another three-and-out.

I mean yuck. I still like Dalton, and I think they will look better than they have the last 2 games. I just found it funny on Bengals.com how they go through the 1 drive like it was Super Bowl 23. If they start every game like that we'll be 0-16

[ArmyBengal]

Not saying you are, but let the "The sky is falling" crowd kick in.

It's as if people forget that we are going to suck this year.

[HoosierCat]

It's as if people forget that we are going to suck this year.

Yup. I'm not sure what team all the critics have been following for the last seven or so months, but obviously it wasn't the Bengals.

Were the Bengals better last night than they were against the Lions? Absolutely. And at this point improvement is all we can hope for.

[COB]

I watched it and I'm not freaking out. That is a young team. I know you didn't see the game Walter, but if you had you'd have a different opinion of Dalton's play. I thought he played pretty well. And for a rookie playing in his second pre season game, I thought he played great. He made the right decisions and got the ball out quickly. His passes were crisp and accurate (minus two at the very start of the game).

Michael Johnson made Ferguson look stupid. I felt pretty good about the Bengals after that game. I wasn't online and haven't read the game thread, I'll probably just keep it that way so I can stay in my bubble.

[walzav29]

I listened to all of his drives. I'm encouraged by Dalton. I can tell from what I've read this morning that most people just looked at his stat line and rating and then gave their opinions. They obviously need to add depth, but they will get better as the season goes on. People say the same stuff after every week 1 of the regular season. "Preseason means nothing" but it's all we can go by. The sky is not falling. I think the better the o-line plays, the better everything else will be. They have to cut out the turnovers (Capt. Obvious)I'm still going with wildcard. The improvement will be fast and furious.

[HoosierCat]

I watched it and I'm not freaking out. That is a young team. I know you didn't see the game Walter, but if you had you'd have a different opinion of Dalton's play. I thought he played pretty well. And for a rookie playing in his second pre season game, I thought he played great. He made the right decisions and got the ball out quickly. His passes were crisp and accurate (minus two at the very start of the game).

Agreed. And he would have looked even better if he'd gotten some help from his supporting cast, but everybody was taking their turn effing up last night.

For example, take the first drive. To begin with, the Bengals get buried back at the 10 because of a penalty on the kickoff. Then after two short runs by Benson, Dalton's third-down pass goes incomplete. But even if had been complete it wouldn't have mattered because Whit was called for illegal formation, so it would have come back.

On the second drive, Green has got to come down with that ball. The throw wasn't perfect but it was catchable.

On the Benson fumble, I didn't see anything wrong with Dalton's handoff. He had his arm fully extended and slapped it right into Benson's arms, Ced just took a step and out it popped.

Fourth drive the pick was on Andy, no question. Ball just sailed. Fifth drive started off with a two-year loss by Ced and went downhill from there.

The bottom line for me is that the whole offense remains a work in progress. Dalton, Green, Benson, the o-line, everyone has got to keep working and keep tightening things up. We've seen some flashes but it's going to take a while to develop consistency.

[cincyhokie]

Huge improvement over last week. There was actually a defensive effort. Offense will get somewhat better. I was actually pleased with the game. That's how bad this team is.

Basically, this 4-12 team gave a pretty good effort but more importantly they didn't stay stagnant or regress.

[ct_bengal]

I watched the game, not freakin out stat-lines don't tell the whole story. Dalton clearly had rough start but living in new-england i can say it was pouring in ct, so Dalton obviously was having grip problems. The second drive was impressive, defense will be ok jus have to keep working on that offense...hell just be safe with the football.

[walzav29]

If you compare Dalton and Palmer I would say the following

Palmer has a stronger arm

Dalton is more of a leader

Dalton is more mobile

Dalton is tougher

What I don't know yet is who is better at reading defenses. Teddy Bruschi crucified Palmers ability to read defenses. I have not been able to get a read on Daltons arm yet. I just want it stronger than Kitna's.

[cincyhokie]

I'll take Dalton.

[Sea Ray]

If you compare Dalton and Palmer I would say the following

Palmer has a stronger arm

Dalton is more of a leader

Dalton is more mobile

Dalton is tougher

What I don't know yet is who is better at reading defenses. Teddy Bruschi crucified Palmers ability to read defenses. I have not been able to get a read on Daltons arm yet. I just want it stronger than Kitna's.

Would you say Palmer had a stronger arm than Dalton the last couple of seasons? I think Dalton's arm compares well with the 30 yr old version of Carson. I haven't seen much evidence of Palmer's strong arm recently

[Stripes]

I think it's completely silly to assume anything we saw yesterday will be a constant throughout the entire regular season, good or bad. We still know pretty much nothing about this team, imo.

[cincyhokie]

I think it's completely silly to assume anything we saw yesterday will be a constant throughout the entire regular season, good or bad. We still know pretty much nothing about this team, imo.

We've all been watching football long enough to know when a team is giving a concerted effort and when it's not. They played last night like they gave a s**t. Can't ask for more.

[Sea Ray]

I think it's completely silly to assume anything we saw yesterday will be a constant throughout the entire regular season, good or bad. We still know pretty much nothing about this team, imo.

I understand what you're saying but us Bengal fans have seen this play out before. We're used to saying "it's only pre season" and we all know how those seasons played out. The one thing I can't ever seem to figure out is regardless of whether it's a young team or a veteran team, the Bengals always seem to start slow. They always seem to underachieve in Sept. The other team always looks better prepared.

My guess is they'll come out of the gate and lose most if not all of their first 8 games and then when they don't mean anything they'll win one here and there and we'll be all fired up for 2012. I have no expectations this year so every win will be a bonus for me. Even if they compete for the #1 pick, I won't care. I figure Andrew Luck will just announce he's coming back for his senior yr if he sees the Bengals have the #1 pick