Opinions on the game?

[BengalNation1281]

While I know that it is the preseason, and I am not going to take pot shots at Palmer because of a relatively slow start in the first preseason game, but how did he look? I didn't get to see any highlights, but I saw that he had three passes for 74 yards, and 25 yards a throw isn't too shabby.

Oh, and how did Kitna look? I saw that T.J. dropped a pass in the end zone that Jon seemed to have thrown perfectly.

And how in God's name did Chris "I'm glad that I had Major Applewhite around to save my overrated @$$" Simms come off looking like freakin' Marino? 12-15 for 110 does nothing for my confidence in the secondary, even if it was done against backups.

Give me your thoughts and feelings.

BN1281

[brian5562]

Kitna is a great backup. Palmer can really throw the ball. Most of Simms throws were dump offs which accounts for the high %. He did move the chains though. It was a no pressure preseaon game. If we had guys from Oklahoma on our Defense he would have pissed his pants.

[CTBengalsFan]

palmers pick wasn't his fault, he's got a cannon

[BengalBax]

Ok here ya go...

Palmer looked below average. He underthrew the 47 yard pass to K.W. that was a completion. He threw away one pass to avoid being sacked and it hit the defender right in the hands. Of the three completions Palmer had, 1 was on the money. That was the strike to Chad on his first reception. The K.W. pass as stated before was underthrown. The second completion to Chad was behind him.

The line looked average at best. Even minus Steinbach, Palmer was rushed pretty much every time he dropped back to pass. I guarantee he gets the he11 blitzed out of him every game this year.

Rudi looked very good.

T.j. looked AWFUL. Played like a 7th round pick.

Graham is for real.

Richardson is gone. Rookie punter scares me.

D-Line was below average. No pressure at all. Smith is not what we want him to be. Clemons is old, Tony W. is too small. Linebackers look ok, Miller looks good.

D-Backs were horrendous. The whole defense looks old and tired.

[EdwardG]

Carson Palmer looked very good. His first pass was incomplete solely because the fullback wasn't paying attention. He threw strikes to Chad Johnson and Kelly Washington. His pass to Kelly Washington was underthrown, but what BengalBax forgot to say was that Palmer was running to his right and throwing across his body when he tossed it. It was a great play.

He had two good passes dropped which would have led to first downs. He generally looked comfortable in the pocket, and he just needs to take a little off some of his throws. Otherwise, he looked very accurate and very comfortable even as he was rushed quite a bit. He had two bad throws, one which was overthrown over the middle, and the other which was one of those Kitna/Frerotte plays were he was getting sacked and winged the ball at a defender. Overall, I was pretty impressed since a) it was his first game in forever, and 2) Tampa Bay did not play a "vanilla" defense as most teams do in the preseason.

As for other questions. Kitna looked fine as a backup. He struggled once we sent in Mutt and Jeff to block for him, but he looked good early. Our defense was playing extremely soft, so it is difficult to figure that one out. They made a concerted effort to stop the run, which they did, but Tampa's running game is nothing to get excited about.

[jjakq27]

I got a chance to watch the first half again last night and a few things popped up that I didn't really catch the first time around.

Palmer seems very certain of himself considering it is his first game in a year. On the INT off of TJ, he recognized something and moved the fullback over to the left side to block. Tampa rushed 5 and blitzed three more on the play. TJ was in the slot and was the hot read. Palmer did not blast the ball in there at all. Even Munoz said it was very catchable.

And on the first sack, they blitzed a safety along with Rice and somebody missed something on that one.

He missed a possible TD when he underthrew the long pass to KW that he had to wait on. A little more behind it and it could have been 6.

He also had a nice swing pass to Perry that got wiped out when KW wasn't lined up right for a penalty. The next play, Perry fumbled.

I thought for all of the hype and distraction, he played very well.

[wookie]

Ok here ya go...

Palmer looked below average. He underthrew the 47 yard pass to K.W. that was a completion. He threw away one pass to avoid being sacked and it hit the defender right in the hands. Of the three completions Palmer had, 1 was on the money. That was the strike to Chad on his first reception. The K.W. pass as stated before was underthrown. The second completion to Chad was behind him.

The line looked average at best. Even minus Steinbach, Palmer was rushed pretty much every time he dropped back to pass. I guarantee he gets the he11 blitzed out of him every game this year.

Rudi looked very good.

T.j. looked AWFUL. Played like a 7th round pick.

Graham is for real.

Richardson is gone. Rookie punter scares me.

D-Line was below average. No pressure at all. Smith is not what we want him to be. Clemons is old, Tony W. is too small. Linebackers look ok, Miller looks good.

D-Backs were horrendous. The whole defense looks old and tired.

Bax, check out Thorton's assessment of the game on bengalscentral.com and get an honest player perspective of what happened. Don't forget to read his opening comment concerning people calling the Bengals season a loss after 1 preseason game. I gotta hand it to him, he really didn't let much bias get through his review of the game. I was impressed.

Also, the underthrown ball was unfortunate but he was running for his life and threw across his body just as Eddie G mentioned. Difficult throw to complete at all...many QB's would've had that ball sail out of bounds on them as the player's momentum usually impedes the throw. Good play on both ends as Washington was able to make a nice adjustment and make the catch...20+ yards ain't 6 but it ain't nothing to overlook either.

O-line needed work in pass protection but the run blocking was nice...we need more from the backups in this position cause Bramlet had just as bad a day being sacked twice to end the game.

Rudi did look good, Perry was almost down B4 he lost that ball but he's a rookie and looks like he can really play. He didn't let that fumble get into his head and that's very important.

T.J. looked awful, agreed wholeheartedly...please throw in your comments on my When will T.J. go? thread.

D-line is hurtin, no pass rush at all, but stepped up against the run which was our main concern going into the game. Have to wait and see what they do against a really tough running team, though.

Miller was solid, LB's and Secondary looked really rusty and hesitated way too much, but as Thorton said they didn't gameplan for the Bucs so they were just reading and reacting.

Definitely looking for more in the Pats game...Lewis said that Palmer will play the 1st half...also said they would have given him more snaps against the Bucs if they weren't dropping passes and fumbling.

[BengalszoneBilly]

Hey guy's. Sorry I've been absent since Mondays game, but it was all I could do by not shooting myself in the freakin' head! I just had to let it go and take myself to that nice happy place where all is well and serene...THE BAR!!

Well the binge is over! Hopefully the team will look better tomorrow!