(08-19-2023, 10:55 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: Yeah gonna have to disagree on that one. Not really sure what you are basing the Dax is more physical that Bates argument because we've barely seen him play. But having said that we haven't really seen this group play an actual game so we will just have to wait and see either way. 

Daxton Hill was known as an extremely fast, physical, great tackling, versatile Secondary player at Michigan.

Jessie Bates was known for his poor tackling at Wake Forest, his range and coverage were his strengths, he has never been 
known as a physical player. Don't know why you would disagree on this one, these are facts.

(08-19-2023, 11:34 PM)RegularGuy22 Wrote: I'm not be too sure about that. Remember the last 2 years and all the 3 and outs?  We'll be punting plenty. We were stopped plenty with 4th and whatever on the wrong side of the 50.

That was because of poor OL play, sure, if the OL continues to play THAT poorly we might have a ton of 3 and outs and have
to rely on Punting and great Defense to win. But I think most think that our OL at least the starters, should be much better this
year as the IOL have chemistry together, we added Orlando Brown Jr and Jonah is looking good at RT.

(08-20-2023, 09:47 AM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Preseason doesn't really matter outside of getting some playtime and group cohesion for the guys who will make the roster and getting a look at fringe guys to see who will make the final cuts... but you'd still hope to not look like complete dogshit.

KC is has scored 24 and 38 points mostly with Blaine Gabbert and Shane Buechele at QB  looking good with no Kelce and only 3 catches for 27 yards from their top-3 WRs.

You don't have to look terrible just because you are playing backup QBs, backup WRs, and are in preseason, so it's a bit silly to say this is how championship caliber teams run the preseason.

Again, I am not worried (so long as Burrow is on the field), but it'd sure be a lot nicer if it wasn't a complete dumpster fire without him.

All true, it would be a lot nicer if it didn't look so bad in Preseason. But it IS preseason and we should be healthier entering this 
season than last year and we should have much better chemistry and better ST's. In the end we all know that the regular season
is where it counts. 

Hopefully we do look a lot better in this last preseason game and Burrow is practicing the week before the opener. If so, I am not
concerned at all yet. Hell we started out 0-2 last season and still were on the doorstep of another SB appearance.

(08-20-2023, 01:35 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Daxton Hill was known as an extremely fast, physical, great tackling, versatile Secondary player at Michigan.

Jessie Bates was known for his poor tackling at Wake Forest, his range and coverage were his strengths, he has never been 
known as a physical player. Don't know why you would disagree on this one, these are facts.


That was because of poor OL play, sure, if the OL continues to play THAT poorly we might have a ton of 3 and outs and have
to rely on Punting and great Defense to win. But I think most think that our OL at least the starters, should be much better this
year as the IOL have chemistry together, we added Orlando Brown Jr and Jonah is looking good at RT.


All true, it would be a lot nicer if it didn't look so bad in Preseason. But it IS preseason and we should be healthier entering this 
season than last year and we should have much better chemistry and better ST's. In the end we all know that the regular season
is where it counts. 

Hopefully we do look a lot better in this last preseason game and Burrow is practicing the week before the opener. If so, I am not
concerned at all yet. Hell we started out 0-2 last season and still were on the doorstep of another SB appearance.

I'm concerned when I see other teams backups having big time chunk plays on offense 
Aka the Pittsburgh Steelers. 
Calvin Austin has a TD for 68 yards
Jalen Samuels had a  64 td TD run vs the Bills 
I think their offense has 7 plays of 20 yds or 
More in 2 games 
Meanwhile whats the biggest play for the Bengals 
Offense in 2 games...20 yd play by Brown?
Preseason or not...something is wrong with the 
Bengals on offense 

Even our last two seasons our preseason are always so bland. Our starters barely play and we are vanilla on both sides.

(08-20-2023, 01:47 PM)impactplaya Wrote: I'm concerned when I see other teams backups having big time chunk plays on offense 
Aka the Pittsburgh Steelers. 
Calvin Austin has a TD for 68 yards
Jalen Samuels had a  64 td TD run vs the Bills 
I think their offense has 7 plays of 20 yds or 
More in 2 games 
Meanwhile whats the biggest play for the Bengals 
Offense in 2 games...20 yd play by Brown?
Preseason or not...something is wrong with the 
Bengals on offense 

All those guys will get significant playing time. Name one Bengal this preseason on offense that has played that will get significant playing time? Jonah is the only one,

I didn’t see the game. What was the issue with the punter?

Locked on Bengals also mentioned that both Browning and Siemian were very inconsistent in their drop backs, not going to a consistent spot and also tending to dance in back there parallel to the line. As they said this makes pass protection rather harder as it relies in part on the OL knowing here the QB will drop back to so they can set correctly.

(08-20-2023, 01:35 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Hell we started out 0-2 last season and still were on the doorstep of another SB appearance.

That's actually related to the counterpoint to my "I am not worried" that is whispering in the back of my mind. The Bengals are 1-7 in Weeks 1 & 2 under Zac Taylor, so whatever he's been doing in preseasons is clearly not preparing them for the start of the season. 

Do the Bengals go to the SB last year if they have home field advantage in the AFCC instead of having to travel to KC? It's hard to always have to be on the road because you start every season in a hole looking like crap.

(08-20-2023, 01:35 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: Daxton Hill was known as an extremely fast, physical, great tackling, versatile Secondary player at Michigan.

Jessie Bates was known for his poor tackling at Wake Forest, his range and coverage were his strengths, he has never been 
known as a physical player. Don't know why you would disagree on this one, these are facts.

I wasn't talking about scouting reports or what they did in college. Bates was more than physical enough for us rarely missed tackles as the last line in defense, wasn't afraid to come up and make tackles in the box and would give receivers a hard legal hit at the catch point. So while we have to look at Hill college stuff because we haven't seen him on the field a ton just the dudes body type is gonna limit how physical he can be so I don't the he will be WAY more physical than Bates. But yes he may be able to match it and after watching the 1st team defense a few times against Atlanta he did come up and make plays on Bijan a couple times in the box. So I think he will match Bates in that regard and maybe give us more with his athleticism in coverage. Bell will probably be where we miss the Physicality the most but time will tell.

(08-20-2023, 04:24 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: That's actually related to the counterpoint to my "I am not worried" that is whispering in the back of my mind. The Bengals are 1-7 in Weeks 1 & 2 under Zac Taylor, so whatever he's been doing in preseasons is clearly not preparing them for the start of the season. 

Do the Bengals go to the SB last year if they have home field advantage in the AFCC instead of having to travel to KC? It's hard to always have to be on the road because you start every season in a hole looking like crap.

I don't disagree and have gone back and forth on the preseason and certainly wouldn't have hated seeing our OL starters play a series. I mean just look at how much the OL improved from preseason games 1 to 2. 

But last year might have been more about Burrow. I think the OL did improve but I also think initially it was about Burrow trusting the protection. It seemed like our group would initially lose the block but then stay with it and lock them up. In the first couple games Burrow would drop his eyes and scramble around and get sacked but when he trusted they would maintain blocks he started stepping up in the pocket and have more time. Hopefully Burrow gets back to practice soon.

(08-20-2023, 04:24 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: That's actually related to the counterpoint to my "I am not worried" that is whispering in the back of my mind. The Bengals are 1-7 in Weeks 1 & 2 under Zac Taylor, so whatever he's been doing in preseasons is clearly not preparing them for the start of the season. 

Do the Bengals go to the SB last year if they have home field advantage in the AFCC instead of having to travel to KC? It's hard to always have to be on the road because you start every season in a hole looking like crap.

I hear ya.  I feel like we're still damn near a lock to win the division and starting 0-2 last year and only being able to talk about how that cost us the 1st seed is a sign that we get it going in a hurry.

With that being said, last year the Steelers were playing Mitch Turdbiscuit and working a rookie QB into the mix, the Ravens only had their starting QB for 12 games, and the Browns were starting a backup for most of the season and then once Watson started he was rustier than the tinman before he got an oil massage on his lower funnel.  We didn't have an automatic division crown, but all 3 teams should be better this year so hovering around .500 until week 12 might not cut it his year.

(08-19-2023, 08:58 AM)bengalfan74 Wrote: I don't get to broke up about preseason games. However, I didn't get to watch the first half so I am kinda anxious to see what the problem was with our  backup QB? Siemian of course, 88 yards of offense?

Backups playing vs 1st stringers.

(08-20-2023, 04:24 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: That's actually related to the counterpoint to my "I am not worried" that is whispering in the back of my mind. The Bengals are 1-7 in Weeks 1 & 2 under Zac Taylor, so whatever he's been doing in preseasons is clearly not preparing them for the start of the season. 

Do the Bengals go to the SB last year if they have home field advantage in the AFCC instead of having to travel to KC? It's hard to always have to be on the road because you start every season in a hole looking like crap.

For damn sure we need to start out better in the regular season under Zac Taylor.

Actually didn't know we have been that bad weeks 1 and 2....

1-7? 

(08-20-2023, 04:50 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: I wasn't talking about scouting reports or what they did in college. Bates was more than physical enough for us rarely missed tackles as the last line in defense, wasn't afraid to come up and make tackles in the box and would give receivers a hard legal hit at the catch point. So while we have to look at Hill college stuff because we haven't seen him on the field a ton just the dudes body type is gonna limit how physical he can be so I don't the he will be WAY more physical than Bates. But yes he may be able to match it and after watching the 1st team defense a few times against Atlanta he did come up and make plays on Bijan a couple times in the box. So I think he will match Bates in that regard and maybe give us more with his athleticism in coverage. Bell will probably be where we miss the Physicality the most but time will tell.

Will disagree on Bates being more than physical enough for us. There were times last season where he was playing not to get 
hurt and he missed a lot of tackles over the years. I don't think this will be a problem for Dax, his problem will be trying to equal 
Bates instincts and range, he has the physical tools to equal the range, we will see about his instincts that you just cannot teach.

Honestly, I am more concerned with Nick Scott after the Falcons game more than Dax Hill. Dax made a couple great tackles on 
Bijan Robinson who I think will be the next great RB in the NFL. After a fine first PS game by the Safeties all around the only one
that looked good against the Falcons was Dax Hill. Nick Scott, Battle and Tycen all had a rough game.

Bump for anyone thinking that they didn't care if the Bengals don't really play their starters in the preseason.

The switch never magically flips when the season starts. The same struggles in the preseason do seem to carry over. The offense struggled all camp. We just hoped it was because Burrow was out.

The OL should have been playing in preseason until they had all their communication set and were in sync.

Sadly, Today was the starter's first preseason game

(09-10-2023, 11:06 PM)puddycat Wrote: Bump for anyone thinking that they didn't care if the Bengals don't really play their starters in the preseason.