Who most impressed you tonight?

[*SHRacerX*]

I don't want to sound like I am complaining, because we have been on the other side of the fence many times: We make excuses why our #1s looked like crap and our backups beat their backups. Complete opposite tonight.

The good: Starting offense made one mistake (Ross fell down). They were carving up the Bears. Dalton, Green, Mixon, Ross (less the one mistake...the deep ball thrown over his other shoulder is an easy 6 points...he made a nice adjustment and almost had it), Boyd, and the starting offensive line. They all looked very good. Ditto the starting defense. Keivare Russell looked nice as a backup CB and that was something we needed to see. Auden Tate is as advertised. But can we please practice the damn jump ball not being out of bounds? Billy Price is my new favorite Bengal. With a pocket, and these weapons, Dalton will be amazing in 2018.

Now, where I don't want to sound like a complainer: Guys we were hoping to get a taste of and see a spark of talent that seemingly did nothing: Malik Jefferson (horrible angle on long run that Wilson caught). All the backup defensive linemen...did next to nothing. All backup LBs...Bell made a nice play on a tipped ball but it should have been caught cleanly. Redmond was a mystery: He was a beast in run blocking, was the only guy of that group that didn't get shoved back, but had a false start and a bad whiff in pass pro (at least he stayed with it). Westerman, coming off an illness where he lost 12 pounds, didn't look like the guy of a year ago. He still has time to get his strength back, but I was disappointed. Mark Walton didn't look as good as Tra Carson...I will always wonder about that pick, as I think there was still some talent at OT on the board.

One last comment: Do you think Fat Randy keeps his locker the hell away from the other kicker? That kid looks like a RB! I guess he turned down a scholarship to play soccer at Louisville, which has a really good soccer team, to play football.