1st half observations (v.Cowboys)

[Goalpost]

Andy has to hit that one throw.

We need to contain the qb better.

Eddie Brown. Darnay Scott. We need Ross to stretch the field

We should 'scrap the caddy Clyde' our intermediate zone defense

Bates looks like a solid pick, better tackler than I thought. The Walton pick should have gone elsewhere.

Fisher looks ok as a back up LT

First team OL has a ways to go.

If we cant establish a semblance of a run game with Mixon, we are in deep doo doo.

[bambino5130]

I saw Bobby Hart getting beat like a drum multiple times. This team still needs a Right Tackle. In fact, I think the entire Oline got zero Run game push up front, which is nothing new. Dalton did not look sharpe, & the one time I thought the offense was getting a rhythm, Boyd fumbled. That made me nauseous, because it reminded me of the 3 & out Bengals that lost 9 games last year.

Defensively, this team could not stop the run, & the middle of the field looked wide open. Bengals starters on the whole mentally did not make the trip to Dallas.

I did like Sam Hubbard, thought he played well. I liked what I saw from Brian Hill, & I think John Brown should be our Kicker. Kids got a leg.

[SunsetBengal]

Dallas' OL and front 7 are definitely upper tier, in the league. However that does not excuse the piss poor performance turned in by the Bengals' starting OL and front 7.

This team had two primary missions this offseason: Put together an actual NFL OL, and figure out how to stop the run and shut down a TE on defense. From what I saw last night, they still have a way to go on both fronts. I completely get the entire "sometimes you just line up against a better group, and they're going to win" perspective, but those were supposed to be points of emphasis. Sure, field position made it tough to look unpredictable, but sometimes you just have to execute the fundamentals better, and muscle your way out of a tight spot. As of right now? This offense cannot do that.

I will say this; Dallas starting units seem very tough and competitive, but man, if they get a couple injuries they are in trouble. They don't seem to have much depth, on either side of the ball.

[Trademark]

I find it hilarious that Cowboys O-line still looks good under Paul Alexander

[*SHRacerX*]

The Good:

Billings- Best he has looked so far. Too bad the rest of the defense was asleep.
Jordan Willis -Can we just stop with MJ getting any snaps at DE now?
Hubbard -Ditto
Uzomah-making the most of his chances.
John Brown- That kick might have been good from 65 yards. Fat Randy could never do that, nor could he ever catch a returner. I would go with this young guy. He has tremendous upside.
Cethan Carter-Nice effort. Not going to bump anyone from the roster ahead of him, but a solid effort in his opportunities.
Not much else

The Bad:

Offensive line scheme with the #1s- I thought we were not going to do the crappy, wussy slide protections and always try to look for a cut back lane that isn't there. Everything was side to side. Line up and drive! This was a great opportunity to see what kind of push your offensive line could get and they reverted back to this sissy slides. Wasted opportunity. I have to watch again to single everyone out, but Ogbuehi was a turd. That much is obvious.

Pretty much everything with the #1s offense. Not in sync. Not good protection. Ball security.

The #1 defense: Cowboys just go: Pound for two yards, pound for two yards, short pass against zone giving up an easy 8 yard completion. Wash, rinse, repeat. Eventually you will break a ten yard run and eventually you will have a pass go more than 10 yards. They didn't overthink it, they were patient and just pounded the Bengals who chose to stay in conservative mode and not contest anything short. If the Bengals do this against the Colts, we will play right in to their hands. This is what I wanted OUR offense to do, but they obviously didn't.

MJ- Please go to the bench. If you must be on the roster, come in as a DT on passing downs only.

John Ross- Flashed his amazing ability again, but tipped a ball straight up that should have been picked off and had another easy drop. Needs to get more consistency. Glad he played a lot of snaps to try and build his opportunities.

Joe Mixon- Stop shaking your head and pouting if a hole isn't there. It isn't always going to be like your reception in game 1. Man up and check your attitude.

Andy Dalton- Missed wide open targets for potentially big plays that could have gotten the offense going. Maybe the week of rain affecting practice effected the timing? Maybe they should read that thread about the Vikings new practice facility?

Bill Lazor- I would have sworn Zampese's playbook was being used. Dumb, dumb, dumb....and sissy-like. What happened to attacking?

Teryl Austin- What happened to defending every pass? Looked like Bob Breshnahan's defense of "don't give up the big play". Puke.

The Ugly: Well, the bad was all pretty bad, but I didn't call it ugly because it was a preseason game. But it was all pretty damn ugly.

[bengaloo]

RT is still a major position of need. Hart didnt impress and of course CedO seems to be struggling with fast rushers off the edge, however he did have some good run blocks against Dallas's backups. But Dallas's backups may not be very good at all.

DTs came to play. Billings and Geno were pushing people around.

DE's didnt do anything until the second unit came in. Our first string DE's were nowhere near Dak.

Andy didnt look sharp at all this game

Walton must be averaging -5 ypc in preseason. Literally have seem nothing but him getting tackled in the backfield on first contact.

Phillips looks like the real deal as a returner.

Russel is a baller. He' been making plays in the secondary both games. Dude wants to be on the roster apparently.

Brown looks like he should be our kicker. This dude looks like a future star kicker in the NFL.

Jefferson turned in a little better performance last night, although you can tell he's not playing full speed yet. I imagine he's still trying to learn the defense.

Tate continues to not look easily coverable. He almost made an insane catch falling down on the play that he drew the PI call. Anyway, he drew the PI call because he had his man beat and I noticed other plays where he had separation

Driskel looks a helluv a lot better than Barkley. He looks like he has some real upside. He can move but he needs to work on pocket presence. Munoz and Tobin both mentioned Driskel should've stepped up in the pocket when CedO got his holding call. From what I saw, they were right. That wasnt "all" Ced. He had to hold on way too long and he struggles with speedy rushers bad.

I am not worried about much yet, except the RT. I feel like the play calling was intentional when they kept trying to run behind Hart and Hopkins. It didnt look good either, and I think thats what the coaches wanted to see. We werent playing to win as much as we were testing questionable spots for film so they know what to work on. I have a hunch some of those low% plays were ran for those purposes.

[Nicomo Cosca]

(08-19-2018, 08:29 AM)Trademark Wrote: I find it hilarious that Cowboys O-line still looks good under Paul Alexander

Why? They have 3 All Pro’s on that line. He wasn’t going to screw them up that fast. Whit was an absolute stud for us for many years under PA. If a player is already elite I don’t think coaching is going to matter that much.

[BengalD]

The only thing I go off of during pre-season is 1's against 1's. And what I saw in the first quarter did not look very good.

[SunsetBengal]

(08-19-2018, 08:59 AM)bengaloo Wrote: DTs came to play. Billings and Geno were pushing people around.

DE's didnt do anything until the second unit came in. Our first string DE's were nowhere near Dak.

Actually, on that Dallas' TD drive, the DEs were getting good penetration.  It just happened that the officials seemed to turn their heads when the Dallas OL was getting grabby.  

Also, from that same drive, I was a bit disappointed in Billings.  On 3rd and 1, he had a great opportunity to make a stop, and force a FG attempt.  He ended up on the ground, blocked out of the play..

[hoosierbengal]

I was very impressed with Billings last night. 13:43 to play in the 2Q Billings and Geno pushed their center and both guards straight back about 5 yards into Dak’s lap. He just got the pass off but that push was awesome to see against a very good Oline. He is faster than I thought. Very first play of the 2nd quarter he ran down a outside pitch play near the sideline. It was a 3 or 4 yard gain but I was impressed how fast he looked getting there as he was lined up over center.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

From what I saw, the first team didn't look good at all on Offense but the Defense looked decent.

One thing that pissed me off the most though was Dalton running for a first down and getting tackled. That can't happen ever again...ESPECIALLY IN A PRESEASON GAME.

I get he was trying to get a first down and all but LB'ers really like it when they get to hit a QB...ESPECIALLY IN A PRESEASON GAME.

First team players play in the preseason to knock off "Rust" to get a little game action and not get hurt.

Preseason is mostly for working new players into the team and to evaluate new players.

Preseason is not for first team players to give their all and potentionaly get hurt.

[impactplaya]

i didnt see the.the game as it was not in the Cleveland area.
i listened to Lap and Dan.
doesnt Marinelli run that Tampa 2 defense ?
thats when a guy like Eifert can abuse getting behind a LB and exposing middle
of the field. but he didnt play so i dont think Lazor was trying to vertically attack the seams much.
Dalton simply did not make tbrows last night.
especially backed up inside your own 10.
does Lazor know what a wheel.route is.?
maybe Lazor called a vanilla gameplan.
Boyd has to secure ball no excuses.
pass rush was good all night but Iloka haa to.finish off qb.
Haslett is a horrible lb coach.our lbers are still getting beat by TEs.
Brian Hill just makes 20 plus plays when he hes in.

[Devils Advocate]

Huge holes in the zone defense. It’s easy for a receiver(in fact, multiple receivers) to find the soft spot.

So yeah, our offense couldn’t get it going but it seems like when that happens, the defense is never there to help either.

[*Nately120*]

(08-19-2018, 08:29 AM)Trademark Wrote: I find it hilarious that Cowboys O-line still looks good under Paul Alexander

He probably knows Jerry Jones isn't going to give him a 25 year contract, so he is instantly motivated.

(08-19-2018, 08:32 AM)SHRacerX Wrote: John Ross- Flashed his amazing ability again, but tipped a ball straight up that should have been picked off and had another easy drop.  Needs to get more consistency.  Glad he played a lot of snaps to try and build his opportunities.

It really seems like getting this guy involved in the play leads to a 50% chance of a turnover. Personally, after all the Bengals have provided over the years I'm not averse to having that kind of "hold your breath!" type player in the mix.

[Essex Johnson]

(08-18-2018, 11:18 PM)bengalfan74 Wrote: Billings had a hell of a good game and Driskel started out a little rough but finished pretty strong IMHO.

I have been impressed with Billings after two preseason games, he probably is our most improved player so far from what he did last year to what he is doing in preseason.. i would say fully recovered from injury and knows the system better, sure he is going to have a bad play, hell Geno has bad players, but body of work so far is very good.  Driskel did ok, i think he has moved ahead of Barkley but two games to go for the backup spot, nothing is decided yet.

[*psychdoctor*]

I am still concerned at the linebacker position. Bengals are thin in terms of talent and bodies. Vigil and Evans looked much improved. I know Burfict will be back but still, I have concerns with their ability not to give up big plays over the middle and covering the TE.

[SunsetBengal]

(08-19-2018, 01:36 PM)psychdoctor Wrote: I am still concerned at the linebacker position.  Bengals are thin in terms of talent and bodies.  Vigil and Evans looked much improved.  I know Burfict will be back but still, I have concerns with their ability not to give up big plays over the middle and covering the TE.

I have to agree with you.  I really expected to see more impact from Preston Brown, seeing how he cost $10M, and led the league in tackles.  I was disappointed to not see him stuffing runs in the hole, and he seemed late to the play in pass coverage.  

[Luvnit2]

(08-19-2018, 02:56 AM)TKUHL Wrote: Cleveland is going to finish ahead of a couple teams in our division this year. Everyone jokes but they are building a monster up there. With the amount of high pics over the years it's a givin if they have a QB that can just manage the game. They had a lot of games last year that were lost by 6 points or less. I don't care much for tyrod but I think he's worth at least 6 points a game. If the rookie QB pans out, look out.

LOL

You said the same thing about the Browns for 2017, you know right before they went 0-16. Yep, 1 win is up for them and 4 wins would be great improvement. I don't see the monster being developed, they just had the best LT since Munoz retire, yet it is overlooked.

[J24]

(08-19-2018, 01:36 PM)psychdoctor Wrote: I am still concerned at the linebacker position.  Bengals are thin in terms of talent and bodies.  Vigil and Evans looked much improved.  I know Burfict will be back but still, I have concerns with their ability not to give up big plays over the middle and covering the TE.

We were playing a lot of zone last night and allowing easy completions. Virgil and Evans are athletic enough to cover TEs. Austin had a bad game last night.

[*psychdoctor*]

(08-19-2018, 01:59 PM)Jakeypoo Wrote: We were playing a lot of zone last night and allowing easy completions. Virgil and Evans are athletic enough to cover TEs. Austin had a bad game last night.

I did not like what I saw from P. Brown.