The Good, Bad, and Fugly; Preseason Game 1

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(Yesterday, 05:13 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: At the risk of being the poo-poo'er (who me? NEVER) I don't think a single one of the Eagles starting DL or OLBs played.

Fair enough TLL lol 

Still good to see, need to see this against starters. The Eagles are well coached, even their backups. 

I am encouraged but I am not a poo-poo'er.

(Yesterday, 05:13 PM)PhilHos Wrote: 2 things can be true at one time: we need better talent on defense AND Lou was not getting the most out of the players - especially the younger ones. I would've liked to have seen more than just Slayton signed on the DL (in terms of outsitde FAs) but I'm also glad Golden is here and excited to see what he can do.

For sure. I would of liked to of added more than Slaton, but we brought back talented guys in BJ Hill and Ossai as well.

I am sure if we added Odighizuwa and another End besides Ossai we would be saying we were muchly improved, but that is not 
necessarily true either. I am willing to give the new coaches a chance to coach up the talented youth that Lou and the other coaches
could not. To act like we have no talent on Defense is just not true at all.

(Yesterday, 05:14 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: If we hadn't already seen this play out the last two seasons with most of these same guys on defense you might have a point but we have seen this movie before.  I can tell you it doesn't end well.

I bet we looked just as bad in preseason the year we went to the Super Bowl...

That almost ended really well if a guy named Spain made an effort to block AD.

[*rfaulk34*]

(Yesterday, 05:10 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: We had 4 starters that didnt play, BJ, Trey, Dax and Cam.  Most of the starting defense played and the 4 that didnt play were backed up by guys on the team that are expected to play a lot and contribute to the defense.  This wasnt the practice squad out there looking bad.  And why would Golden have his guys play so far off the ball if he is trying to get these guys ready for the regular season.  Are they going to be playing that far off the ball in regular season?  Just keep everything in front so you dont get beat deep?  Thats what you do with a secondary that lacks talent.

Or it could be what you do when you're starting off with #2s in PS game #1 and you just don't want them going over your head. I don't know. I'm not saying that is def what he did, but the coverage was soft all night on both sides so the only conclusion i can draw is they wanted to keep everything in front, make them run more plays and possibly get a TO or stop them in the redzone. BBDB. 

Regardless, i don't expect the whole team to be in SB form in PS game #1. Gonna keep an eye out for positive progress as the games go on and a more aggressive, positive outcome against the stains with a big fat DUB to start the season. 

[*PhilHos*]

(Yesterday, 05:13 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: At the risk of being the poo-poo'er

If you think about it, we're ALL poo-poo'ers.

[*rfaulk34*]

(Yesterday, 05:13 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: At the risk of being the poo-poo'er (who me? NEVER) I don't think a single one of the Eagles starting DL or OLBs played.

I think the only three positions on defense for the Eagles where potential starters played are one of the ILB spots, one of the CB spots, and one of the S spots because all three are currently still in a competition to determine the starter. Everyone else were backups.

Still, better to see them dominate rather than struggle or have to punt. The rest of the team did a good job not competing for the duration of the game...

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(Yesterday, 05:23 PM)PhilHos Wrote: If you think about it, we're ALL poo-poo'ers.

I guess that is true.

[007BengalsFan]

(Yesterday, 05:13 PM)PhilHos Wrote: 2 things can be true at one time: we need better talent on defense AND Lou was not getting the most out of the players - especially the younger ones..

What players was Lou not getting more out of that you think should be a lot better right now?  Everyone points to Murphy but maybe he was just a bad draft pick.  The Bengals scouting department isnt the best at identifying talent.  Sometimes your talent level is what it is and you can only do so much with what you are given.  Im not going to blame Golden if the defense isnt that good this year.  I think Golden has more talent to work with than Lou had last year so we should be better but I still think Golden was given mostly mediocre talent to work with.  Im not going to be too hard on him anymore than I was Lou last year.  The hands they were dealt are not good.  The defense needs more talent.

[*PhilHos*]

(Yesterday, 05:28 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: What players was Lou not getting more out of that you think should be a lot better right now?  

Pretty much everyone drafted on defense under Lou and Zac. Sure, Murphy might be a bad pick, but ALL the picks on defense are mediocre or worse?

I mean, can you even name 1 guy on defense that got better under Lou? Not just stayed the same, but got better? Only one I can think of is MAYBE Dax Hill. But even with Dax, he was drafted to be a safety.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Lou. His defenses were a big part of why we made the AFCCG twice and the Super Bowl once. But, when we lost the free agents we signed and had to rely more on draft picks, well, we see what has happened.

[007BengalsFan]

(Yesterday, 05:23 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Or it could be what you do when you're starting off with #2s in PS game #1 and you just don't want them going over your head. I don't know. I'm not saying that is def what he did, but the coverage was soft all night on both sides so the only conclusion i can draw is they wanted to keep everything in front, make them run more plays and possibly get a TO or stop them in the redzone. BBDB. 

Regardless, i don't expect the whole team to be in SB form in PS game #1. Gonna keep an eye out for positive progress as the games go on and a more aggressive, positive outcome against the stains with a big fat DUB to start the season. 

The thing that concerns me is this is exactly what we saw from the defense last year.  It looks identical.  The defensive line not being able to generate much pressure on the QB and getting gashed in the run game.  The DBs playing way off the ball getting burnt and looking like they dont understand their assignments in the defensive scheme.  I do think they will improve but I dont see this defense as being anything but a bottom half defense.

[NUGDUKWE]

(Yesterday, 05:20 PM)Nate (formerly eliminate08) Wrote: I bet we looked just as bad in preseason the year we went to the Super Bowl...

That almost ended really well if a guy named Spain made an effort to block AD.

I believe the 1s just served up a bunch of 3 and outs that year on defense. I know that was the year Ossai got hurt against Tampa and I know we looked good against them. I also remember that was the camp Chase couldn't catch so the offense was hyper focused on that. 

[*rfaulk34*]

(Yesterday, 05:34 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: The thing that concerns me is this is exactly what we saw from the defense last year.  It looks identical.  The defensive line not being able to generate much pressure on the QB and getting gashed in the run game.  The DBs playing way off the ball getting burnt and looking like they dont understand their assignments in the defensive scheme.  I do think they will improve but I dont see this defense as being anything but a bottom half defense.

Yeah, it looked like a lot of the same soft, too-giving D. I'll be concerned if that's the way they play against the Browns. 

[Luvnit2]

(Yesterday, 05:23 PM)PhilHos Wrote: If you think about it, we're ALL poo-poo'ers.

You are full of sh*t. 

[Luvnit2]

This is why I love Burrow. He threw 2 TD's in 1 Quarter on 2 drives, and was not happy because he missed throw 1 to Tee and did not throw the ball as crisply as he should have.

https://www.bengals.com/news/bengals-quotes-preseason-week-1-2025-eagles
"Today was average. Today was average. But overall I'm happy with where I'm at. Next week I'd like to be a little better."

On the fact that he doesn't seem overly impressed with how he played or the whole situation tonight and what he did not like:

"I wouldn't say I didn't like anything. I think for myself I could have been better. I missed the first throw. I put all the other ones where I wanted to put them. I would've liked to have spun it a little better consistently today. But we had scored two touchdowns, so go learn from a couple reps and get better."

On how he said today was average and had one incompletion:

"It was a bad throw. It's a bad throw."

On after he left the game and whether anything stood out about the rest of the team:

"We got to be better. Too many procedural penalties, too many errors. Things like that are going to happen, but I think it just wasn't clean enough across the board."

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(Yesterday, 05:13 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: At the risk of being the poo-poo'er (who me? NEVER) I don't think a single one of the Eagles starting DL or OLBs played.

I think the only three positions on defense for the Eagles where potential starters played are one of the ILB spots, one of the CB spots, and one of the S spots because all three are currently still in a competition to determine the starter. Everyone else were backups.

I counted:

Ojulari
Trotter (only due to injury, otherwise he's first off the bench)
Campbell
Brown
Jackson

As the starters who played last night, so one EDGE, 2 LBs and 2 DBs

[jj22]

(Yesterday, 04:06 PM)rfaulk34 Wrote: Except that it didn't because there were several starters out and we don't know if, because of this, Golden decided to dial it down and just keep everything in front of them. Did anyone else see how far the CBs were playing off, even inside the 30?

Granted, regardless of the intent, i'm sure he wasn't happy at all but you can't take anything away from last night other than the guys in the back who are fighting for playing time need to step it up big time because they couldn't stop anything last night. 

Trey was out. But the other "several" was the same starters for last seasons bad defense.... If the starters from last season that played didn't show any improvement, why think the 3 non Trey starters that missed would?  95% of the defensive starters played.... And flailed against backups.. 

[Essex Johnson]

(Yesterday, 01:14 PM)jj22 Wrote: I try to leave some options for other posters to highlight. 

Well thanks , guess I was the guy for Hudson, soild game, made some tough catches

[jj22]

(Yesterday, 05:28 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: What players was Lou not getting more out of that you think should be a lot better right now?  Everyone points to Murphy but maybe he was just a bad draft pick.  The Bengals scouting department isnt the best at identifying talent.  Sometimes your talent level is what it is and you can only do so much with what you are given.  Im not going to blame Golden if the defense isnt that good this year.  I think Golden has more talent to work with than Lou had last year so we should be better but I still think Golden was given mostly mediocre talent to work with.  Im not going to be too hard on him anymore than I was Lou last year.  The hands they were dealt are not good.  The defense needs more talent.

This is on Tobin.

How many defensive coaches have to be fired (scapegoated) how many Oline coaches have to be fired (scapegoated). Tobin's scapegoating of coaches to cover for bad draft picks extends back prior to Zac. 

[jj22]

(Yesterday, 05:34 PM)007BengalsFan Wrote: The thing that concerns me is this is exactly what we saw from the defense last year.  It looks identical.  The defensive line not being able to generate much pressure on the QB and getting gashed in the run game.  The DBs playing way off the ball getting burnt and looking like they dont understand their assignments in the defensive scheme.  I do think they will improve but I dont see this defense as being anything but a bottom half defense.

Easy conversions of 3rd and long. I even seen a couple of easy 3rd and 20 conversions.. It was merciful they kicked FG's and didn't go for it on all of the 4th downs... 

[jj22]

(Yesterday, 05:33 PM)PhilHos Wrote: Pretty much everyone drafted on defense under Lou and Zac. Sure, Murphy might be a bad pick, but ALL the picks on defense are mediocre or worse?

I mean, can you even name 1 guy on defense that got better under Lou? Not just stayed the same, but got better? Only one I can think of is MAYBE Dax Hill. But even with Dax, he was drafted to be a safety.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Lou. His defenses were a big part of why we made the AFCCG twice and the Super Bowl once. But, when we lost the free agents we signed and had to rely more on draft picks, well, we see what has happened.

Again the scapegoating of coaches for poor drafts dates prior to Zac.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(Yesterday, 05:48 PM)jj22 Wrote: Trey was out. But the other "several" was the same starters for last seasons bad defense.... If the starters from last season that played didn't show any improvement, why think the 3 non Trey starters that missed would?  95% of the defensive starters played.... And flailed against backups.. 

I know you have me on ignore so you won't see this, but as mentioned earlier, 4 top starters weren't playing (Trey, BJ Hill, Dax, CTB) and guys that will potentially start (Stewart) were kept to 2nd string.

So it was absolutely not, 95% of the starters, more like 63% and they played prevent the entire time, with Newton actually getting in great position to pick the ball off, among other nice flashes we saw.

[jj22]

(Yesterday, 05:56 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: I know you have me on ignore so you won't see this, but as mentioned earlier, 4 top starters weren't playing (Trey, BJ Hill, Dax, CTB) and guys that will potentially start (Stewart) were kept to 2nd string.

So it was absolutely not, 95% of the starters, more like 63% and they played prevent the entire time, with Newton actually getting in great position to pick the ball off, among other nice flashes we saw.

I don't have you on ignore. I don't ignore people why would I? When have I not been able to handle you guys?

If I ignore a post of yours it's because I choose not to reply. Don't let me know that bothers you....