The Good, Bad, and Fugly; Preseason Game 1

[*bfine32*]

(Yesterday, 04:33 PM)Synric Wrote: Shemar Stewart was as expected disruptive but balance and body control showed up was on he's knees a few times. Lack of hand experience cost him a sack on a club move.

Dylan Fairchild and Ted Karras are rhe only OL two that play with physicality. Fairchild probably had the 3rd best night behind Chase and Burrow. (I'd guess Chase, Burrow, Fairchild, Brown, then Brooks are your top 5 for the day with a shout out to Hudson for being Hudson.)

Tahj Brooks with a couple nice runs and even more important at least two really good pass pro reps

DBs lived in alot of man coverage and the Eagles took advantage of how slow DJ Ivey looked.

Kris Jenkisn looked solid

McKinnley Jackson had a nice night against the 3s after making a mistake vs the 2s.

Jalen Rivers struggled badly at both tackle spots vs Antwan Powell-Ryland.




Edit: As for rhe defense as a whole you could tell they weren't ready for expanded rush offense compared to the Bengals (no game plan and no pre-scouting). The C gap runs really gashed them.

You can see he's strong. I saw him move grown men against their will, unfortunately, he sometimes moves against his own will.

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(Yesterday, 05:53 PM)jj22 Wrote: 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... 

When did they convert a 3rd and 20?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/playbyplay/_/gameId/401773005

They converted:

3rd and 5 in the 2nd Q (starters out at this point)
3rd and goal in the 2nd Q
3rd and 11 in the 3rd Q

And that's it. Pray tell how you saw, "a couple of 3rd and 20 conversions?"

We were 3-12 on 3rd downs, they were 3-15 FFS.

[Isaac Curtis: The Real #85]

(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.

Stone played 4 snaps. 

But the guys who were there did virtually nada. Ossai did nothing. Turner got beat like a drum. I did not see Logan Wilson, Knight, or Battle do anything impactful. Nothing positive for us, anyway. And Slaton did not exactly stonewall their run game. Murphy had decent push once. 

A couple reserves made a play or two: Cam Sample, Cross, Giles-Harris, Bryan, Stewart. But half of those guys probably don't make the team. 

[jj22]

(Yesterday, 06:02 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: When did they convert a 3rd and 20?

https://www.espn.com/nfl/playbyplay/_/gameId/401773005

They converted:

3rd and 5 in the 2nd Q (starters out at this point)
3rd and goal in the 2nd Q
3rd and 11 in the 3rd Q

And that's it. Pray tell how you saw, "a couple of 3rd and 20 conversions?"

We were 3-12 on 3rd downs, they were 3-15 FFS.

Was it a 2nd and 20 or a first and 20. It was a big chunks all night. I'll have to re watch and see the actual down, but there were plenty of these conversions for 1st down where a half decent defense would have been able to get off the field after the penalty or negative play backed the opposing offense up.  

And you cry about me not replying to your posts. You got my point. Everyone else did. Yet here we are.

[007BengalsFan]

(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.

Jessie Bates became an All Pro under Lou and although Hendrickson wasnt drafted by the Bengals, he flourished under Lou.  Likewise BJ Hill was not drafted by the Bengals and traded because he wasnt doing much in New York however under Lou BJ became a pretty good DT.  Its crazy to think Lou was able to take a secondary featuring Eli Apple and Chidobe Awuzie to the Super Bowl.  What did either of those guys do before they came to Cincinnati or after they left?  Dax Hill was having a really good season under Lou until the injury.  Yes they drafted him as a safety to take over from Bates and when Lou saw he was struggling at that position, he moved Dax to cornerback where he did much better.  That's coaching. Just because Lou couldnt make everyone into a good football player doesnt mean he wasnt a good coach.  

Like I have said before, If Lou really was a bad coach not able to get the most out of all this great young talent some of out fans claim we have drafted in the last 3-4 years, there should be no excuse for them this year now they have Golden to coach them up.   The defense should see major improvement.  

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(Yesterday, 05:36 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: 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. 

Cool, couldn't really remember. Kind of remember the Tampa Bay game because that was after they won the SB with Brady the last time.

Trey liked to hit Tom a lot, he hit him a lot with the Saints too lol

I still don't take anything from the first preseason game where we have new Defensive coaches and new players.

I just look at the positives in these types of games, Burrow looked great besides the one bad throw behind Tee. The OL looked good all be it 
against backups, Chase Brown had some nice runs. The good stuff.

(Yesterday, 05:43 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: 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."

Dude is a perfectionist alright, and yeah the one throw was bad, but other than that he was great.

(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.

Funny how people have to make up stuff to hate on. I will never get this.

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(Yesterday, 06:00 PM)bfine32 Wrote: You can see he's strong. I saw him move grown men against their will, unfortunately, he sometimes moves against his own will.

Harness that shit Shemar!!!

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(Yesterday, 05:46 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: 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

Ojulari is 2nd string behind Nolan Smith and Jalynx Hunt as the starting OLBs

Trotter/Campbell is the one ILB, still in competition for the 1 open spot (because the other ILB is Zack Baun)
Brown/Mukuba is the one CB as they are apparently in a competition to determine the starter
Jackson/Ringo is the one S as they are in a competition to determine the starter

[Timanky12]

If Washington plays their 1st team offense with Daniels at QB next week, we will see how good our 1st team defense actually is.
If they can play toe to toe with Washington, I think we have a chance for a playoff spot. If we get humiliated again, all bets are off.

[Luvnit2]

(Yesterday, 06:26 PM)Timanky12 Wrote: If Washington plays their 1st team offense with Daniels at QB next week, we will see how good our 1st team defense actually is.
If they can play toe to toe with Washington, I think we have a chance for a playoff spot.  If we get humiliated again, all bets are off.

It looks like the Bengals have decided to keep other teams in the dark on Al's play calling and will stay vanilla. Any great defensive performances will probably be limited to great 1 on 1 results. The problem with playing vanilla and keeping everything in front last night is it is easy to find the weakness and keep exploiting it. To me that weakness last night was Turner, then Ivey and any safety on the field.

It looked like he played all man coverage and no zone, will that happen week 1 or will he mix it up?

[Joelist]

I know coaches like to play vanilla in preseason but it has downsides also. One is not getting your players sufficient reps in the system at game speed before it counts.

[Brownshoe]

(Yesterday, 06:26 PM)Timanky12 Wrote: If Washington plays their 1st team offense with Daniels at QB next week, we will see how good our 1st team defense actually is.
If they can play toe to toe with Washington, I think we have a chance for a playoff spot.  If we get humiliated again, all bets are off.

Even if we look bad on defense it's still pre-season. We don't know what Golden has up his sleeves for the season. Rookies will improve, and Trey will be back. I very much doubt we'll have a legit defense this year, but even if we get our asses kicked all pre-season that doesn't mean we couldn't have a mediocre defense (which is all we need with our offense).

[Timanky12]

(Yesterday, 06:52 PM)Luvnit2 Wrote: It looks like the Bengals have decided to keep other teams in the dark on Al's play calling and will stay vanilla. Any great defensive performances will probably be limited to great 1 on 1 results. The problem with playing vanilla and keeping everything in front last night is it is easy to find the weakness and keep exploiting it. To me that weakness last night was Turner, then Ivey and any safety on the field.

It looked like he played all man coverage and no zone, will that happen week 1 or will he mix it up?

The Bengals board members were saying it doesn’t count because the Bengals sat their defensive starters. This is your last opportunity to see the 1st team defense versus 1st team explosive offense, to see how the bengals stack up. Everyone, including the media is ripping the bengals D, it’s time to show what you got.

[NUGDUKWE]

(Yesterday, 06:59 PM)Brownshoe Wrote: Even if we look bad on defense it's still pre-season. We don't know what Golden has up his sleeves for the season. Rookies will improve, and Trey will be back. I very much doubt we'll have a legit defense this year, but even if we get our asses kicked all pre-season that doesn't mean we couldn't have a mediocre defense (which is all we need with our offense).

Yeah the defense is gonna give up points. But can we make a few more stops that we couldn't last year and give the offense more chances to win the game. Hopefully as the season goes they can continue to grow and maybe turn into a top half of the league defense. The depth is what scares the crap out of me we need OL, S and CB in my opinion as an injury in any of these spots could be catastrophic.

[Timanky12]

(Yesterday, 07:04 PM)NUGDUKWE Wrote: Yeah the defense is gonna give up points. But can we make a few more stops that we couldn't last year and give the offense more chances to win the game. Hopefully as the season goes they can continue to grow and maybe turn into a top half of the league defense. The depth is what scares the crap out of me we need OL, S and CB in my opinion as an injury in any of these spots could be catastrophic.

How many games did we lose because we couldn’t make a stop to end the game? A lot

[*Nate (formerly eliminate08)*]

(Yesterday, 06:56 PM)Joelist Wrote: I know coaches like to play vanilla in preseason but it has downsides also. One is not getting your players sufficient reps in the system at game speed before it counts.

True. Plus making stops gives your Defense confidence. Also, I don't like playing prevent in the preseason, I can understand vanilla, but 
prevent is different and it doesn't allow the Secondary or Linebackers to play near as aggressive. You at least need to put some fear in the
QB's by trying to make instinctual plays on the ball. You play that soft cushion crap and any QB can eat you alive.

I don't understand where this gets you.

[Timanky12]

(Yesterday, 07:05 PM)Timanky12 Wrote: How many games did we lose because we couldn’t make a stop to end the game? A lot

I counted 8 games last year, where we had the lead or needed to get the ball back and score to win the game, and we failed every time. 

[lone bengal]

(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.

If things go bad this season Duke Tobin needs to be held accountable. We've had four O-line coaches since 2018, The DC got fired, Zac will be on the hot seat if we miss the playoffs three years in a row. Who can we fire after that , Darrin Simmons ? Before Tobin gets blamed. The sad thing is we just need some of these draft picks to be semi serviceable vs being complete non factors. Myles Murphy just get a few sacks and set the edge be a semi decent run player. DJ Turner 2nd rd. pick in year three just don't be awful, Cam Britt -Taylor a 2nd rd. pick in year four just don't be one of the worst corners in football like you were last season. Jordan Battle just don't be awful and so on. Just  be a semi bad defense not the worst in the league and Burrow can make it work. All theoretical scenarios I know it's just a preseason game so don't kill me   

[*bengalfan74*]

I'm not in a total over our first preseason game. But I'll say our defense has a lot of growing to do and fast. Or we're in serious trouble again.

[Isaac Curtis: The Real #85]

(Yesterday, 07:14 PM)Timanky12 Wrote: I counted 8 games last year, where we had the lead or needed to get the ball back and score to win the game, and we failed every time. 

Just for fun, how many times did we have the chance to: 

1) Ice a game late (up 1 score with the ball) 
2) Take the lead
3) Tie late 

And come up empty? We iced Carolina. But that is about it