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(6 hours ago)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: I would agree on all 3. And unfortunately they aren’t the only ones. Logan Wilson also looks terrible.
Wilson has looked slow for a year or 2. Some of it is bad angles though.
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(3 hours ago)NotBigzo Wrote: How does Battle go from a top rookie safety to this shit in two seasons? I don’t get it. Something has to be draining their mojo Cincy.
We've had several guys regress from rookie year on.
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I may be the only guy on here who isn't worried, but I'm not worried. Like, at all lol.
First game is against Cleveland and an (on paper) anemic offense. Second game is against Jax which is also (on paper), an anemic offense, though a bit better than Cle.
If those two games look the same as the PS, THEN I will be worried.
Until then though, I will just enjoy the evals for the fringe guys.
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(3 hours ago)NotBigzo Wrote: How does Battle go from a top rookie safety to this shit in two seasons? I don’t get it. Something has to be draining their mojo Cincy.
Battle has never been any good. He's always looked slow to me. He's had a few big hits but other than that I don't remember anything significant he's done. Our safeties are terrible. Stone benefits from right place, right time. Last year he got a few of those in the second half of the year. I haven't seen him do anything that impresses me. And yet, the coaches hand them the starting jobs. I hope I'm wrong and Golden plays the best players. Time will tell.
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(6 hours ago)bengalfan74 Wrote: 1. Jordan Battle - Besides the patty cake tackle he attempted on the Daniels TD there were a couple other plays I noticed him well, just playing awful. Taking bad angles to runners, it looked to me like he was totally lost on what to do more often than not. If he truly is the starter umm....
2. Demetrius Knight Jr. - He looked totally overwhelmed on a regular basis, got washed out on run plays way to easily, just seemed to lack any killer instinct. Very disappointed in his play.
3. Joesph Ossai - Again looked overwhelmed, got steamrolled way too often, and again just looked unsure and overwhelmed.
I totally get it's a preseason game. But those guys just very much seemed to have the deer in the headlights look right from the jump. What wrong with Burks as the starter at LB, put Anderson in at Safety.
And needless to say we need Trey!! I saw a post on social media this morning from M. Strahan, I believe - Bengals pass rush without Trey 32nd in the league. Bengals pass rush with Trey 12th.
Our 1st team defense needs a big kick in the ass and fast.
Puh-the-tic... I'm typically quite optimistic at this point, but that lack of effort and pride on the part of those three is hard to not get discouraged over.
Dylan Fairchild is the future of the Bengals at LG
-SunsetBengal 8/9/25
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Quote:“It’s preseason,” he said. “I feel really excited about where our defense is at. We go against them every day, and it’s tough. We’ll continue to fix things we need to fix. I love where our defense is at. There’s a lot of things that give the offense a really hard time right now.” -Zac Taylor after the DC game
_________________________________________________
“I feel really excited about where our defense is at."
"I love where our defense is at."
- Zac Taylor 8/18/25
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I think it is funny Taylor uses the fact they go against them every day but the reality is we have been a bad running team since he's been here and if our running in practice is the barometer for which we judge them that may actually explain a lot.
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(6 hours ago)bengalfan74 Wrote: 1. Jordan Battle - Besides the patty cake tackle he attempted on the Daniels TD there were a couple other plays I noticed him well, just playing awful. Taking bad angles to runners, it looked to me like he was totally lost on what to do more often than not. If he truly is the starter umm....
2. Demetrius Knight Jr. - He looked totally overwhelmed on a regular basis, got washed out on run plays way to easily, just seemed to lack any killer instinct. Very disappointed in his play.
3. Joesph Ossai - Again looked overwhelmed, got steamrolled way too often, and again just looked unsure and overwhelmed.
I totally get it's a preseason game. But those guys just very much seemed to have the deer in the headlights look right from the jump. What wrong with Burks as the starter at LB, put Anderson in at Safety.
And needless to say we need Trey!! I saw a post on social media this morning from M. Strahan, I believe - Bengals pass rush without Trey 32nd in the league. Bengals pass rush with Trey 12th.
Our 1st team defense needs a big kick in the ass and fast.
Jordan Battle is awful. His effort against Daniels at the goal line was pitiful last night. Pretty much agree with the rest of your assessment.
Poo Dey
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They must have a hard time not laughing at the defense in practice.
Poo Dey
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I understand the HC is gonna spew out coach speak. Butt....... "I love where our defense is at" ummmm
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(2 hours ago)jason Wrote: Jordan Battle is awful. His effort against Daniels at the goal line was pitiful last night. Pretty much agree with the rest of your assessment.
Battle's brother pretty much confirmed on Twitter that it was preseason and he didn't want to blow up Daniels, so he half-assed it (not his words).
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(2 hours ago)SunsetBengal Wrote: Puh-the-tic... I'm typically quite optimistic at this point, but that lack of effort and pride on the part of those three is hard to not get discouraged over.
Exactly
I get it - preseason. Guys aren't going out there earholing players. But that deosn't mean you have to just phone it in.
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(1 hour ago)bengalfan74 Wrote: Exactly
I get it - preseason. Guys aren't going out there earholing players. But that deosn't mean you have to just phone it in.
![[Image: soft-kobe-bryant.gif]](https://media.tenor.com/QT9CpuBYjHUAAAAM/soft-kobe-bryant.gif)
I want a safety who can’t wait to light a QB like Daniels up given the chance.
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Bad drafting on the defensive side of the ball is finally catching up to us
Losing Bates may have been an era changing mistake
-Housh
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(2 hours ago)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: I may be the only guy on here who isn't worried, but I'm not worried. Like, at all lol.
First game is against Cleveland and an (on paper) anemic offense. Second game is against Jax which is also (on paper), an anemic offense, though a bit better than Cle.
If those two games look the same as the PS, THEN I will be worried.
Until then though, I will just enjoy the evals for the fringe guys.
Effort is one thing. Like with Battle. I'm not as upset with his lack of a hit on Daniels. It's becoming increasingly disappointing that they don't seem to be able to run a vanilla defense and make at least some stops with the first unit.
I'm not in a panic mode yet. Like you, i'd prefer to wait for the real bullets but i am a bit more concerned with the lack of basics so far.
EDIT: forgot a key period in there. 
"Hope is not a strategy"
"The measure of a man's intelligence can be seen in the length of his argument."
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Most concerning to me is the interior dline, linebackers, and safeties.
Burks should be one of the starters and I'm not sure who should start with him.
At DT I was more hopeful going into training camp but they have allowed some huge holes for backs in the pre-season.
That's where it all starts and it's very concerning.
Then the back end we have a couple of nobody's out there and it's really hard to be patient with them.
I had high hopes for Battle but he hasn't looked good.
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The issue with our run D is the D-line formation and play calls. Not Knight.
The Deebo run was a 12 formation (7 men on the line), and we counter with a 5 man front with Knight lined up as RDE/OLB, opposite where the run occurred (Why???). Ossai lost containment and also let the TE slip to the second level to block. That play was doomed pre-snap.
On the second big run (11 formation with TE offset on the strong side), the DT let the G slip through and block Knight 5 yards downfield. That is 100lb difference.
On the third big run, Knight met the TE head on in the hole, but Wilson ran into his back and he got knocked back. Both T and LG pulled to the run side.
We are continually lining up disadvantaged with confusing gap assignments. Our interior line gets upfield through open holes taking themselves out of the play and allowing blockers to get on the second level.
I just hope Golden is experimenting here. Because if not; we have much bigger issues than personnel.
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(2 hours ago)THE PISTONS Wrote: Wilson has looked slow for a year or 2. Some of it is bad angles though.
It's almost as if Reader made his job easier.
The dline has fallen off a cliff since he got hurt and they didn't re-sign him.
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(1 hour ago)Bengalstripes9 Wrote: Most concerning to me is the interior dline, linebackers, and safeties.
Burks should be one of the starters and I'm not sure who should start with him.
At DT I was more hopeful going into training camp but they have allowed some huge holes for backs in the pre-season.
That's where it all starts and it's very concerning.
Then the back end we have a couple of nobody's out there and it's really hard to be patient with them.
I had high hopes for Battle but he hasn't looked good.
What’s left of the defence to be worried about. You pretty much called out everyone
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