Bengals: 3 Positives and 3 Negatives after Week 1

Bengals beat the Colts in Indy to start the season 1-0

AP Photo/John Minchillo

The NFL is officially back, and that signifies another year of Bengals frustrations and the roller coaster of emotions that was Week 1.

There were some positives, some negatives, and absolutely some questions being asked. That’s why, for however long the season is (hopefully until February) I am starting (starting now) a new series called “3 Positives and 3 Negatives (+ 1 Question)”

It’s exactly what it sounds like… and since I’m still hyped about this win – let’s knock out the negatives first!

3 Negatives

Marvin Lewis had this team come in unprepared

Okay, I know I’m known as a Marvin hater, and I’m not trying to hate here – but this team was NOT prepared coming into the season. There is really no excuse for the start we had.

We let the Colts beat us up for the majority of the game. We made mental errors and looked sloppy. No offense to the Colts, but losing to this Colts’ team 13-3 early in the game is inexcusable. When a team comes in unprepared, that’s on the head coach. Luckily, that was something we were able to overcome – but we won’t be able to do that against a better team.

The Right Side of the Offensive Line

The offensive line as a whole actually did pretty good, but the right side was awful.

Bobby Hart was just a disaster. You guys remember Margus Hunt? 2nd round pick in the 2013 for us? Nice guy, but not very good in the NFL. Bobby Hart allowed Hunt to get 2 sacks on him. That’s bad. Imagine when he goes against a half decent edge guy.

Alex Redmond also struggled. Redmond was decent in the run game and obviously with getting his 1st start; he’s gonna struggle early on. He’ll improve as the year goes on and at least he’s an upgrade from Hopkins.

Price struggled in the run game, but that’s to be expected. He seemed to take a while to get accustomed to the pass rush in an actual NFL game, but he improved as the game went on.

Across the board, the right side of the line needs to step up. We were damn lucky the Colts defensive line isn’t very good… because our guys won’t hold up against a better line with that performance.

Pass Rush

With the Colts having a young guard duo and their backup left tackle playing, we were all expecting a big day from our defensive line: they only had 2 sacks. Okay, it SHOULD have been 3…

Really NFL? That’s a flag? That’s roughing the passer? Let’s just make it flag football. WTF.

Dunlap hasn’t been the only one to fall victim to the rule. NFL needs to fix this. Now.

It’s not like the Defense Line didn’t play well, the Colts simply used short passes and Andrew Luck played quick. It’s hard to get a sack with such an early release. Defense held their own even with Andrew Luck being “back”. The man is a Top 10 QB, and could be in the conversation for Top 5 once again.

Sure it’s disappointing that our defensive line didn’t ball out, but it’s nothing to be overly worried about.

3 Positives

The run game

One of the biggest question marks going into the season was the run game. Trading for Glenn and drafting Price, it seemed like it would be an immediate upgrade. But it didn’t look like that in preseason. Mixon was lucky to get a yard on a carry. Oh good, it’s last year all over again.

But NO! Our prayers were answered by the football gods, and the Run Game was ALIVE ONCE AGAIN vs the Colts. Mixon has 17 carries for 95 yards and a TD (plus 54 receiving yards). If we can keep feeding Mixon all year and have a solid run game, our offense can be ELITE.

John Ross

We finally got to see Ross get a catch. We’ve waited way to long for this and it was a beautiful play.

Perfect throw and everything. Ross will be the type of guy to have 1 catch, or have a big day. It just happened his one was for a clutch touchdown. Just having him on the field and as a potential threat is a huge positive.

Example? If we take another look at AJ Green’s TD play – watch Malik Hooker(29):

Do you see how Hooker was just a little behind? Well you know why? Green was lined up in the slot, and Ross was outside. Hooker was cheating a bit to Ross; that caused him to fall behind. Ross simply being on the field allowed Green to get a little extra separation, and that was enough for a touchdown.

And damn, what a throw by Andy Dalton.

Halftime adjustments

Oh my god…it happened… after 16 fucking years…

It might be silly to celebrate this, but this is great news if it continues. In the past, we’ve been known for blowing games in the 2nd half. While I am still not on board with bringing back Marvin, I respect that he made changes to his coaching or that the players started ignoring Marvin and banding together on their own. I have no idea what happened in that locker room, but the second half was a hell of a lot better than the first.

1 Question

Can we hold onto a lead?

I’m about to be very nit picky here: We saw that Marvin still has the Bengals unprepared coming in, but we’ve also seen he’s (potentially) making halftime adjustments. The main question I have after this game is: Can we hold onto a lead?

Yes, I know we technically did… but only because Clayton Fejedelem did this:

But what if he didn’t make that play?

The Colts were driving and every Bengals fan was mentally preparing themselves for the impending heartbreak. So what happens if we don’t make those game-clinching plays?

That’s something I’m sure we’ll see come up again this year and we wont have an answer until it happens. I’m just glad Fedgy made that play. Bring on the Ravens. WHODEY!

Written by Bengals_NFL

The Bengals are my life.

The Short List for the Reds’ Manager Position

Bengals: 3 Positives and 3 Negatives after Week 2