Bengals beat the Bears in Comeback Fashion

Bengals Preseason Week 1 Recap

AP Photo

Hey guess what..

Bengals football is back.

After a disappointing 2017 year and some questionable off-season moves (aka re-signing Marvin Lewis), the Bengals returned to action last Thursday night against the Chicago Bears. Cincinnati won 30-27, and while that’s great, winning in the preseason doesn’t mean jack (ask the Browns who went 4-0 last year). The preseason is more important for backups and getting a glimpse at what the starters can do – so let’s discuss what happened against the Bears.

The Offensive Line

The Bengals offense looked GREAT. A lot of solid play from our offense, and that one bad thing that happened. But let’s start with the offensive line.

As you remember, we had a terrrrible line last year. Now? Looks much better. Cordy Glenn was a top 10 left tackle before his injury, and he looked like a top 10 left tackle. He didn’t allow a single pressure while he was in. Glenn is a big, strong dude – blocking guys while standing there barely even sweating. Sure it’s only preseason game, so it’s important to not over-hype this… but if Glenn stays healthy, there is no reason to think that he can’t go back to his top 10 left tackle status.

Billy Price also looked really good. Throughout camp, he’s been having snapping issues (he literally only snapped it 2 times under center in his entire college career), but he didn’t have any mishaps during the game against the Bears as he was consistent in the pass and run game. Even Bobby Hart did better than expected, looking pretty good in the pass game at least. The right guard still looks open, with Hopkins not playing well enough to lock himself in as a starter.

Andy Dalton & The Offense

Say what you will about Dalton, but the dude played great. Obviously it was preseason, but he made some ELITE throws as the offense looked solid overall. The only slip-up was when Ross slipped up, and allowing the corner to easily pick it off and return it for a touchdown.

I cannot stress this enough – that was not Dalton’s fault. It was Ross’ fault.

I think the football Gods were just like “Hey John, we’re gonna stop bugging you, but we’ll always be here.” Anyways, Ross has had a catch (that’s right, a positive yardage catch!) and run for 20 yards. But man, how about Joe Mixon’s touchdown?!

The Defense

Not much to say, starting defense was great. They were in for 2 droves, and for those 2 drives, the Bears did absolutely nothing. Starters on both sides of the ball came out to play – this is a step in the right direction.

The Backups

Let’s get to the (un)Interesting part of the game, the backups!

A key battle in the preseason will be Matt Barkley vs Jeff Driskel for the backup QB position. Driskel easily out preformed Barkley yesterday. Driskel did a great a job of avoiding pressure, and making some downfield throws as well as that game winning touchdown to Auden Tate. Barkley was struggling. He often missed throws. There was a time where Ross had a step on the corner, but Barkley threw it out of bounds. Barkley just couldn’t get the job done.

There was some good, and than there was was some bad with the backup offensive line. Christian Westerman played GREAT. He didn’t allow a single pressure. The Bengals should start him at right guard next week. I believe that he earned it. Alex Redmond was real dominant in the run game, but struggled in the pass game. Jake Fisher had a couple of flashes, but struggled most of the time. Ogbuehi was, uh what’s a nice way to put it?… Horrible. I think when it comes to Ogbuehi, he just sucks no matter what. It’s time for him to get cut.

Backup running backs Tra Carson and Brian Hill played well. The Bengals may keep 4 running backs, so if they do, it’ll be between them. That’ll be a fun battle to watch as preseason keeps going.
Auden Tate was getting a ton of hype during training camp, but we didn’t see that much playing time from him. But when he did come in, he showed what he could do. Driskel threw the ball up to him, and had the beautiful game winning touchdown. Just look at this beauty:

Overall a solid day for the backup offense, but a lot of work that needs to be done. Backup defense was meh. There was a lot of good, and a lot of bad. Chris Baker was very disappointing. Not only did he not start, but he was getting pushed back against the backups. Sam Hubbard was getting in the backfield but kept missing the tackle. Willis did a great job of getting pressure and causing bad throws.

Backup linebackers were inconsistent. Brandon Bell shined. He was all over the field. He made a lot of good open field tackles, and had a nice interception. Hardy Nickerson struggled at times, but  had flashes. Malik Jefferson really struggled. He’s a developmental player, so you have to expect him to struggle. But he did pretty bad yesterday. He took bad angles and wasn’t in the right position a lot. Jefferson has a lot of potential, but it’ll be a while before he gets there.

The backup secondary was inconsistent. KeiVarae Russell had a nice interception on a deep ball, but got beat on a lot of quick man to man routes. Devontae Harris was solid, and Darius Phillips got beat a couple of times, but the QB missed those throws.

Overall a good game from the Bengals, we’ll see if they can keep it consistent in Week 2 against the Cowboys.

Written by Bengals_NFL

The Bengals are my life.

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