The Bengals beat the Cowboys 21-13 Saturday night in week 2 of the Preseason. While that’s great and all, winning doesn’t mean anything. In fact – you really shouldn’t be happy about this win. I don’t mean to bring in the negativity, but the starters (who actually need to perform well)… played like shit. Offense and defense both. While it’s fun to watch the backups play and get the win, it means absolutely nothing. Let’s look at why the starters were so bad.
The Offense
God, the offense was looking like the 32nd ranked offense we had last year. The only wide receiver that could get open was Green, and he had a safety over him basically the whole time. No other wide receiver could get open. Poor Mixon couldn’t get out of the backfield, and worst of all, Dalton looked BAD.
“Bad” Andy
Yeah, Andy Dalton played bad….. sorry let me rephrase: fucking awful. And I don’t think I’m overreacting when I say that. If you just looked at the numbers, you were probably like “oh, 5/7, 41 yards isn’t awful. Could be worse.” Well, you know the phrase “numbers don’t lie?” Well that’s BS, because the numbers are lying here. First you notice, the yards. 23 of the 41 yards came from one play. It was a 5 yard pass to CJ Uzomah, and then CJ did the rest. Rest of the passes were check-downs. This is frustrating, because this year depends on Andy. If he plays bad, then we are not going anywhere. And I don’t mean to be Mr. Negative, but just re-watch this play:
Andy Dalton and AJ Green are *this* close to being an actually dangerous combination #Bengals pic.twitter.com/ZclQDKtgaS
— Kevin Boilard (@247KevinBoilard) August 18, 2018
No excuses for him to miss this throw; Clean pocket, has Green 1 on 1, Green gets a great release and gets open, but he just straights up misses the throw. There is no excuse for him to miss that throw.
I do understand it’s the pre-season and he’s still working out some kinks, and hopefully it’s just that. However, if he keeps missing these throws, the result are not gonna be good.
And I promise you, I do not mean to shit on Andy. I love him. But he could not get the job done. At one point in the game, the Cowboys had 108 yards, while we had 10. You see my frustration? And he almost had 2 interceptions. One from an overthrow to Green(I do not blame the overthrow on Dalton at all. The line collapsed and he had to get rid of it. But he should of thrown it away) and a pass to Boyd that should of been intercepted, but somehow Boyd snagged it out of the defender’s hands. Overall just not a good day. As I said earlier, hopefully he’s just working out some kinks. Hopefully he’ll fix these before the season starts!
The Offensive Line
Oh lord, the nightmares of our offensive line last year are already coming back. A lot of bad. While Glenn did alright in the pass game, he struggled in the run game. I will say though, it did look more like rust then anything else. If you told me Russell Bodine was wearing 53 in stripes and playing tonight instead of Bill Price, I would of believed you. Price was struggling. He was getting pushed back and getting beat by swim moves. Now for a rookie lineman, these mistakes are expected. He just needs a lot of reps. Bobby Hart looked like he ate what Cedric Ogbuehi ate, because he was bad.
Woah woah woah, you know what? Too far. I need to draw the line. No one deserves to be even somewhat compared to Ced. But point being was Hart did not play well. Same with Hopkins, but Hopkins was a bit more consistent.
Overall just a poor performance from our starting offense. Again, it is preseason so we’re working out these problems. But the offense had a lot of problems. So hopefully they can fix it up before week 1.
Starting Defense
Defense was frustrating. Ezekiel Elliot didn’t even play, and we were still getting ran all over. This is another case where the stats lie, because our starting defense didn’t do as well as it looks. We had a lot of trouble of tackling. Linebackers took a major L. Now not having Burfict there hurt us, but he’s not going to be there the first 4 weeks, so we gotta figure something out. Preston Brown made some good tackles, but gave up a lot of 1st while in down coverage. Preston just ain’t a guy you should have in coverage, but he’ll have to be more than he should until Burfict comes back. Nick Vigil was looking as inconsistent as ever, and Jordan Evans did pretty good. Iloka was… well…. playing horrible. Not a good day for him. He was playing a mixture of strong and free safety, and that’s probably what’s going to happen during the season. When Jessie Bates is out on the field, he’ll be in his natural strong safety position, and he’ll be the free safety when he’s not. For the last 2 years, he’s been playing out of potion at free safety. Looked like he was trying to get back in the swing of things at strong safety. He seemed lost on the field. He missed a sack, and the touchdown that was given up was his fault. He left his zone to rush after Dak, which was dumb because he already had 2 players in pursuit who could of sacked him. To be first to the defense, the WR who caught the TD pushed off of WJ3, and a Cowboys lineman did hold Geno, but the point is Iloka struggled. Jessie Bates played well. Made some good open field tackles, which is relieving because his inconsistency in tackling was something scouts were worried about.
Overall
Overall, not a great day for the starters. This game should be a reality check; yes we got potential, but we still have ways to go. We’re not near a great team yet. The backup offense did alright. Jeff Driskel is the clear backup quarterback. Alex Erickson isn’t just a lock to make the team as a returner, but also make the team as a wide receiver. He had a great catch on the sideline, and with great technique, looked the ball in and everything. Ross had a nice catch for 30 yards, and caught a 2 point conversion.
John Ross with the two-point conversion to give Cincinnati an 11-10 lead. pic.twitter.com/bEnisVKXjY
— Josh Kirkendall (@Josh_Kirkendall) August 19, 2018
Backup line was good. Fisher was actually playing well at left tackle. Westerman was playing really really well. Hopkins was actually playing some center. Ogbuehi…was well Ogbuehi
Barkley struggled again, but drunk boy…. aka Logan Woodside was placing the ball well. Overall, a good performance from the backup offense.
Backup defense held their own. Jordan Willis had a great day with 2 sacks. That man is always around the ball. Hubbard had a strip sack, and Lawson had a sack(Lawson was only in like 5 plays with the backups, don’t worry). Backup linebackers were alright. Jefferson was making good tackles, but still looked lost. Worley got mossed by their tight end. Backup secondary played good. CJ Goodwin is a good open field tackler.
Man, Jonathan Brown can kick. 55 yarder. After his performance yesterday, you’d think the Bengals would have a healthy kicking competition, right? Well think again.
Marv on Jon Brown: not a competition
— Geoff Hobson (@GeoffHobsonCin) August 19, 2018
Seriously Marvin? Remember what happen last year? Why not make it a competition? There’s no harm.
Darius Phillips looked real sharp returning kicks yesterday.
I think this game showed how vulnerable we are. Yeah, we can be good. But if just a couple players don’t play well, we’re screwed.
This article was published unedited and raw. Any concerns or corrections should be pointed to Braeden directly.
