Bengals show weakness in loss to Lions

Discussion in 'Cincinnati Bengals' started by fumetti, Aug 11, 2007.

  1. fumetti

    fumetti Fan Since 1980!

    It's amazing that Marvin Lewis can be so thrilled with such a terrible game. Sure, the starters on offense looked crisp. But that's a given. The passing game alone won't get this team into the playoffs.

    The run game was mediocre. Some good plays early, but very weak when Cincy needed it (no good runs in red zone, forced to kick 2 FGs). With both starting tackles spending the preseason in the infirmary, Cincy needs depth at OL. Whitworth and Kooistra need more work/experience, and the toughest part of the schedule is the first half. If Big Willie and Levi can't play their best, it's gonna be a long September and October.

    The loss of Henry for 8 games wasn't going to hurt as much as the media puts on, but losing Irons for the year is tragic. Not only are we still without a change of pace scat-back, we can't make up for Henry's absence by throwing to a RB with WR kinda speed.

    The DL was good against the run for the most part, but put very little pressure on Detroit's QBs. They had all day. I thought Peko was the answer to having speed on the inside, but he was successfully single-blocked much of the time.

    The LBs are as bad as ever. Sure Landon Johnson is fast and makes a lot of tackles, but they're usually 8 yards down the field. He needs to start using that speed to stop a run at 2 yards, not chasing people from behind. Ahmad Brooks made no tackles. That's bad, because the DBs sure had to make a lot.

    The secondary was abysmal. The coaches put them in soft zones which allowed for a lot of easy completions. The players seemed never to be in place to make a play. And tackling was terrible. No drapes in this group, just a bunch of cushions. One pass play defensed (which saved 4 pts), but that's it. They gave up 445 yards to backups who looked like John Elway. Luckily, the guilty DBs won't be on the field come September.

    And how did Graham manage to end Thursday the way he ended '06??? Another miss that he usually makes. The mojo's not so good right now.

    Thankfully, it's only preseason and Cincy had a commanding 26-10 lead late in the 4th before the soon-to-be-unemployed 4th stringers gave it away. But the defense was still porous, despite the score. This team has a lot of work to do before it can take on Baltimore.