You know it's been awhile since you've posted when the Reds were still in contention in the last post. But I digress.....
OK, the Bengals lost 34-3 and everyone is already killing them and thinking it's going to be a 2-14 season. But I, for one, saw much to be encouraged about after breaking down the first half. Granted, I went into it looking for the silver lining and watched it two days after they actually played, so I had no emotional attachment.
The Lions took the first drive right down the field with a couple long completions, including a back shoulder fade for Megatron over Leon Hall. Outside of Geno Atkins, who is now officially my second favorite Bengal, no pass rush was evident. Hall has had his issues with larger receivers, and has no shot if he isn't even going to bump at the line. That said, the coverage was softer than Rex Ryan's midsection so I'm not going to kill them for it. It is going to be better across the board.
The Bengals fumble their opening kick and it leads to 7 more quick Lion points. The biggest issue was not the rookie returner who won't be on this team, but the putrid blocking that let three Lions hit him simultaneously. Core special teamers Brandon Johnson, Brian Leonard, and another guy I'm blanking on right now (editors note: Dan Skuta), all missed blocks. This will not happen on the regular, and can be chalked up to the first kickoff return of the season. Again the Lions marched, and if Nate Burleson didn't make the circus catch for a touchdown over Hall, then they were just as lucky that Jahvid Best dropped what could've been a TD in front of Manny Lawson. Lawson looked a little lost, but he's only had a handful of practices. The linebackers will be okay, and have better speed than at anytime last year. I like Thomas Howard too, and they will have nice depth once Rivers returns.
OK, then the Bengals get the ball for the first time and Andy Dalton is picked on his first pro pass. I like Gruden's aggressiveness here. The plan was to double team In-Dom-A-Kin Soo, and Corey Williams just nailed the snap count to beat Nate Livings and hit Dalton as he threw. This was shades of Carson Palmer's last three years (ie-not entirely the QB's fault for those morons amongst us). Give these guys 5 seconds and good things will happen. Now I'm not a huge Livings fan, and believe Clint Boling will be the starter before year's end. But that said, Dalton needs to leave that ball to the outside if he can, but you can't really control it if you're hit. Even short, AJ can make a play if it's to his side.
The Bengals D did a nice job of shutting down the Lions next drive. Again, Atkins was very active and Reggie Nelson shows flashes of real playmaking ability that made him a first round pick. I think the secondary, barring injury, should be pretty good.
The Bengals did a really nice job establishing the run in the next drive, primarily behind Bobbie Williams and a quite impressive Andre Smith. These guys pushed Suh around and Cedric the Entertainer had some nice runs. But the old foe, third and short, reared it's ugly head. I thought Dalton actually made the right read in throwing to a ton of open green field turf, but FB Chris Pressley didn't make the adjustment. Gruden has said it was a messed up route by Coffman that kind of affected coverage, but either way, you throw to the open spot and Dalton did.
It's been a few days since I watched the game, so the rest of the drives kind of blend together but here are some random thoughts. AJ Green is impressive. He snatches the ball at the furthest point from the defender, and he's looking to run with it. He may have run 50 yards sideways on the one slant (which was a nice throw from AD), but holy shit did you see the block Jerome Simpson threw? I'm telling you right now, Chad, TJ, TO, Chris Henry RIP, not even Vern Coles comes back to throw that type of block!! And Simpson just missed a beauty of a TD of his own with that backshoulder fade perfectly thrown by AD.
Dalton made great reads and only missed on two throws, both of which he got hit on. The first by Williams, and the second by some guy wearing 75 who got Andre the Giant with a quick bullrush. Speaking of Andre, I thought he did really well. His footwork is a little sloppy, but he's just massive. He shut out Cliff Avril who was reportedly unblockable in early camp. Signs of life from a guy desperate to shed the "bust" label. He is a huge key to this season.
But back to Dalton, the biggest key. He spread the ball around, hitting just about everyone at least once. I really like the route concepts that Gruden is using. A lot of crossing route, pick plays, and combos that will lead to matchup problems. Yes, AD didn't average a lot, but he just missed two 20 yard TD's that would've helped that a ton. I didn't see any mental errors, and that's huge.
Now he did get dumped on his helmetless head when Bobbie Williams and Cook were abused by Suh. But Dalton got back up and went about his business. The kid's impressive.
So on the sour side, the pass defense was bad. But Carlos Dunlap didn't play, and you won't see these DB's play off that much the rest of the season. They will be okay. The OLB's are brand new, but Who Dey Rey looks pretty darn good at the Mike. Like Coach Zim said this week, this defense can be good. I agree. They did a nice job vs. the run and on the screens. It was the big play that has killed them the last couple of years, and it showed up again last Friday. That is my big concern. Stopping the run consistently and getting the pressure they did late in 2010=surprising success.
The offensive line is not as bad in pass protection as last year, but they aren't great. Outside Whitworth, who better freaking get to Hawaii this season as a ProBowler, the rest of the guys are clearly better at runblocking. But they can be really good at that. And there weren't many penalties, which is a great sign. Outside a phantom hold on a very well executed screen to Brian Leonard, they played clean. If they get back to bullying opponents, like they did in 2009, they will be a lot of fun to watch. Ceddy Ced just needs to learn not to try and do too much, like last year, and fumble at THE WORST TIMES EVER!!
And the skill guys played pretty fast too, especially for a first game together. This team will score some points once they start to click, they have too many weapons not too. As I've said several times, this is the most talented group in the division. Have fun trying to cover freaks like AJ, Simpson and Gresham, and then having the poor man's Wes Welker in Shipley who's becoming great at finding spaces in the seams. They can be scary good given time.
But they have to get TD's and not FG's, and they can't miss chip shot FG's like the Nuge did in Detroit. Redzone offense has been brutal for this team the last couple of years, but I really like the balance and the weapons, and the decision making of the QB. Hopefully they won't self-destruct as often as past years. (At least we won't have the two false starts by 85 a game anymore)!!
Now I'm not saying this team is going 10-6 with a rookie at QB, but I saw nothing in that first half that changes my opinion that this team can go 7-9 or even 8-8 if they clean up a few things. They don't have glaring weaknesses, just several little things that need some attention. Injuries can change everything in the NFL, but if they stay relatively healthy, I'm bullish on the Bungholes this year. Out with the old Delta Bravo's, and up with the new young tiger cubs.
And yeah, homerism acknowledged.
