Preseason Game Review - Cincinnati

[adam]

Bengals 30 - 27

Here is what I saw:

Offense looked out of sync. Trubisky really needed one more drive, but in general, nothing was smooth, which was disappointing. I didn't help that Howard, Cohen, Robinson, and Gabriel didn't dress, but he still had White, Burton, Miller, and Shaheen to start with. Bray looked better than Daniel, which will be interesting to see going forward.

The main problem was pressure and O-Line issues. Massie is terrible and I hope Coward shows enough potential to make the move to him before Week 1. Massie is not an NFL starter and borderline swing tackle at best. This is nothing new and he actually looks worse this year than he did last year. I liked what I saw from Daniels and Coward and wouldn't mind seeing Leno/Whitehair/Daniels/Long/Coward as the starting 5. Kush was bad too and Whitehair was shaky at Center, while Daniels looked good there. Go figure. It was nice to see Kyle Long back in action. 

The TE Group continues to look great. Shaheen, Brown, and even Braunecker got some action. Brown looked really good and it will be unfortunate to lose him over someone like Sims. I would rather see Burton, Shaheen, and Brown as the top 3 TEs.

For the final RB spot, it looks like Nall has the edge over Mizzell. Nall had a 69-yard run, and over 100 yards from scrimmage (to lead all players). Mizzell couldn't do anything and was very ineffective.

For WR's, Fowler will be lucky to make it thru the weekend. He cannot catch the ball, a requirement for an NFL WR. After a great HoF Game, Wims was non-existent. White had every opportunity to make an impact, and he too, was barely noticeable on the field. The first play from scrimmage was a long incompletion down the sideline to him, and a few plays later he drops an easy reception which would've moved the chains. Gentry had a couple of receptions, but didn't do anything special. I see Bellamy as a shoe-in over Fowler, and it will be interesting to see if the Bears keep 6x WR's.

On defense, tackling and wrapping up was an issue, and Cooper is not an NFL CB/DB. He needs to be cut immediately. I don't know if you can look any worse in a preseason game as he did yesterday. I would rather see some of the younger guys getting longer looks than wasting reps on Cooper.  Floyd showed flashes and hopefully that trends continue. RRH was visible and had the only sack. Fuller had an opportunistic Pick-6 against Dalton, but then let in an easy quick slant for a TD. The defense really needs Smith as Timu was just as bad as Cooper was. It is hard for me to see Timu or Cooper making the team after that performance. 

To top off the performance, Parkey misses a game-tying 52-yarder to effectively end the game with a fizzle. O'Donnell defined mediocre punting with an average of 36 yards. 

Overall, I was slightly disappointed, and I hope we see significant progress over the next two preseason games. 

[Stinger226]

I think we just have a long way to go yet for this to function like a well oiled machine. I agree the OL did not look good, but Gino Atkins is a beast and will make anyone look bad. The positives, Shaheen, Daniels, Coward, Nall and Nichols. The only preseason game that matters to me is when everyone will play in the 4th preseason game . The rest is just seeing positives from the younger players.

I think Nall is competing against Burton for a spot, there is no way they keep 4 RBs and a FB with the strength of the TE spot.

[BearFan PHX]

on paper, our roster is more complete than it has been in a long time. it may also have more holes than we realize, especially at OL, WR, and every level of the defense.

but this is still a new team with a new QB and a new coach, and they looked terrible on all sides of the ball and in all phases of the game. It's early, and there is no need to panic, but this is ground zero of something new, and it sure looked like it.

[AZ54]

I haven't seen the game and since NFL Network won't show a replay until Wed I won't even waste my time.  From reading the comments and articles with a lot of "here we go again" it seems surprising to me.  Nagy has a very long camp and preseason in which to evaluate players.  On offense he has been rotating almost all players through with the one's.  Or at least Trubisky is throwing to everybody.  As we headed toward this last game that started to shift and Trubisky was throwing more to 1's and 2's.  Nonetheless we're a whopping 3 weeks into this team learning a new offense and many expected they'd come out and play well.  Why?  They've barely put together two good practices on offense in camp.  

There is a lot to this offense with read options (not RPO's) on WR routes based on coverages.  It's going to take some time for Trubisky and Co. to get on the same page.  Add in that he's been working with "everyone" which must be about 20 different receivers when you consider all the RBs, WRs, and TE's in camp.  Over the next couple weeks the first string offense will start taking shape, including the Oline starters, and they can work on fine tuning the details.  In the meantime Nagy has been able to evaluate many of the depth players against his starters.  For a coach who insists he's looking for a diamond in the rough he using the extra time in camp this year wisely IMO.  I don't think we need to go further than Rashad Coward and all the positive comments on him to see the benefits of this.   

I'm not as critical, or worried, about Kevin White's performance as others are.  After 3 straight years being seriously injured he has to get over the mental hurdle of surviving a real tackle football game without being injured.  Until he puts that behind him, if he can, we won't see him making those highlight reel plays that he had in college.  Anyone who has played as a receiver knows that to truly focus on the ball in the air you need to trust your body to take on the physical hits that are coming.  Plus, despite the lack of catches he did find his way open against a good starting NFL CB.  I expect he came out of this game with some newfound confidence and we'll see what he does with it.  Even then this process will take the entire preseason and part of regular season but I think each week we'll get more and more glimpses that the confidence is returning.  

I really want to see Daniels play but from all I've read, and highlights I've seen, I strongly suspect that he ends up our starting Center in week 1.  Of course I have zero issues that the coaches are making him earn that.  Whitehair IMO has never looked fully comfortable there and sliding him back to LG would be good for us and him.  If Daniels can earn the starting C spot then we've got Whitehair and Kush as backup OCs.  That's not bad at all and I still think as we get closer to the regular season we can start considering trading Grasu.  It might be a bit early to make a trade but after next week's game if the right offer comes along?   Trading him early I wouldn't bite on a conditional 7th Rd pick.