The Bengals lost their preseason opener to the Philadelphia Eagles 34-27. Today we will be reviewing the good, bad, and the ugly from the Bengals loss to the Eagles.
The Good: Joe Burrow and the starting offense were clicking
Joe Burrow threw for 123 yards, two touchdowns, and no picks. Ja’Marr Chase caught four passes for 77 yards and one touchdown. Those aren’t mind blowing stats but keep in mind they only played one quarter of football. And yes the Eagles did not have their starters in the whole game but Eagles cornerback Kelee Ringo was in the game and on the Ja’Marr Chase touchdown he took a bad angle and got torched by Chase’s ability to run after the catch.
Tanner Hudson also scored the teams first touchdown of the season and caught another touchdown pass later in the game as well.
Rookie left guard Dylan Fairchild (Who I am really high on) also put up a solid performance, he’s been in a position battle during practice with Cordell Volson and Cody Ford, who also played in the game.
We also saw some flashes from Chase Brown and seeing what he could become in this offense.
Overall it was a really solid performance from the Bengals starters and expect to see them a lot more when they play in Cincinnati for the first time this year against the Commanders next week.
The Bad: The Defensive struggles continue against Eagles backups
It was like watching the 2024 season all over again. The Bengals storm down the field and get a quick seven points only for the game to be tied minutes later because of the defense. The roster hasn’t changed much since last year unfortunately, which could mean they haven’t gotten any better. We saw what a Bengals defense would look like without Trey Hendrickson on the field because he’s still dealing with contract issues.
They allowed Tanner McKee to throw for 252 yards and 2 touchdowns in the game, McKee is looking like one of the best backup quarterbacks in the league. Wide receiver Darius Cooper put up a really good game catching six passes for 82 yards and a touchdown. Johnny Wilson, another wide receiver also had a really solid game, he caught three passes for 73 yards.
On the bright side, Shemar Stewart the Bengals rookie edge rusher, put some pressure on the quarterback in his short stint in the game. Statistically, it wasn’t a great performance from him though by only recording a tackle, but expect big things for him in their final preseason games.
After the game head coach Zac Taylor mentioned how they don’t want to show what they want to do defensively in preseason games.
“We’re trying not to show a lot of what was going on, so we’re trying to keep it as a little as possible and let some guys win one-on-ones and today, there was a lot of 50-50 plays that I thought Philly made.”
As a unit, the defense was just like they last season, terrible! Hopefully they can figure something out with Trey Hendrickson soon because without him they don’t stand a chance.
The Ugly: Too many mistakes that resulted in points
It was bad. The Bengals were guilty of eight penalties in the game and had many mistakes on special teams:
•Bengals running back Gary Brightwell returned a kickoff 71 yards only to be called back by a holding from tight end Cam Grandy.
•Before the end of the first half Cincinnati allowed a 46-yard punt return, which resulted in the Eagles scoring before halftime making the score 24-14.
•Eagles kicker Jake Elliott attempted a 47-yard field goal, which he ended up missing wide right. But fortunately for the Eagles, cornerback D.J. Ivey was penalized for being offsides. After that penalty Elliott nailed a 42-yard attempt.
•Later in the game Elliott made a chip-shot 23-yard field goal in the 4th-quarter only for defensive tackle McKinnley Jackson to be called for unnecessary roughness, which resulted into another touchdown drive for the Eagles.
Overall there are many things to clean up, even quarterback Joe Burrow said this game was ‘average.’ Cincinnati has 28 days to clean up the mistakes until they pay a visit to Cleveland on September 7th.
