Bengals-Bears

[WVRed]

The more I see of Odell Thurman, the more excited I get about the next few years in Bengal land. Marvin Lewis has been nothing short of genius in his drafting (with the exception of Chris Perry which I still think was a really bad pick).

I am starting to get sold on Perry now. Hes not going to be a platoon back with Rudi by any means, but he is a perfect speed option out of the backfield whenever Marvin decides to mix it up. His biggest asset though is his pass catching ability, giving Palmer another receiving weapon.

He reminds me a lot of Brian Westbrook. He wont put up big numbers like Westbrook because we still have Chad, TJ, and Henry(who I am also liking right now), but the potential is still there.

[WMR]

Chris Perry is a definite upgrade over Peter Warrick. He does the same sorts of things that Warrick did, only Perry does them better; PLUS, he is also a RB.

He is the lightning to Rudi's thunder. Let's just keep him healthy (knock on wood).

I have been particularly impressed with the play of Madieu Williams. He made a couple tackles yesterday which were simply outstanding.

This offense has just begun to scratch the surface of what it is capable of.

The Defense is only going to get better.

Paging David Pollack. Paging David Pollack. Your GAME has been turned in at the front desk, please retrieve it at your earliest convenience. This is probably the one guy who could least afford to miss his rookie training camp. At times he looks positively lost out there. Good thing Landon Johnson has been playing so great.

That TD catch by Henry was STUDLY. That did not look like a rookie TD catch. It looked like a savvy vet to me. The way his head stayed absolutely still prevented the defender from getting a good grasp of the route of the ball.

There is not a single RB in the NFL who has hands superior to Chris Perry. Looking at the dimension that he brings to the offense, which the Bengals do not have w/o him, I don't have a problem with him as a Marvin Lewis Draftee.

An outstanding placekicker: A very underrated piece of a team that wants to be great; we've got one.

As Zombie alluded to in his post: The defensive line play has been very good. I would like to see the front four generate more consistent pressure on the QB, however. (yes, Justin Smith, I am looking at you.)

[macro]

Lots of people over at the Bengals Huddle site have been getting very giddy over the team's start, and I feel they're overreacting. When I looked at this year's schedule, I expected the team to be 4-0 entering their Sunday night game at Jacksonville. But when you scroll on down through the rest of the schedule, I also feared that the team could finish as low as 9-7 on the season. I'm not predicting 9-7, but it wouldn't shock me. Then again, this is the NFL, and some teams on the schedule that were supposed to be tough will end up being not-so-tough, so a 12-4 record wouldn't surprise me either.

Bottom line is, I don't think any Bengals fan should be surprised by this start. After all, this may be the easiest stretch of the schedule.

[WMR]

Yes, Macro, you are right. How lucky for us, however, that we get the easiest part of our schedule first, to hopefully iron out the kinks in the offense and allow our defense time to get everyone on the same page?

[OldRightHander]

This team is starting to actually impress me, unlike some of the good stretches some of the bad teams had where they would win a few by playing over their heads and then go in the tank again. A few years ago they would have lost that game, with the way the offense was going early, but this year's team still seems able to pull out a win even when everything isn't clicking quite the way it should. Yes, you could say that the defensive front four could get more pressure, but they're not exactly doing that poorly either, which is freeing up the safeties and LBs to focus more on pass coverage. Which the secondary we have, if the front four can get even a modest amount of pressure on the QB, the picks are going to keep coming. Now if they can just cut down on the stupid penalties.

Palmer seems to be the real deal as well. He made some mature plays yesterday, not trying to force anything that wasn't there, and generally making some smart throws.

Also, the prettiest play of the game has to be the last touchdown. The move Johnson put on that CB to get open and then the perfectly lofted throw to hit him right in stride...what else can be said about that. The Bears have a good aggressive defense and that play used the aggressiveness of the CB against them. He went to jam Chad at the line and got burned.

Like I said earlier, this was a game that they might have lost a few years ago, but this time they overcame the early sluggishness of the offense, played great defense, and did what they needed to do to get the win. Anytime you win on the road in the NFL, you have to be pleased.

[ochre]

Average margin of victory: 20 points.

Call it a weak schedule, but these are still NFL teams. That statistic more than any, gives me warm fuzzies. They are taking care of business and dispatching teams in a fashion that is appropriate to the disparity in talent.

[wheels]

Think about this:

There are three weeks remaining before the big showdown against Pittsburgh.

Houston - Another very winnable game.

Jacksonville - They are almost a Chicago clone.

Tennesse - That's another pretty winnable game.

Let's say they win two out of three, or (God forbid!) all three of them.....
Can you imagine the atmosphere leading up to that game? Cincinnati might implode.

Football is fun to watch again.

[WVRed]

Think about this:

There are three weeks remaining before the big showdown against Pittsburgh.

Houston - Another very winnable game.

Jacksonville - They are almost a Chicago clone.

Tennesse - That's another pretty winnable game.

Let's say they win two out of three, or (God forbid!) all three of them.....
Can you imagine the atmosphere leading up to that game? Cincinnati might implode.

Football is fun to watch again.

Lets not get ahead of ourselves.

Houston - A winnable game the Bengals "should" win. I'm actually interested in seeing what Palmer does against a not so highly rated defense. If he fires on all cylinders like the Minnesota game, they could score 40, although I dont look for it.

Jacksonville - This is the game that worries me. While im now glad we picked Palmer over Leftwich, that defense(especially the line with Henderson and Stroud) is going to be tough. IMO, this is the second best defense we will face all season(the first one being the Steelers). And yes, I think they are better than Baltimore right now.

Tennessee - Tennessee is down defensively because of the cap, but they always play tough. They beat Baltimore at home, which unfortunately is where we are playing them. Heres the past Bengals-Titans matchups.

2004-at Tennessee(27-20 L)
2002-at Cincinnati(30-24 L)

There is a possibility the Bengals could win all three, but two of those games are very losable. We had an easy start to the season, but the road trip is where its going to get testy.

[KronoRed]

Leftwich is not going to hand you the ball 5 times

[OldRightHander]

Leftwich is not going to hand you the ball 5 times

Orton didn't either. He threw it.

[KronoRed]

Those were passes?

[OldRightHander]

Those were passes?

Actually, he completed a good number of the ones he threw. They just weren't all caught by the same team.

[WVRed]

Leftwich is not going to hand you the ball 5 times

You could say the same thing about Daunte Culpepper, who is a more superior QB compared to Leftwich.

But no, I dont see Leftwich throwing 5 INTs, nor do I see David Carr or Steve McNair doing the same. I'd love to be proven wrong though.

[Jaycint]

I think the main thing that has irritated me (for lack of a better word) during this little three week run is the fact that the concensus seems to be that the Bengals are catching these QB's on bad weeks as opposed to the Bengals BEING the reason the QB's are having bad weeks.

We all know what kind of QB Culpepper is and yet we made him look horrible two weeks ago.

Say what you want about Trent Dilfer but the guy has 822 passing yards through three games.

In the case of Orton I will agree, we took advantage of a young qb but isn't that the idea?

They don't just hand out wins in the NFL and you take every one you can get and don't apologize for any of them.

I LOVE what I am seeing out of our secondary, the first time I can say that about that particular unit in a long time. We have guys that actually play the ball now instead of just waiting to make a tackle after a 48 yard reception.

I think as Pollack gets into the flow of things better and becomes more comfortable and when we get Clemons back in two weeks this defense will only improve. I wouldn't at all be surprised if this unit finishes in the top 10 at the end of the year.