I know I'm always right on time with these. Hours before the 4th game.
Just a quick review here. From week 2 to week 3 Who Dey Nation went from despair to cautious optimism. I liked the two trades. Taylor Mays may be a total bust but he also has potential. All they gave up was a 7th round pick 2 years from now which is basically free. If nothing else he should be able to play special teams well.
I don't know much about the CB from Seattle Jennings but the Bengals have a history of turning former first round picks into something useful and I have yet to hear anything bad about him. Corner was a real area of concern after the 2 starters. You need at least 3 good corners to compete in this league. I liked how DT McDonald (the guy we traded for him) looked but we had a pretty serious roster crunch on the D line so he might not have gotten on the field much. Will be interesting to see what this Jennings guy can do.
Three things from the Jets game. First of all, Michael Johnson has looked damn near unblockable at times coming off the edge. He made a top 10 LT in Ferguson look like a scrub a few times. Particularly on a play where he did a half spin and come back the other way to crush Sanchez. That is a pretty sick counter move that you don't see often. That was fun to watch.
2. Dalton looks resilient if nothing else. He seems to get some early game yips then settles into his groove. He's done that in all 3 games so far. WRs certainly didn't help against the Jets with all kinds of drops. I can live with that for this year because he looks really solid once he gets settled in.
3. Run defense! Also solid all preseason. Jets have a really good rushing attack and they were held to almost nothing through out the whole game.
The Panthers game was fun to watch wasn't it? Other than the fumbled exchange between Dalton and Benson I was all smiles. Running game was great, receivers were running wide open, pass rush was kicking some ass. Just, fun stuff.
I'm re-watching it as I write and Geno Atkins looked unstoppable. He was taking guards and placing them in Newton's lap all day. If he can do that consistently that goes a really long way towards having a top tier defense.
It seems like there is a huge discrepancy between Cam Newton and Andy Dalton doesn't it? Newton looked like a lost rookie out there while Dalton was pretty well poised. Now, Dalton did miss some passes that hurt, like the first fade route that AJ Green smoked Chris Gamble on but he had a solid day and made up for it later with the touchdown bomb...even though that was a little behind too (thank you Mr. Green).
It's a shame that Bo Scaife went down for the season. It seems like veteran #2 tight ends are cursed here. Remember Ben Utech? Exactly. I hear nothing but good things about Colin Cochart though, undrafted rookie TE out of South Dakota State, so it will be exciting to see if he can contribute. I've also been waiting forever to see what Chase Coffman can do too. I feel like it is his last chance to make something happen.
I'm hoping the run game was a product of the Bengals running well rather than the Panthers being bad at run D. Didn't matter who was in the backfield, there were holes. Reminds me of '09 except with the potential to be able to pass too.
I could give the Not His Fault They Lost Award to a lot of guys this week, but I'm going to give it to the starting 4 Wide Receivers AJ Green, Jerome Simpson, Jordan Shipley and Andre Caldwell. Not for constantly smoking Panther corners but for the blocking in the run game. It's so good to see that again. These guys were aggressive and trying to move guys. It's a big part of why the running game was so successful during this game. I considered the fullbacks too. They both looked really good. No matter which one we keep, I'm excited.
Just saw A.J. smoke Gamble again but Dalton didn't look his way. He looks like a good one.
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