Links and Notes from last night's game

"You've got to wrap up; NFL receivers are big," said White, who gave about 20 pounds to Jones. "It's not like college, where you pretty much hit a guy and he does down. I learned something from this game. That's the idea. Learn something every game."

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The number one thing I wanted to hear is right there, a quote from Marvin White in one of Hobson's latest articles on the dot com today. Kirkendall of CincyJungle.com said last night on the open thread that he didn't mind Marvin going for the big hit last night because he's building his reputation as the enforcer in the Bengals secondary, as long as he doesn't get burnt like he did last night on the 30-yard touchdown. The quote above shows me that he learned the lesson I wanted him to learn last night, that if it's a sure thing he's green-lighted to take someone's head off. If there is the slightest doubt that the big hit will take the receiver or runner to the ground because of angle or any other mitigating factor...wrap him up and just make the tackle.

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Watching last night's game after I got home from work last night, for better or worse this is what I saw.

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The good:

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Chris Perry was a man possessed by something otherworldly last night.

His touchdown run was a thing of pure beauty...tough, hard nosed, slobber knocking beauty. He has proven that he is back to form, now let's not be stupid going forward this preseason. Let him run with the 1st-team offensive line as the primary running back Sunday night, alternating carries with Watson and Rudi (if Rudi plays), then get him out of there when the 2's come in. At that point it can be the DeDe Dorsey and James Johnson show. I want Johnson to get more carries anyway, and Perry showed us last night how much we truly have missed him the past two years.

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I want him healthy this year, let's not push it, shall we?

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Keith Rivers is the real deal, the whole ball of wax and a plethora of other metaphors I'm too lazy to think up at the moment.

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The man had a team-high seven unassisted tackles last night and he didn't even start. I didn't notice him being out of position at all. The entire defense could learn by watching him tackle, which we'll discuss later. I'm personally holding off on getting a Rivers jersey, but that has nothing to do with the fact that I don't think he's going to be a world-changer and everything to do with the fact that Ahmad Brooks isn't long for this team and Rivers will be getting his number 55 before the season starts.

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Consolation prize, my foot.

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Ben Utecht showed that he can be the middle of the field threat we were hoping for.

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Other than his drop in the first quarter, Utecht was money last night. The shoestring catch at the line of scrimmage that he turned up field for a first down was incredible to me. That's pretty good body control to reach down to your ankles to catch the football and immediately right the ship not only for a couple of yards, but from one stick clear to the other before a defensive player touches you. Sure, his touchdown catch was on a blown coverage, but kudos to Palmer and Utecht for realizing the opportunity and executing before the defense could react. That's why the Bengals went out and got him.

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And yes, I already have a Utecht jersey on order. An orange one.

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There's no way Corey Lynch doesn't make this team.

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Chick's been saying it for a long time, but Corey Lynch continues to show why this football team cannot afford to try to hide him on the practice squad. A couple of really good hits last night (one especially good pop in particular) on D, a team-leading two special teams tackle and a fumble recovery can be added to the young man's resume after last night's contest. If this team fails to find him a spot on the 53-man roster, it will be a mistake of epic proportions.

The word playmaker is thrown around with far too much candor, but that's exactly what this kid is. When he's on the field, he makes things happen.

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The bad:

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If David Jones is in fact the third best cornerback on the Bengals' roster, we are in for one heck of a long season.

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I find it hard to believe that neither Deltha O'Neal nor Simeon Castille could have done a worse job than Jones did last night. I didn't have high hopes for David Jones when we acquired him off of waivers from New Orleans last year after seeing the clinic that Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne put on at Jason David's expense, whom the Saints kept in releasing David Jones, and I think that bore out last night. In fact, had Aaron Rodgers not overthrown his receiver on that completely and totally blown coverage in the first quarter, the Packers would have won last night, 24-20. To Jones' credit, the thirty-yard completion on the next play wasn't really on him as he had his man very well covered, but that doesn't excuse the poor coverage and poor tackling that was seen from the man throughout the night.

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Maybe it was a bad night for him. He's got three more preseason games to show that the hype surrounding him this spring and summer was justified. So far, color me unimpressed.

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Backup center Dan Santucci suffers a broken right ankle.

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Not good. Where do we go from here? Kyle Cook is nowhere close to being ready to play on Sundays yet (if he ever will be), so if Eric Ghiaciuc goes down at any point this year what do the Bengals do? Do they now make Bobbie Williams the backup center, with Andrew Whitworth the emergency backup? Do they call up LeCharles Bentley, who is still looking for work and would at least be worth a shot before the season starts, and see what might be there?

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Lots and lots of questions to be answered here.

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The Special Teams unit appears to have a long way to go.

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Besides the fact that they couldn't open up good lanes for the return game, there were far too many instances of Jordy Nelson or other Packers return men getting 10-15 yards more than they should have. Blue Adams isn't around to draw any personal fouls this year, but if they're giving up those fifteen yards on the runbacks in the first place, we've got a lot of work to do in the return game and the coverage units.

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Once highly-touted, Ahmad Brooks didn't enter the game until the fourth quarter and had a grand total of one tackle compared to Keith Rivers' seven.

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Nice knowing you, Ahmad. Virtually a non-factor in all aspects.

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The ugly:

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Please, please, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD COULD SOMEONE, ANYONE FINISH A TACKLE?!?!?!

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Wow. Some (Chick included) have talked about Peko's whiff of Brandon Jackson, but that one doesn't bother me at all. It's hard for me to get upset about a player not making a tackle when he's just emerging from the line and he doesn't even get a hand on the ball carrier because of a move like the one Jackson put on Peko last night. Peko didn't have a prayer.

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On the other hand, I lost count of the number of times one of our defenders tried to make a tackle and just like we've seen the past several years...the tackle was broken, the ball carrier got free and ran for an extra ten to fifteen to twenty yards.

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I'd like to be a fly on the wall in the next meeting Mike Zimmer has with this defense. His foot is going to be so far up their nether regions they'll be tasting brill cream for a week. Judging by the way Zimmer has been with his players so far since his arrival, I expect to see better tackling Sunday night.

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If I'm wrong, well...it just might be the Bengals I'm watching. I suppose I can't forget that.

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That was singularly, without a shadow of doubt, the worst broadcast of any football game I have ever seen in my twenty-nine years on this earth.

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Apparently I was far too generous in my over/under on Favre mentions, because I'm pretty sure they had fifty knocked out by halftime. I think I heard 108 as the final number. Don't get me wrong, I'm not naive enough to have expected Favre Network not to talk about the Favre/Rodgers transition, but for crying out loud. I'm trying to decide which moment was my personal favorite, I've got it narrowed down to two. Was it when Suzy Kolber asked Carson Palmer more questions regarding Favre and Rodgers than she asked him about his own offense, or was it when the entire Dan Santucci injury was missed because the camera was in the booth and we were watching Tony Kornheiser sitting there in his Favre Jets jersey for a solid five to seven minutes?

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Never thought I'd say it, but dog gone I'm glad the Bengals don't play on Monday Night Football any more this season. Between Kornheiser's supreme unprofessionalism and Jaworski's brilliant deduction that Palmer is no longer an elite quarterback because he tried too hard last year (never mind the fact that he HAD to put the ball in the paint every time he was on the field because the Bengals' defense was a sieve and he had no running game), the entire program was near unwatchable. I'm really sorry that a.) I live out of 700 WLW's range and b.) I wasn't watching the game live because I've never been so sorry that I couldn't mute the television and listen to Brad and Lap instead.

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In other bits and bobs from around the web, David of Stripe Hype has a very good season preview for the Bengals that he penned for Fansided, which can be located here.

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The Bengals will be facing one of their alumni in the season opener at Baltimore, as Lorenzo Neal signed with the Ravens today (found via PFT).

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That's about all I can come up with at the moment, hopefully I didn't put you to sleep. Be sure to check back in here at Bengal Nation Daily tomorrow for the latest and greatest in the ever-sprawling world of Bengaldom.

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Sincerely,

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A Pragmatic Bengals Fan

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P.S. Sorry about the improvised spacing, for some reason about every three or four days Blogger does this to me and accepts no spacing whatsoever. I'll try to let some time pass and fix it.