The Wind Blew Hard, the Bengals Blew Harder!

Wanted to share some thoughts from the game yesterday. It was a wild day. Started out very nice at the stadium, but Ike made his presence felt and when he did, boy was it interesting! That was some wind at the game, so while looking at the game stats, take this into consideration. No team was going to be a passing juggernaut in those conditions.

Now onto the actual game. I didn't expect much from the Bengals in this one and hey, at least I wasn't disappointed. The one bright spot continues to be Keith Rivers. he looked very good once again. The defense as a whole was just OK once again. They just did not get any help from the offense, and continued to give up too many big plays. Their run D started out OK, but went down hill again in the second half. Chris Johnson got most of his yards on one big run, other then that they did a good job of containing his shiftiness.

Now on to the offense. I actually saw more from Perry then I expected against the Titans stout run D. The play calling continued to be atrocious! One of the biggest issues with Perry has been play selection and the inability of the Bengals to put Perry in space on the outside. The passing game was basically shit down by Ike. Palmer's numbers were largely aided by two screen passes at the end of the first half (last two plays) to Dee Dee Dorsey for 49 yards. Without them, Palmer would have been held under 100 for the second straight week. But as bad as he looked again, you got to give a partial muligan here. No one would have looked good in those winds. The issue I have though is again, play calling and pass selection. They have two Pro Bowl WR's and they simply have not been part of the game plan so far. There has been not vertical passing game in two weeks from the Bengals.

In the end, the Bengals stunk up the join once again as they fell to 0-2 with a trip to New York to take on the World Champion New York Giants on Sunday....yippee! That should go well......