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Pro Bowl News

The NFL pre-season can exaggerate the expectations of the fans of poor teams to the point that they actually believe they can make the play-offs. The pre-season can also throw a devout fan into a depressive belief that the season is over before a real game is ever played. The pre-season can elevate un-drafted rookies to Pro Bowl expectations in the minds of fans while deflate Pro Bowl players into early retirement. Unfathomably, once the season starts the un-drafted rookie can be found flipping hamburgers while the Pro Bowl player head back to the Pro Bowl.

Let’s face it, the pre-season means absolutely nothing! History has proven that a team’s play in pre-season has very little to do with their play in the regular season. Case in point: 8 times in the history of the franchise the Bengals have gone to the play-offs. They had winning pre-season records in only 3 of those seasons. In fact only 10 times in their history they have had a winning pre-season record and only 5 translated to winning regular seasons.

No one really cares about the pre-season except for the fans. Sure, I would love to see the Bengals win, but I really don’t care if they lose. The offense and defense run very vanilla schemes; the starting players play very little; and when the starters are in they are usually working on a technique or conditioning and are not always in “game mode”. The only players playing with passion are those fighting for a job.

There used to be a point to all the pre-season games. Up until 1978 NFL teams played 6 pre-season games as opposed to the 4 they currently play. If you were lucky enough to play in the Hall of Fame Game you played 7 pre-season games like the Bengals did in 1975. That’s 7 pre-season games and 14 regular season games!!! It seemed like Training Camp opened the week after the Red’s pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training in Florida. The players needed all that time to get into shape. Now they don’t. Conditioning is now a year round activity for NFL players.

The truth is coaches and players would love to have a couple of scrimmages with other teams and maybe two Pre-season games prior to the start of the season. But that won’t happen. The NFL generates too much revenue in those 4 pre-season games.

So what do we know going into our Monday night opener against the Ravens?

THE GOOD:

• Carson Palmer is healthy. So is Chad, TJ, Rudi and the offensive line. The best offense in football has all of its key players ready to play. Those key players include Willie Anderson and Levi Jones, both of whom look ready to play in the season opener on Monday night. That is quite miraculous in itself given that many had the pair spending the season in a retirement home and hospital respectively. Its funny how that always seems to happen!

• Skyler Green. The kid looks outstanding returning punts. He makes great decisions; he can make the first guy miss every time; he has speed; and unlike a former 1st round draft pick he never moves backwards. He also can catch the ball if put in at WR.

• Domata Peko. Our Samoan Warrior can play, and with Sam “Bigger than a House” Adams gone he will have the opportunity to be on the field a lot. Domata is tough, relentless and has a nose for the ball. We have finally found a throw-back player to replace Tim Krumrie on the Defensive line after all these years!

• Caleb Miller. Miller does not look like a linebacker. But every time he in the game he is in the middle of the play. The Bengals have some questions at the linebacker position that won’t be answered for the first few games of the season, but Miller isn’t one of them. He is a solid back-up who can play inside or outside.

• Shane Graham, Kyle Larson and Brad St Louis. Forget about the end of 2006. These three are the best at what they do!

• Rudi, Rudi, Rudi… When Kenny Irons went down with an injury I was sad. I thought he had a great future. I also thought he could contribute to this team and fill in for Chris Perry on 3rd down. What I didn’t understand was why so many thought this was such a huge loss and that the Bengals needed to go out and pick up another running back. I could be wrong, but Irons didn’t replace anyone on the roster and he hasn’t proven himself as a contributor on this team. Chris Perry has been injured the entire time he has been here. So where does that leave us? It leaves us exactly where we have been for the past 4 seasons, with Rudi as starter and Kenny Watson as back-up. It seems to be working so far.

THE BIG QUESTIONS:

• Tab Perry. Tab has a lot of work to do and I would be shocked if he and Carson are not spending a lot of one-on-one time after practices working on timing. At this point McNeal failed at the #3 WR spot and was dropped, Brazell is back on the practice squad, Chatman’s injuries are causing the Bengals to change their Group Health coverage, and Holt is on the team but not on the field. That leaves Perry. He has the tools to be a very good #3 WR, but has yet to show that he is on the same page as Carson Palmer. Normally I would not be concerned. After all, we only really need the guy to step up on 3rd down. But we are also without other 3rd down options. Irons and Chris Perry aren’t there to catch the ball coming out of the backfield and our tight ends are used more for blocking. My biggest concern coming out of this Pre-Season is: can Perry be counted on to be in the right spot and make a play on 3rd down?

• Ahmad Brooks. The linebacker group needs to step up for this defense to improve. Brooks is a physical specimen and the fact the Bengals released Hartwell shows the coaching staff has faith in him. The fact that the Bengals also picked up Andre Frazier and Lemar Marshall shows that faith will only go so far. In the Bengals’ defensive scheme the lineman are not counted on to make tackles. They are charged with creating seams. In theory the seam is the only place for the running back to go and there should be an unblocked linebacker waiting there for him. We have the lineman to create the seams. Our linebackers need to prove they can fill them.

• Jeremi Johnson. This kid has all the talent in the world. He just needs to realize that NFL players work out year round. Not being in shape will hurt his early season production and his stamina down the stretch. The kid is close to eating himself out of football.

• Special Teams. We lost a lot of key players on Special Teams. Marvin Lewis also kept brought in a lot of new guys to fill those spots, like our latest running back acquisition: Clifton Dawson. We will have to see how quickly these new guys can step in.

• Defensive Backs. There are a lot of changes happening in the secondary, but the key to the secondary is the defensive line and linebackers. Our young secondary will be exposed if our linemen and linebackers give opposing quarterbacks too much time to throw. If we can establish a good pass rush our defensive backs can get more aggressive at the line both against the pass and rush. When an opposing quarterback drops back to pass, count “one thousand and one, one thousand and two…” If he has a Bengals player in his face between the count of 3 and 4 we should be fine. If you get to 5 on a consistent basis we could be in big trouble.

It will take us 3-4 games to really find out what is working for the Bengals and what needs work. If you have been using the pre-season as a barometer I would advice you to take a deep breath, bury your fears in the back yard, find a pair of rose colored glasses (I have plenty) and get pumped up for some Monday Night Football! It’s time for the real thing! Hop on the band wagon and we’ll ride it all the way to the play-offs!