Quote: Big test Next week against the Bengals.

I have followed the Bengals for many, many years (due to my old age, geographic location, etc..).


Cincy is not a good barometer team to compare against during the preseason.


-They never fully game-plan a preseason game.

-They don't show any exotic play calling at all, on either side of the ball (extremely vanilla)

-The starters that play never look like they go full-speed (about half-speed and 50-75% effort)

-They really seem to be just avoiding key injuries,, and evaluating back-up level guys during preseason. That's all.


Cincy has been bitten by key injuries in preseason more times than I can remember. I think they just try to avoid that these days during preseason.


As I stated in another thread:

Last preseason, Cincy played Tampa on a "primetime" slot. Cincy was dreadful. Tampa looked great, and owned them.


Then, the regular season started. Cincy went 6-0 to start, looked terrific on both sides of the ball, and were beating upper-level teams in the league last year.


Tampa? Lol,, no. Not so much.


I wouldn't read too much into what we see against Cincy. I would bet that Cincy looks terrible. They usually do in August.

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