Week 1 recap

Bengals 27, Ravens 20

I just love the word opportunistic when referring to the Bengals defense. You heard that term tossed around a lot during the 05' campaign when they won 11 games and led the league in turnovers. Coming away with six turnovers in the opener is a good way to earn back the opportunistic label.

I’ve already heard the grumblings that Baltimore gave the game away. That the six turnovers weren’t forced and that the Bengals were lucky to escape with a victory. That’s nonsense. I’ll admit the one missed hand off was a gimmie. But jarring the ball from the quarterback’s hands on a sack and defensive lineman sprawling out to make shoestring catches are forced turnovers. The Bengals defense looked fast and physical. Players we were worried about coming into the regular season as untested or inexperienced showed lots of promise when it mattered. Leon Hall and Ahmad Brooks showed why Marvin isn’t as concerned as the rest of the world about this unit. They collectively did a good job against the run with some minor exceptions against Musa Smith and Bresnahan finally showed some backbone with an aggressive blitz scheme.

Of course the seven-play goal line stand sticks out as something to be proud of. I admit the push-off called against Todd Heap was a bad call and they should have tied it on that play. But the next play was a bad call too, an immediate make-up call, and the Bengals had to stop them three more plays.. It needs to be pointed out that the blitz called on the play where Madieu was called for illegal contact was a great blitz call. The question to me still remains, why did the Ravens pass so much inside the five? With Kyle Boller at that?

The Bengal defense still showed that soft zone coverage coming down the stretch. The philosophy of making the offense work for yardage continues by the defense allowing catches underneath and being quick to the ball to make tackles. Missed throws and dropped passes make the theory seem that much more plausible but against sharper offenses that style of defensive play calling will prove problematic. Still, I liked what I saw Monday night. It was one of the more blitz happy games for the Bengals in recent memory and both Geathers and Landon Johnson are ready to emerge as something more than just serviceable players. I’m not ready to make comparisons of Geathers to say, Dwight Freeney , but I’m comfortable comparing him to Robert Mathis. He was a good player to re-sign. Johnson is a faster Brian Simmons who will once again rack up over 100 tackles and hopefully continue to ball hawk. Also Lemar Marshall had a good game. He was a good waiver wire pick up.

I cant figure out what’s going on with Levi Jones. Here is a guy who at least was considered a top-notch tackle as of last season, a guy we re-signed for big money and lots of years who says he’s healthy and ready to go but is one of two players on the roster not to play Monday night. He hasn’t been told of why he’s a backup and he is quite obviously frustrated about it. Whitworth is a good player and Stacy Andrews seems to be a pretty decent guard, but Levi is a big-time talent who has protected Carson’s blind side very well when he’s in there and healthy. Just another enigma to the way Marvin runs his team.

That being said, the backup linemen played excellent against the ferocious Ravens defense. Steponovich coming in for Guicheck received little attention but it’s a very big deal when a backup center can come in and be immediately effective. Kooistra came in for Willie and did nice job. Whitworth and Andrews have been groomed for a while to play in situations like that and proved they’re both ready for it. The o-line could have opened up holes a little better for Rudi, and though the Ravens only had one sack, they did enough to disrupt the rhythm of the Bengals passing game and it really showed down the stretch. Still, for a back up unit on a big stage against maybe the second best defense in the league, they did a great job.

I didn’t like the play calling on offense in the second half. Carson threw three yard passes the whole second half and Bratkowski continues to call reverses on the first play of crucial drives. I realize there’s a lot more that goes into play calling and how the play actually develops but its frustrating to see the offense go three and out time and again in the second half down by a point. Also, deciding to kick a 54 yard field goal with an injured kicker on fourth and five on the 37 yard line is dumb. We need a healthy Shayne Graham to make the playoffs. Brad St. Louis, we’ve noticed you far too much in the past year and half. I don’t wanna hear your name called again this season. Just snap the ball and go home after the game.

Ed Reed will go down as one of the best special teams players in history when his career is over. Ray Lewis is a maniac who truly comes from another planet, a tougher planet. Ogden might not come back. I guess even human mountains have to hang it up someday. McNair looks old, but Boller still looks bad. I can’t understand Billick’s love affair for that guy, but it will cost him his job if he sticks with him after this year when McNair has retired. Leftwhich is still out there, Ravens. You may want to get him on the phone.

Great start to a tough season. Beating the division champs is important.

Mojokong- pleased