(by Ross Jacobs)
This was a decently entertaining game. We got to see the Bengals starters for a couple of series, albeit going against the Eagles backups. The offense did exactly what they should and cut through the defense like a hot knife through butter. They scored easily on both series, but the real story was the Eagles backups on offense tearing through the Bengals starting defense like it wasn’t even there. That is a problem if you’re a Bengals fan, although one that I don’t think will surprise most people. It’s no secret that the Bengals have placed all their focus on surrounding Joe Burrow with a great supporting cast and have let the defense go completely.
After the Bengals starters exited the game, the rout was on. The Eagles continued pummeling a hapless Cincy defense, and the Bengals backup offense completely floundered. Philly built a big lead quickly and it wasn’t until late in the 4th quarter before an interception by Kyle McCord gave the Bengals good field position which led to a score that made the final count look closer than it was.
Make no mistake, the Eagles simply dominated the Bengals at every level. They are so much deeper it’s not even funny, to the point that their backup offense made the Bengals starting defense look like Swiss cheese.
Philly is poised for another possible Superbowl run, and the Bengals are once again going to be hamstrung by an awful defense.
Player Notes…
-- Cincy’s strategy this year is obvious…Burrow is going to air it out constantly and try to build a lead and the defense is going to hang on for dear life and hope to get a stop or two. They don’t care if they are winning games 38-35 so long as they win. That is good for the Cincy offense though because they are going to be forced to go full throttle all the time. Burrow might attempt 700 passes this year. That’s good news for his pass catchers.
Ja’Marr Chase against Kelee Ringo should never happen in a real game which perfectly illustrates why RC was talking so much about the trade for Jakorian Bennett. Ringo and Adoree’ Jackson both looked significantly overmatched here, and Bennett could be looking at a rapid ascent up the depth chart. He didn’t play due to just being acquired 3 days ago, but hopefully we can get a look at him next week. Bennett seems like an obvious upgrade over Ringo and Jackson.
One other thing ought to be crystal clear about the Bengals starting offense after this game…there is an obvious Big 5 at the skill positions. Ja’Marr Chase (4-77-1/4), Tee Higgins (0-0-0/1), and Andrei Iosivas (0-0-0/1) at WR, Mike Gesicki at TE (didn’t play due to a hamstring), and Chase Brown (5-23-0, 3-25-0/2) at RB. That is their core group and they are all going to play a lot. This was one of the things we discovered from our new Chalk Talk Database project, and it showed up in a big way in this game.
Those five have established themselves as the trusted options for Burrow, and nothing is going to threaten that. It is especially relevant for anyone still on the fence about Brown or Gesicki. So long as Brown stays healthy, he’s going to take a big workload although it likely won’t be super-efficient due to the Bengals style. He’s going to pick up right where he left off last season.
Noah Fant didn’t play here either, but his acquisition doesn’t faze me. He’s almost certainly just a depth piece as the team has talked up Gesicki in a big way.
-- Tanner McKee (20-25 for 252 yards, 2 TD/0 INT) had a fantastic statistical night carving through the Bengals defense. I wouldn’t take it super seriously. This says more about how bad the Bengals are than how great McKee is. He played poised for the most part and knew where to go with the ball, but I thought several of his passes were a little wobbly and his accuracy was off a tad. Not bad on the whole, but he’s not some hidden future starter either.
-- Likewise, backup RB Will Shipley (7-48-0) got a wide open hole early and didn’t do a whole lot after that. He looked fine in his short showing but nothing special. I’d like to see him more in the passing game.
AJ Dillon (5-27-0) looked like his usual self, powerful, quick feet for his size, but pretty slow. If Barkley were to go down Shipley and Dillon would share the load, and the running game would take a huge hit.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see Montrell Johnson as he’s out with a hamstring, but we did get a look at ShunDerrick Powell (6-32-1) and Keilan Robinson (12-24-0). Powell was easily the more explosive of the two, but both of them look like practice squad players.
-- At receiver the announcers were making a huge deal out of rookie Darius Cooper (6-82-1/7), an undrafted player from Tarleton State, and while I thought Cooper played well overall, to me Johnny Wilson (3-73-0/6) was the real winner. Wilson was completely dominant on jump balls and back shoulder fades as he should be at his size. He could be a nightmare for defenses at the goal line. What do you do if Wilson lines up outside and Hurts and Barkley are in the backfield together from the 2-yard line? There’s no way to defend every threat.
As for Cooper, he did play quite well and apparently has been making lots of plays in practice. It’s still going to be tough for him to make the team though since he’s competing against Wilson, Terrace Marshall, and Ainias Smith who has a lot of special teams return value and had a big return in this game.
Cooper has a bit of Deebo Samuel to his game and is a clone of him physically
Cooper: 5’11”/213, 18 bench, 4.49 40-time, 1.64 10-yd, 38” vert, 10’6” broad, 4.2 shuttle, 7.11 3-cone
Deebo: 5’11”/214, 15 bench, 4.48 40-time, 1.6 10-yd, 39” vert, 10’2” broad, 4.14 shuttle, 7.03 3-cone
Cooper did a good job getting off the line of scrimmage, separating, making a nice catch, and picking up yards after the catch. It will be interesting to see what Philly decides to do with him and how he keeps developing.
RC Note: The problem with Johnny Wilson is...exquisite feet and terrific size, but can’t catch the ball consistently...like really bad hands. If his ‘hands’ got fixed somehow, he’d be a starter for sure.
I had no idea UDFA Darius Cooper even existed until this game...and he got my attention. To what degree, we’ll see over the next few games...but he was terrific here, for a UDFA. He played with confidence and athleticism. Need to study his college work deeper this week.
-- On the Bengals side, Jake Browning (6-14 for 62 yards, 0 TD/1 INT) looked nothing like the solid player we saw at the end of 2023. He was playing jumpy and throwing wounded ducks right into coverage. Honestly Desmond Ridder (7-16 for 91 yards, 1 TD/0 INT) played better as sad as that is. He was his usual inaccurate, mechanical self but at least he was checking the ball down successfully.
– I got my much anticipated debut of Tahj Brooks (10-26-0) and it was kind of nothing. He did have a nice 10-yard run called back, but overall we didn’t get to see any of the quick feet and jump cuts he showed at Texas Tech. There was just nowhere to run for the most part and he was forced to just slam straight ahead to pick up positive yards. He clearly is back up to 225+ lbs though so apparently he must have dropped down to 215 at the combine trying to run faster. Not a bad debut but nothing to get excited about.
– Jermaine Burton (1-3-0/2) didn’t do much on offense (although some of that was on Browning), but he did have a nice punt return. He’s trying to work his way back into the good graces of the coaches, but he’s still a long ways behind Iosivas so no worries there.
Charlie Jones (3-41-0/6) is finally healthy and played much better than Burton. He’s the backup slot receiver.
– Nobody on either defense really stood out. It was all Philly backups from the start, and the Cincy starting defense looks absolutely terrible. They didn’t have everyone in the game, but there were enough that they should have at least slowed Philly down a little bit.
The announcers were talking up rookie LB Jihaad Campbell a ton, but he did a lot of what I saw on tape at Alabama…get to the ball late and pack the stat sheet with assisted tackles. It’s still just one game though so we’ll see. He did almost come down with a nice diving interception off a tipped ball but the ground knocked it loose.
Another Eagles rookie defender, Ty Robinson (1 sack), got to the QB once but he was initially stopped cold and then just turned loose straight through the middle of the line. He looked pretty lumbering and slow to me but again it’s early. He was very disruptive at Nebraska
-- Extra note from RC: I thought Philly SAF Sydney Brown looked really good here. I think he wants and is earning that starting job. The two Brown brothers/identical twins in this game are really good athletes and football players.
