The Bengals came into their first preseason game with a lot of hype and certain expectations. Everyone expected Terrell Owens and Chad Ochocinco to make noise early and for the offense to be productive.
Whoever thought that was wrong. The Cowboy's defense simply shut down the Bengals offense pretty much the whole game.
There were too many penalties and turnovers, but remind yourself this is the first game of the season, things don't click right off the bat.
You have to take the positives out of the game which is the fact that Owens and quarterback Carson Palmer seemed to be in rhythm and Jordan Shipley has adjusted well so far to the NFL.
Everyone focuses on the offense, but this was a defensive game. The Bengals shut down the Cowboys in the redzone and prevented them from scoring seven numerous times.
The defensive player that has made the most noise up to this point is Michael Johnson. The 6'7 linebacker transitioned this season from a defensive end and it has worked out quite nicely.
Johnson was flying around on every play and you could tell he's focused on the task ahead of him. The second year player had three tackles and two sacks in his limited playing time.
Last season at defensive end Johnson made big plays as a rookie even if it was simply batting the ball down.
His size and athleticism makes him a unique player and a mismatch for the opposing team.
Everyone expected Rey Maualuga to be the player that plays with such an intensity, but Johnson has that look in his eye like Ray Lewis and I think he will be a big play maker this season.
With Maualuga out right now with injury we don't know if he will start playing the Mike linebacker position or stick to outside.
If Maualuga does indeed stay outside then the Bengals blitz packages will be exciting to watch because those are a couple of hard knocks coming off the edge and a nightmare for quarterbacks.
The defense was great last night at applying pressure to the quarterback and thats the positive you have to take out of this game.
No they didn't score a lot of points last night, but they held the Cowboys to 16 points when they should have possibly had 28.
Come this weekend expect this team to look better. They know what they need to work on and you can bet that the coaches will have them ready to play Sunday against the Broncos.
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