Analysis: What we learned from Cincinnati Bengals' preseason tie against Atlanta Falcons
The Cincinnati Bengals are one step closer to regular season football.
The Bengals and Atlanta Falcons both treated the second preseason game as their dress rehearsal Friday night at Mercedes Benz Stadium. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor decided to play his defensive starters for one drive and so did Falcons head coach Arthur Smith with his offensive starters.
Good on good, for at least one drive.
So, let’s get straight into the biggest takeaways from the tie.
Cincinnati’s defensive starters get much needed reps together
Cornerback Mike Hilton was vocal this week saying he felt the starters needed to play in a preseason game to ensure they’ll be ready come Sept. 10 when they take on the Cleveland Browns.
They got their wish and there was good and bad.
Safeties Dax Hill and Nick Scott got to play with one another for the first time in a game setting. Rookie DJ Turner took the reps opposite of Cam Taylor-Britt with Chidobe Awuzie still working his way back onto the field.
“Little shaky in the beginning…we needed that long drive to fix things,” Taylor-Britt said following the game. “20 plays (on) the first drive non-stop, how could you not be ready for the Browns with that drive? That’s something we’ll have to do Week 1. That helped us a lot.”
The drive started with Atlanta moving the ball down the field with ease. But as Cincinnati’s defense often showed last season, they shore up in the red zone. Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo always talks about yards gained not being his biggest concern. It’s about keeping points off the board and the Bengals did just that.
In perfect coverage on third down from the 6-yard line with the Falcons knocking on the door, Hilton stepped in front of Scott Miller knocked the ball out of his hands and Ossai came down with the interception.
“It was a good drive for us,” Hilton said. “Obviously, we wanted a quicker drive but that was good to test our conditioning and test our defense. It was big.”
Backup quarterback job still up for grabs
With one more preseason game to go, the Bengals’ backup quarterback role remains very much undetermined.
It was the veteran Trevor Siemian who got the start and Jake Browning closed the game out. Siemian struggled with accuracy completing seven of his 14 pass attempts mustering only 62 yards in the air. Browning had a better outing than Siemian, but he also struggled at times. He rallied Cincinnati’s offense and led the group for their only touchdown of the night after an interception late in the fourth quarter.
Browning completed 16 of 22 passes for 160 yards and an interception.
“I thought it was good,” Taylor said of the quarterback play. “We got points on our last drive of each half, which is critical to gain some momentum there. Trevor [Siemian] did a good job in a tight situation, putting us in field goal range. He had to make an audible during the drive and he did a great job managing that. He stepped up in the pocket. Then at the end of the game, Jake [Browning] obviously had the big drive that took us down to score a touchdown. He had made some plays with his legs and had to scramble. I thought he saw the field really well. I thought there were some positives to build off of for both of those guys.”
Jonah Williams gets ‘jitters’ out as the only offensive starter to play
Without Joe Burrow on the field, it was hard to imagine a scenario in which Cincinnati’s offensive starters would take the field.
However, Jonah Williams did get a chance to play as he continues to get acclimated to life as a right tackle in the NFL. Williams will be the Bengals’ starting right tackle this season and in order to ensure he’s comfortable, Taylor started him.
“I thought it was good,” Williams said of his outing. “I’m the only guy making a position switch so I think it was valuable for me to get out there and get some game reps. Good to be out there, got some jitters out. I thought I played pretty well.”