Labor Day Afternoon Links and Notes -- Bengals Announce Team Captains
by Josh Kirkendall on Sep 1, 2008 3:35 PM EDT
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PrintThe Bengals announced their team Captains on Monday: Carson Palmer, Bobbie Williams, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Dexter Jackson, and Dhani Jones. Good group of veterans. I like it.
Curnutte observes the team's first regular season practice. Mostly of note is how the team looks health-wise. Antwan Odom, Dexter Jackson, Chad Johnson, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, and Rashad Jeanty returned to practice fully. Pat Sims, Andre Caldwell and Dan Howell (practice squad) worked on the sidelines with strength and conditioning coaches while "Chinedum Ndukwe (leg) went inside after stretches."
This is the irony of the Bengals team this year. Everyone suggests that our offense will be the only reason we win games; our defense is so bad, we're told to believe, that it couldn't even contain the Louisville Cardinals offense.
James Walker named his all-AC North team, on offense and defense.
OFFENSE: Big Ben got the nod over Honorable Mention, Carson Palmer. Behind Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes, is Honorable Mention, T.J. Houshmandzadeh. No reference of Chad Johnson Ocho Cinco. Bobbie Williams is the only player on the Bengals offense to get the nod over everyone at their respective position; with Andrew Whitworth getting the Honorable Mention.
DEFENSE: Johnathan Joseph was the only player named to lead his respective position; Robert Geathers was named Honorable Mention. Shayne Graham got the nod as the division's best place kicker.
Apparently Pat Kirwan forgot about Keith Rivers when talking about rookies starting during kickoff weekend.
Don Banks surprisingly ranked Ryan Fitzpatrick as the league's 28th best backup quarterback while predicting the Bengals finish third in the AFC North at 6-10.
This blog named the Cincinnati backfield, the worst in the NFL. We think it's about fantasy football rankings, but we don't care. It still pisses us off, right?
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The value of 8 5
First and foremost, this James Walker guy is a moron. 85 is far and away the best receiver in the AFC north.
Watching the Bengals on TV and occasionally in person it is clear that Chad Johnson is double teamed on nearly every play. [This is confirmed on the best ESPN show NFL Matchup, the only show that will talk about the Bengals offense and not just legal issues] Other guys like TJ, Holmes and Edward occasionally are double teamed, but not like Johnson, so I think that the D coordinates are voting 85 is the best receiver. Occasionally, other teams will start to think it is more important to focus on TJ or stopping the running game and in those game 85 puts up 200+ yard and multiple touchdowns, e.g. SD and NO in ’06 and MIA in 07.
By other teams confining one of their safeties or linebackers to the role of helping out their corner, the job of TJ and our running backs become much easier. [Look back at the stats from the Pit-Cin games in 05 and 06. Johnson never had big games, but neither did Joey Porter, ~4 tackles in 5 games. LaBaeu had Porter drop off and stop 85 from being open for any underneath routes which let Ike Taylor just worry about not getting beat deep, but I digress.] This is one of the reasons why the offense looked so bad in the preseason and why I worry about the success of the offensive in light of the questionable durability of Chad’s shoulder and head.
Would’ve liked to have seen either Thornton or Peko representing the line as d-captains. I agree with RFM, while Santonio and Braylon have huge potential, Chad remains the class of this division by a long shot. T.J.’s probably second, with Hines Ward third, and Holmes, Edwards, and Chris Henry sort of interchangeable after that- just talking on the field performance here. Every time I see James Walker quoted here, I can count on him being full of shit.
Much as I dislike anything Steeler, Ben’s got a ring and went 34-11 last year to Carson’s 26-20. For now, he gets the nod.
Without getting all Kool-Aidy about it, this defense has the potential to be a quantum leap forward from last year. Antwan is a significant upgrade from Justin, Keith Rivers, the surprising pair of ex-Cardinals, and a seasoned Dhani Jones- have me saying “Landon who?”, and another year under the belts of our relatively solid by last year’s end secondary, plus the addition of Jones, Castille, and Corey Lynch…
I know it’s all potential, and the proof of the pudding is in the eating, but if these guys can remember their fundamentals while implementing Zimmer’s new scheme, we should be able to keep ourselves in games and not be left with Carson having to throw us back from a deficit.
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