Bengals leave Green Bay healthy; expect to be healthier against the Steelers

The Bengals came away Sunday unscathed on the injury front. Keith Rivers left early in the game for several snaps, but returned. On Monday, Geoff Hobson updates the older injury files after Marvin Lewis' press conference on David Jones, Andre Smith and Nate Livings.

"We came out of the game in good shape. We should go into this week just like we finished last week, maybe a little better. We have a chance to have a couple of guys join us on the practice field. Two of the three guys who haven’t been practicing, other than Andre (Smith), have an opportunity to get some work in this week. So we’ll see how they do."

Last year, Nate Livings started the season on the team's practice squad. He was signed onto the 53-man roster in November, making his first start several days later against the Pittsburgh Steelers. There's still question if Livings will make it against the Pittsburgh Steelers this year, however, Lewis is optimistic. On the bright side, the continuing story of the team's depth being deceptively deep (aka, guys replacing starters are holding their own), Evan Mathis played with a unit on Sunday that contributed to the Bengals 151-yards rushing as a team. Furthermore, he wasn't directly responsible for a quarterback sack. We noted a few plays where the defensive lineman beat Mathis with the first step. All in all, my guess is that you took very little notice of him -- and for non-glory hounds of offensive lineman, that's a good thing.

Andre Smith, on the other hand, is idle. Most likely Smith will miss the first month of the regular season due to a lengthy holdout that saw him arrive in Cincinnati a bit overweight. More importantly, Smith is still recovering after suffering a fractured foot earlier in the month. In the meantime, Anthony Collins rebounded nicely after allowing two sacks against the Denver Broncos, doing his part to shut down Aaron Kampman's ability to get to the quarterback; though we have to wonder if Kampman's sack total will drop being an outside linebacker in a 3-4 base defense as opposed to a defensive end in a 4-3 base defense.

Speaking of the Packers, they were less fortunate, losing starting left tackle Chad Clifton who suffered a "sprained right ankle". Starting safety Nick Collins also suffered a sprained clavicle. Both players will be evaluated for a projected return later in the week.