Trent Cole was clearly beating on Levi Jones so badly that you held your breath watching Jones lean in the wrong direction, or playing so slow that you were fooled once you understood the play was live, not instant replay. Jones was finally pulled because he was sucking so badly of an injury to his leg and replaced by Andrew Whitworth, who moved from left guard to tackle and Scott Kooistra picking up the void at guard.
Whitworth gave up two sacks to Cole; the first occurring when Whitworth lost his balance tripping over the running back looking for someone to block inside. In the third quarter, Whitworth walked gingerly off the field, eventually transported on a cart to the locker room, showing up after the game on crutches and a boot on his right foot.
Initially the team said that Jones wasn't sitting out because of an injury, though Lewis later recanted that saying “Levi was struggling a little bit with his leg. He felt like he was having trouble getting set in there, and so we needed to make the change.” So it wasn't a medical deal, but Jones struggling a bit with his leg? Take out "with his leg", and I fully agree.
However, Shannon Russell writes that "Jones was asked in the locker room if he was indeed hurt" and Jones responded with “What do you think?” Well, we think you're were really horrible hurt. We've always known that Lewis will defend his players to the point of lying to the media; Lewis isn't one for throwing his players under the bus. So he'll say that Jones had a problem with his leg, give us the impression he was hurt (and thus not sucking), and be done with that. I don't have a problem with that. Just realize he doesn't always drink the truth serum before a press conference.
So here's the deal now.
If Whitworth can't go, and since the Bengals have three days to rest until Thursday Night's game against the Steelers we don't think he will, then there's two scenarios:
- Bengals keep Jones at left tackle, and replace Whitworth at left guard with Scott Kooistra.
- Keep Jones at left tackle, move Stacy Andrews to left guard and let Anthony Collins get some work at right tackle.
- Bench Ghiaciuc.
Oh where, oh where are you, Willie Anderson.