Five Reasons To Watch The Bengals Preseason Game Against The Lions

Many people moan about preseason football (aka, fake football) for its lack of importance and general rotation of personnel, which lethargically depreciates the level of talent as the game progresses into that part of the evening when your favorite woman of all-time goes from football fanatic to wine-drinking socialite so quickly that you didn't realize she was gone when you put your hand up and embarrassingly realize that no one is there.

And it's not that we blame people for hating on preseason games. Starters only play a handful of possessions at most, while the second half is often highlighted within battles between backups and bubble players. Yet while that might not entertain or encourage people to watch, most of these players are playing for their NFL careers. Effort is reminiscent to the college football fever, due to the urgency of auditioning for a career in the NFL.

Previously we ran a series of five items to look for with Cincinnati's preseason opener in Detroit Friday night. Now here are five reasons you should watch the Bengals preseason game on Friday Night.

There's just something about the NFL preseason. It's not the celebration of the regular season kicking off with concerts, fireworks and awesome celebrity impressions of what they think about the NFL. This is the cold-blooded kick-start into the NFL that only obsessed fans can appreciate. Before the first kickoff, there's a serenity in the air that America's greatest sport is back with visual evidence of a kickoff at the 30-yard 35-yard line with returners shielded behind three-man two-man wedges. With a cold one in your right hand and your action-pump fist ready to engage into a warp factor of awesome, you finally see evidence that football is here. And for a little while, you just don't care that the starters are only playing a handful of possessions.

Even though the team isn't entirely popular (even within their own city), the Bengals dominate television ratings when they're on locally. Now we can't expect the ratings to dominate during a preseason game on a Friday night, but it's not like something better is on. Think of your choices. ABC's Shark Tank is about a shark investing $4 million into a toy-rental business. Alright so I'm a little impressed that a shark, who somehow manages to make $4 million while menacingly swimming around the Pacific, invests into a toy rental shop of all places. And unless you can't DVR the countless news magazine shows, another crime/murder/investigation of WWE Smackdown! on SyFy (science fiction + fake wrestling kind of makes sense in some twisted way), there's nothing else to watch.

Different can be bad. On the other hand, different can be good. With endless pages of reports, postings and articles written on these digital pages about how different the Bengals offense is this year, we'll finally see how it will translate onto the field against an opponent during game situations. Honestly. Unless you're on your way to the hospital welcoming your child into this world, there's no reason why a Bengals fan would miss the opportunity to check out this new offense. And really. We're fairly certain that arrangements were made for a television to be placed in the delivery room ten months ago anyway, because you were that prepared.

Unless the Cincinnati Bengals refuse to show their hand with their best plays, this group of promising pass rushers are expected to improve an otherwise mediocre pass rush. But, but, but Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap were awesome. True. But their combined 12.5 quarterback sacks accounted for 46.3% of the team's total quarterback sacks last year. Reports from Georgetown are promoting third round draft pick Dontay Moch as an athletic stud. Free agent acquisition Manny Lawson only posted 2.5 quarterback sacks last season. Yet his 23 quarterback pressures and eight quarterback hits (which don't include quarterback sacks) would have led the Bengals last season.

Did you seriously need the four previous reasons?