Practices resumed in Cincinnati after the Bengals spent the majority of the week in Atlanta preparing for their first preseason game. Once again, I was able to attend along with a good crowd of Bengals fans eager to watch the team up close in person. There were plenty of great drills and highlights to witness. Here are some of my own takeaways from the afternoon:
- No pads on Saturday. Contact was very minimal, so there were a lot of defensive plays that observers would have to make their own conclusions about. In other words, the defense was merely tapping its hands on "the merchandise."
- Safety George Iloka received the bulk of first team work on Saturday.
- All three quarterbacks had issues with their deep ball. Receivers fought hard to cover ground in the event of an overthrown ball or adjusted to an under thrown ball throughout the afternoon.
- A lot of passing plays for both BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Giovani Bernard. I may have seen more catches than handoffs for both running backs.
- Cobi Hamilton struggled a bit. He let a deep pass from Dalton bounce off the numbers when he was wide open, and on another play he was whistled for a false start.
- This guy was in attendance:
- Vontaze Burfict continues to get the offense heated. He and Kyle Cook got into a brief shoving match, but it was quickly diffused by teammates.
- It was a hot afternoon sun today. Andre Smith had no reservations when it came to towels and water delivered throughout practice.
- Marvin Jones was back on the field and playing well, and Mohamed Sanu received more targets than most throughout practice. Josh posted my video in today's camp recap, but I'm going to include it in this article as well simply because I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time:
- Brandon Tate also caught a touchdown pass I was able to capture on video. Josh Johnson was at quarterback:
Overall it was a good practice with a lot of focus on the two-minute drill. Sunday will be Family Night at Paul Brown Stadium. Practice starts at 6 P.M. Be sure to check out the photo gallery I've posted.