Monday Morning Hangover: Offense Under Fire

Mark Curnutte asks:

"There has to be more to [preseason] than a chance for team owners to extort full-price from fans for fielding what even the league commissioner, Roger Goodell, admits is an inferior product."

Well, Mark, actually, no, there doesn’t. Separating people from their money is, after all, the primary purpose of any business. And you ought to know there’s no shortage of Bengals fans who insist that in Cincinnati it’s not just the primary purpose, it’s the only purpose.

But like you, I digress. Curnutte’s overall point — that the Bengals offense has underachieved in the preseason — is irrefutable. However, my own take stands: we really haven’t seen the Bengals offense most of the preseason. No Rudi Johnson, no T.J. Houshmandzadeh, limited time by Chad Johnson, an offensive line that’s been shuffled around over three games to experiment with guard Bobbie Williams at center, and two key new guys, TE Ben Utecht and RB Chris Perry, working into the system. Assuming the injured guys come back, the offense should firm up. The bigger question in my mind is, how many regular season games does it take?

As for the offensive line, I’m with Pragmatic in agreeing with Kirk’s extensive breakdown of what went wrong up front. PFW sees the same thing. I’ll add that not only do Perry and Utecht have to do a much better job, but offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski needs to adjust his playcalling. If the opposing defense is bringing the house every play, make them pay! Ever hear of the quick slant? How about the draw?

Moving on, with the Bengals, like every other team, needing to get down to 53 players by the weekend, Geoff Hobson takes takes a spin through the roster.

CHFF complains that the Bengals didn’t find a DB to improve their pass defense. Uh, guys? You do know that one reason our pass D was poor last year was that we were breaking in two first round corners, Leon Hall and Johnathan Joseph, last season? An unusually clueless analysis from the alleged facts.

Peter King use the Chris Henry signing to bash Cincinnati fans, providing further proof that he’s an asshat.