3 Bengals who need to have a bounce-back game vs. Giants

The Cincinnati Bengals head to MetLife Stadium for a date with the New York Giants in the second week of preseason. These three players better bring it after rough performances the week before. 

The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Cardinals in their preseason opener but preseason scores don’t matter. Even with that being the case, it’d be nice to see these three players have a bounce-back performance after they got roughed up last week.

I will note that initially, Jackson Carman was on this list but his positive COVID-19 test ensures that he won’t be playing in Sunday’s game. He definitely needs to have a strong performance in the Bengals’ third preseason game but that’s a story for another day.

Sticking with that note, however…

Offensive Line Depth

Carman wasn’t the only one who struggled on the o-line during Friday’s loss to the Cardinals. Hakeem Adeniji and Isaiah Prince had rough days at the office and the depth of the offensive line didn’t leave fans feeling confident should any of the starters have to miss time.

While the guys we see taking the majority of the snaps on the offensive line won’t be the starters in Week 1, injuries can happen and this will be the unit we see if enough injuries do occur. It’d be nice to see the entire backup unit have a much better outing this week.

Thaddeus Moss

I gave up on the whole “Thaddeus Moss is going to be the next great Bengals tight end” schpeal last year when he never ended up appearing in a game but some fans think he could still be the answer at the position. This is only because of Moss’ connection to Joe Burrow in college at LSU.

Moss has done nothing to show that he is deserving of sticking on the roster and last week’s preseason game further solidified that, as of this very moment, he has no business making the team. Chris Evans ripped off two big runs last week but flags thrown on Moss wiped those runs out. One of those runs went for a touchdown and that was taken off the board.

With Hayden Hurst not playing due to being a starter and Drew Sample and Mitchell Wilcox banged up, Moss is never going to have a better time to prove he’s deserving of sticking around. Time to prove it.

Brandon Allen

This one might not be all that fair considering that Brandon Allen left the game with what was reported as a concussion. Even with that being the case, fans are sold on Allen as the backup quarterback and were intrigued by both Jake Browning and Drew Plitt when they took their turns in the offense last week.

Allen is going to win the backup job unless he gets hurt or something else that’s unforeseen happens but it’d be nice to see some juice from Burrow’s backup as we inch closer to the regular season.

Which Bengals do you want to see bounce-back performances from?