5 winners, 2 losers from Bengals preseason game vs Falcons
- Evan McPherson continues to do what he does best
- Jonah Williams could be a massive improvement at RT
- Defense impressed
- Joseph Ossai stepped up when needed
- Rookie WRs made noise
- Siemian might not be QB2 after all
- Where was the run game?
Losers
Trevor Siemian
The Bengals signed Siemian with the expectation that he'd win the backup job behind Joe Burrow but it's certainly looking more and more likely that Jake Browning wins the QB2 job over Siemian.
Don't get me wrong -- Neither quarterback played particularly well against the Falcons but Browning was definitely the better signal-caller. Siemian had one okay drive that led to a 50-yard field goal from McPherson but otherwise, he was lackluster, completing just half of his pass attempts for 62 yards.
While Siemian didn't make a mistake as big as Browning's interception, he also didn't lead a touchdown drive like Browning did. I wouldn't exactly call Browning a winner after his performance but Siemian deserves to be in the losers category after his performance.
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Run Game
This was not a good game for the Bengals rushing attack. The leading rusher was Browning, who dashed for 50 yards on four carries. One of those four carries went for 19 yards.
The other two running backs who got carries were Chase Brown and Chris Evans but neither could get anything going on the ground. Brown finished with just 18 yards off of nine carries but did score a touchdown while Evans carried the ball seven times for 14 yards.
Blame the offensive line for these lackluster performances if you want but the stats are the stats. The run game was nearly non-existent on Friday night.