Saints @ Bengals: Negatives and Positives

By Adam Kiefaber

After having another solid performance, linebacker Eric Henderson joins the long list of injured Bengals.

Henderson suffered a broken wrist in the 27-19 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Saturday night. Henderson underwent surgery and could miss up to eight weeks. However, he could be out longer. Nonetheless, the time away will probably cost Henderson his job for the 2007 season.

Obviously that is a negative, but below I listed the negatives and the positives from this weekend’s preseason game.

Negatives
Red Zone Scoring- Last week, the Bengals’ first-team offense had two nice drives, but couldn’t punch it in for a touchdown. Everyone expected Cincinnati to get an early touchdown to satisfy a sold-out Paul Brown Stadium. They couldn’t score a touchdown until rookie fifth-round pick quarterback Jeff Rowe threw a 14-yarder to Skyler Green late in the game. Linebacker Eric Henderson forced QB Jamie Martin to fumble the ball, where fellow LB Caleb Miller recovered the ball on the Saints 3. The Bengals couldn’t even score from three yards out.
WR Tab Perry- The Bengals threw it to Perry 10 times. He had only two catches for 19 yards. Cincinnati obviously forced it his way, in attempt to get fans to forget that Chris Henry was going to be out for the first half of the season. Five of his Carson Palmer’s six incompletions were intended for Perry. The excuse was that the two ‘haven’t had much of a chance to work with each other.’
Offensive Line- All week leading up to the game, Bengals.com was hyping-up offensive tackle Scott Kooistra. Supposedly, he worked real hard in the offseason and fans shouldn’t worry about not having Willie Anderson on time for the regular-season opener. Add to that, the site thought it was so great that Kooistra would be matched up against defensive end Charles Grant. Then on a third-and-three, Grant crushed Palmer; Palmer fumbled the ball and the Saints recovered. Off that turnover, New Orleans scored on a Reggie Bush touchdown, making the score 17-3. Obviously, the rest of the line wasn’t much better. The running backs averaged only 2.5 yards per carry. Again, the Bengals couldn’t score a touchdown on a first-and-goal from the Saints 3. RB Kenny Watson was stuffed for a four-yard loss on a carry up the middle on first down.
QB Carson Palmer- Palmer didn’t look himself, completing only five of 11 passes for 41 yards. However, five of his incompletions were intended for Tab Perry. One of the incompletions, Palmer had Perry wide open for a 33-yard touchdown, but somehow overthrew him.

Positives
QB Jeff Rowe- I wasn’t high on Rowe when the Bengals drafted him in the fifth round of 2007 NFL Draft. I didn’t think he put up good enough numbers to even be drafted. However, after two preseason games I’m convinced that Rowe can play some football. In Detroit, he led the Bengals on a last minute drive and set up a game-winning field goal (which was missed). Then on Saturday, Rowe drove the Bengals down the field for the team’s only touchdown. Rowe showed Carson Palmer-like touch when he floated a 22-yard pass on a third-and-four to WR Tony Kays. Then on third-and-10 from the Saints 14, Rowe fired a touchdown pass to Skyler Green.
CB Leon Hall- Deltha O’Neal was limping around and the Saints threw away from Hall’s side most of the game. After a shaky performance last week, Hall bounced back in Saturday’s game. On the Saints first drive, Reggie Bush went off-tackle and was stopped by Hall for a one-yard gain. You have to appreciate a corner that defends the run, especially when the play is close to the line of scrimmage.
S Herana-Daze Jones-Jones(right) was all over the place. He finished the game with seven solo tackles, including one sack. Also, he defended two passes. Nicknamed ‘Indiana’ Jones, since he attended the school, looks to be in the best shape of his Bengal career. His performance is going to make very difficult for rookie ‘Nedu’ Ndukwe to make this team.
TE Daniel Coats- He started in place of Reggie Kelly. Although the running game wasn’t up to par, I thought Coats played well. Bengals.com gave a lot credit for the unsuccessful running attack to the absence of Kelly. However, I believe the main reason was because of the absence of tackles Willie Anderson and Levi Jones. Also, you could throw in the play calling. The Bengals scored on a field goal late in the second quarter. On that drive, QB Doug Johnson threw it Coats way four times. Coats had three catches for 24 yards on that drive and almost scored a touchdown on a tipped ball.

Also, the Bengals waived three players on Monday.

Defensive end Bryan Andrews
Offensive tackle Elliot Seifert
Quarterback Jeff Smith