John Clay’s Sidelines

Update: There’s a Carson Palmer video after the jump.

Cincinnati running back Cedric Benson talks to the media about his career-high 189-yard effort in the Bengals’ 45-10 blasting of the Chicago Bears at Paul Brown Stadium.

Continue reading ‘Video: Cedric Benson talks about big day against Bears’

I’m at Paul Brown Stadium for Bengals-Bears:

• Bengals whip Bears 45-10.

• Benson finishes with 189 yards on 37 carries.

• Bengals will improve to 5-2 heading into bye week.

• Benson returned for an 8-yard run.

• Benson leaves in fourth quarter with career-high 172 yards on 31 carries.

• Palmer takes a seat after three quarters. His pass rating is 146.7.

• Bears finally find the end zone, going 60 yards in eight plays for a touchdown. Cutler hit Hester from 5 yards out with 11:48 left. Cincinnati lead now 45-10. Cutler is 26 of 36 for 248 yards, but has thrown three picks.

• Seven possessions, Bengals have six touchdowns and a field goal.

Continue reading ‘Liveblog: Bengals-Bears’

Update: Enquirer reports that Zimmer’s wife died of natural causes.

With the Bengals off to a 4-1 start, here’s some Cincinnati links:

• Great Paul Daugherty column — the guy doesn’t write too many that are not — in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Mike Zimmer, who lost his wife unexpectedly on Thursday, and somehow managed the strength to coach and help his team to a win on Sunday. My belief is that ultimately the Bengals are better because the defense is much better. And it’s going to keep getting better.

• Scott Priestle of Cnati.com also writes on Zimmer, more of a profile. He quotes Marvin Lewis as saying, “He’s got no B.S.” I remember at the Bengals pre-camp luncheon, Zimmer joked that he didn’t care much for the HBO Hard Knocks episdoes he was a part of with the Dallas Cowboys. Said his daughters got on him for his language.

• Joe Reedy of the Enquirer gives a rundown of Marvin Lewis’ Monday press conference. Doesn’t sound like the Bengals are going to ditch struggling long-snapper Brad St. Louis.

• Don Banks of SportsIllustrated.com picks the Bengals as his surprise team of the season. As Banks points out, at 4-1, the Bengals have already matched their win total from last season.

• Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times says he can hear the Bengals roar. Expect the national press to start paying attention now. It was amusing, however, last week to hear Colin Cowherd say that he wasn’t buying the Bengals turnaround, then the next day kiss up to Carson Palmer during an interview. That’s ok. We do what we have to do. We love ya, Herd.

• Pete Prisco of CBS Sportsline thinks that Carson Palmer and Kyle Orton are the real deal. Is there a better clutch quarterback right now than Palmer?

Live TV : Ustream

Photo by Charles Bertram.

Update: Here’s a good Paul Daugherty column — Paul’s columns are always good — about the Lewis/media and Bengals/public relationships.

Two games away from closing out a dismal season, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis turned a reporter’s question into a press conference spat today. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Dustin Dow, who does a terriffic job, was the reporter.

Here’s the Enquirer story.

And here’s an excerpt of the exchange:

Dow: If you guys finish this out winning three in a row, or even two of three, how much will it show that improvement has been made, versus covering up improvements that still need to be made?

Lewis: “Oh, I don’t think it covers anything up that we feel interiorly, and that’s the only thing that matters. Dustin, all your angles and so forth, I’m going to ask other people questions because I really don’t like the angles you take in here each and every week.”

Dow: What’s wrong with that?

Lewis: “I just think it’s disrespectful for what we’re doing. I really do. So I’ll tend to answer the other guys’ questions. Anything else?”

From there, Lewis tells Dow that he won’t answer any more of his questions, and that the paper might have to send someone else over to do his job.

Unlike a few others, I was actually encouraged by the Bengals showing in Dallas on Sunday, even if it resulted in a 31-22 loss to the Cowboys.

True, defense is Dallas’ weak spot. But in the second half, at least, the Cincinnati offense actually started to look like the Cincinnati offense again. After completing just three of seven passes for all of 28 yards in the first half, Carson Palmer finished 23 of 39 for 217 yards. Better still, he incorporated both Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmanzadeh into the offense. T.J. caught five balls for 68 yards in the final two quarters. Ocho Cinco grabbed three passes for 42 yards. Cedric Benson actually showed some spark as the backup back. Still not a fan of Chris Perry, even before his costly fourth-quarter, momentum-killing fumble. Just don’t see Perry being the lead back in an offense. He’s more of a third-down type, who can catch the ball out of the backfield. Don’t trust him to carry the load. Not saying Benson is the answer, but maybe the ex-Bears washout can be the one Bengal re-hab project that actually makes it.

This Sunday is no picnic. The Bengals take their 0-5 record to New York to meet Brett Favre and the Jets, who had a bye week to get ready. And 0-5 starts are never a good thing, especially for the Bengals. In the history of the franchise, Cincinnati had started the season with at least five straight losses on eight different occasions. Only once in those eight years did the Bengals make it back to .500. Never did they finish above .500.

Cincinnati’s 0-5 (or worse) starts:

From Paul Brown Stadium:

• Final: Tennessee 24, Cincinnati 7.

• Palmer throws another interception, this with 5:13 left.

• Tennessee's Cortland Finnegan intercepts Palmer at the Titan 7-yard line with 10:17 remaining.

• Titans now up 24-7: Keith Bulluck not only blocks Kyle Larson's punt in the end zone, he recovers the ball for a touchdown. Tennessee now up 17 with 14:05 remaining. Bengal offense going nowhere.

• End of third quarter: Tennessee up 17-7.

• Titans' Craig Hentrich gets off a 70-yard punt just 36 seconds before end of quarter.

• Tennessee up 17-7: Rob Bironas does what Graham cannot. He navigates the wind for a 34-yard field goal and a 10-point Tennessee lead with 4:49 left. Kerry Collins was a perfect five-for-five on the 72-yard drive.

• Shayne Graham's 37-yard field goal is blown no good, as it starts straight, then hits right upright and skips to the side. Still 14-7 Tennessee with 10:04 left in third.

• Bengals' Carson Palmer limped off at halftime.

• Halftime: Tennessee 14, Cincinnati 7.

• Titans take 14-7 lead: Tennessee capitalizes on long Johnson run. Kerry Collins hits Justin Gage on left sideline and ex-Missouri receiver makes a nice move to get into the end zone for an 11-yard score just 38 seconds before halftime. Visitors appeared to be running out the clock before Johnson snapped off 51 yards.

• Chris Johnson breaks a 51-yard run to give Titans ball at Cincinnati 20 with 1:02 left in half.

• Bengals tie it 7-7: Fourth-and-one at the Tennessee 13, Bengals go for it. Chris Perry takes handoff, makes Titan miss, then skips into the end zone for the score with 3:16 left before half. Nice drive for home team. Covered 63 yards in 11 plays.

• Tennessee takes 7-0 lead: On second-and-goal from Bengals 3-yard line, Tennessee's Kerry Collins throws an incompletion to tight end Bo Scaife. That sets up third-and-goal. But wait. Bengals penalized for 12 men on field. Next play, Lyndell White scores from a yard out, and Tennessee takes lead with 11:06 left. Crowd boos.

• No score at end of first quarter. Wind a definite factor. Carson Palmer completed five of seven passes for just 17 yards in opening quarter. Chris Perry rushed seven times for 27 yards. But neither offense has done much overall.

• Four punts and no score with 5:22 left in first quarter. Carson Palmer has completed three of five passes for all of 11 yards.

• Bengals tight end Ben Utecht hurt on first play, taken off on cart.

• At PBS for meeting between Cincinnati and Tennessee.

On Wednesday's edition of PTI, Bengals wide receiver Chad Johnson boasted — jokingly, we think — that he could beat the greatest swimmer in history. Not on the playing field. But in the pool.

Saying that he liked watching Michael Phelps, Ocho Cinco also said:

The Bengals have exited Georgetown College — don't worry, they'll be back Wednesday and Thursday before breaking camp on Friday — for Green Bay and Lambeau Field where they meet the Packers tonight in the pre-season opener for both teams, 8 p.m. on ESPN.

Didn't Green Bay used to have a quarterback named Favre?

Whatever happened to that guy?

If you can possibly tear yourself away from the Olympics — and you have to admit that U.S. men's swimming win over trash-talking France in the 4 X 100 relay was nothing short of outstanding — here are three things to keep a keen eye out for tonight:

• 1. Cincinnati defense vs. Aaron Rodgers: The Bengals have a new defensive coordinator in Mike Zimmer. The Packers have a new quarterback in Rodgers. The pressure is on the likable Zimmer to finally make a difference in what has been a bad Bengals defense. But the pressure is really on Rodgers, who replaces that fellow who used to wear No. 4, now in the Big Apple. Heard Cris Carter on ESPN radio this morning say, "What do you mean when they start booing Rodgers? They're already booing Rodgers." Rodgers' backup? Ex-U of L quarterback Brian Brohm. He'll get some snaps tonight.

• 2. Bengals battle for fifth wide receiver: Ex-UK product Glenn Holt has his work cut out for him here. Rookies Jerome Simpson and Andre Caldwell are near locks to make the team. Antonio Chatman, Marcus Maxwell and Holt are fighting for the fifth spot, should Cincinnati decide to keep five wide outs. Holt has been the Bengals' kickoff return man, so he could fall back on that. But I'm sure he'd love to see some time at wide out.

• 3. Bengals' linebacker competition: What Cincy may lack in talent here, the Bengals might make up for in depth. Brandon Johnson, ex-Louisville Cardinal, has been a camp standout. But rookie Keith Rivers has been penciled in as the starter at Johnson's outside starting spot. Rivers just got into camp last week, but has shown enough that he might take the field tonight. Darryl Blackstock, another free agent signee, has also jumped up the depth chart.

If you’re wondering how it went for Chad Johnson on his return to the practice field this morning with the Bengals, the star receiver wasn’t sharing his impressions.

But Johnson’s ankle seemed fine as he was sprinting past the media after practice.

“We’re working him slow,” said offensive coordinator Bob Bratkowski. “He got a good start into it, but we’re working him slowly. I think he’s still got a sore leg. Everything we’re doing right now is preventive.”

Johnson ran a few routes in pass skeleton and worked on the exercise bike.

“I’m sure it’s sore, but it’s nothing major or he wouldn’t be out here,” said Bratkowski.

Asked if Johnson could play in the Bengals’ opening pre-season game, next Monday in Green Bay, Bratkowski said, “It’s possible he could play.”

Running back Kenny Watson also returned to drills.

“It was good to have those guys back,” said quarterback Carson Palmer. “(Chad) looked good, but he’s got a lot of work to do.”