Cincinnati Bengals edge rusher Shemar Stewart had solid outing against the Philadelphia Eagles.
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Cincinnati Bengals edge rusher Shemar Stewart had solid outing against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Cincinnati Bengals decided to play their starters for roughly a quarter in last night’s 34-27 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. It was good for the offense to get some work as quarterback Joe Burrow and wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase did a little pitch-and-catch down the field a couple of times like it was Week 8.
The defense, however, has some work to do. Sure, defensive end Trey Hendrickson didn’t play as he continues to sit out in hopes of a new contract. But, Who Dey Nation did get a chance to get their first look at first-round rookie Shemar Stewart.
Stewart officially logged one tackle, but did get near the quarterback a couple of times. Considering the amount of time he missed just getting signed, Stewart thought he did okay.
“Considering everything you know, today was good,” Stewart said after the game. “Made a mistake here and there, but overall, it was a pretty good day. Pretty good day.”
Shemar Stewart got close to the QB a couple times
One of the knocks on Stewart coming into the 2025 NFL Draft was that he didn’t get many sacks in college. In three seasons at Texas A&M, Stewart dragged the quarterback to the ground just 4.5 times. That’s pretty low for a first-round edge rusher.
But, Stewart isn’t worried about that now and is just looking to get acclimated to the NFL.
“You’ve got to build yourself up sometime,” Stewart said. “We’ve got to take every little one you get. So hopefully, next time, next week, I probably could get there faster a little bit.”
Head coach Zac Taylor was asked after the game to assess Stewart’s initial performance.
“It’s real tough for me to give an answer on that one,” Taylor said. “I can’t really single anybody out that way.”
In fairness, Taylor had a lot to pay attention to and probably won’t be able to offer much in the way of performance reviews until he has a chance to watch film.
The Bengals defense has a lot of work to do
Yes, it’s one preseason game and not much can be extrapolated even if that’s what everyone wants to do. But, the Bengals played their starters and the Eagles didn’t play a single one (maybe Tyler Steen at right guard, but that’s it).
Eagles’ backup quarterback Tanner McKee was 20-25 passing for 252 yards, two touchdown passes and another on the ground. Following the game, some folks were quick to say that he’s better than Jalen Hurts (he’s not) while others are wondering if Howie Roseman can get a first-round pick for the third-year man out of Stanford.
And when it mattered (sort of), Eagles running backs were averaging nearly six yards per carry. Even for the preseason, this is troubling for a defense that ranked 25th in the NFL last year.
“Well, obviously defense, we’re trying not to show a lot of what’s going on, so we’re trying to keep it as little as possible and let guys win some one-on-ones,” Taylor said. “And today there were a lot of 50-50 plays that I thought Philly made, especially early in the game that gave them some extended drives there.
“But overall, just as a team, this was a team effort in the loss, 34 to 27, whatever it was, a seven-point game. We gave up seven points on field goals. We lined up offside on a field goal, they missed it, they got three points. We hit the center on a field goal, that turned into a touchdown. So that ended up being a four-point drive set, seven points right there, penalty on a long kickoff return that we had, gave up a long-punt return, threw an interception, and gave them the ball in scoring position.”
Vanilla game plan or not, this defense needs help and this game should be more leverage for Hendrickson.