Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden
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Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator Al Golden has work to do on defense.
The Cincinnati Bengals had and up-and-down performance Thursday night against the Philadelphia Eagles‘ backups in a 34-27 loss down at Lincoln Financial Field. It could even be considered a microcosm of 2024, where Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase looked sharp and Al Golden’s defense (not his last year, but it looked the same) had an “are you serious” vibe to it.
Kelsey Conway of the Cincinnati Enquirer even referred to the first-team defense’s work last night as an “uninspiring performance.”
“The energy surrounding the Bengals’ defense was the story of the team during the first two weeks of training camp,” Kelsey writes. “With new defensive coordinator Al Golden calling the defense and a newfound injection of confidence, improvement is expected. And while it’s important to note the final result doesn’t matter in the preseason, the performance from the first-team defense was disappointing.”
She’s exactly right about the result of the game. Who cares? Individual efforts and performances are far more important. Still, while the Eagles are the defending Super Bowl champions, their backups were out there. Yes, they have an extremely deep roster, but still…no starters were out there (maybe right guard Tyler Steen).
Al Golden’s defensive starters yielded 10 points
Get used to hearing the name “Tanner McKee.” The Eagles backup quarterback was 20-25 passing for 252 yards, two touchdowns and another on the first Tush Push of the season. He’s not some no-name bottom feeder that we see throughout the NFL preseason. Based on a short resume, the third-year man looks like he can play.
That said, he still isn’t an NFL starter and he moved the Eagles offense up and down the field rather easily against the Bengals’ starters.
“Cincinnati’s starting defense allowed 10 points and a lot of what transpired on the field resembled what you saw from the unit last season,” Conway writes, also noting the team’s absences. “The Bengals were without several key players on defense in defensive tackle BJ Hill, defensive end Trey Hendrickson, cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt and Dax Hill.
“All four of those players will help the unit. But to see gaping holes in the defense with Eagles’ wide receivers running wide open was a cause for concern because it happened too much last season.”
Conway is right, but it should be said that A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith were not two of those receivers. Johnny Wilson had three catches for 73 yards and he’s the Eagles’ fourth receiver.
Rookie Shemar Stewart “looks the part”
After the long holdout and contention with Bengals’ management over his rookie contract, Shemar Stewart showed up on Thursday night, even if he didn’t fill a stat sheet.
“Cincinnati has high hopes for Stewart and he looks the part,” Conway continues. “He finished the game with one tackle for loss for three yards. The Bengals are hoping that over the course of the next two preseason games, he’ll be able to get his conditioning level where it needs to be and he’ll be ready to be a factor come Week 1 in Cleveland.”
Stewart’s performance aside, head coach Zac Taylor said the team still has a lot of work to do.
“And so those are all things that as a team, we can’t tolerate,” Taylor said after the game. “We’ve got to play better team football than that. I like the fight. These guys, they came back, and they gave us a chance at the end, that I appreciate. But there’s a lot of things that we have to fix and correct as a team. That’s not one unit, that’s not one person, that’s not one position. It is a whole team effort that we got to fix in order to win our next game.”