Lions-Bengals notes

[Icness]

Guys who stood out for the Lions:
JT O'Sullivan at QB. He made one horrific decision that led to an INT inside his own 25, but other than that he looked great. Outstanding pocket awareness, good vision, and he throws a very accurate, catchable ball. I know it's the 1st preseason game, but I saw more out of him than I ever saw out of Joey Harrington in DET.

Shaun McDonald at WR. Way too quick for man coverage, and he broke a couple of tackles to get extra yards. He absolutely torched Leon Hall a couple of times.

Johnny Baldwin at LB. Rookie has a lot of speed and good nose for the ball, kept himself off blocks pretty well.

TJ Duckett showed he's still got the quick feet for a big RB, though he fumbled a TD and missed a blitz pickup

Keith Smith at CB played Chris Henry quite well for giving up 6 inches, played the ball well and showed more physicality than I've seen from him. He outmuscled Hnery for a redzone INT on a horribly thrown ball from Johnson

DE Harriott showed great burst off the snap and straight-line speed, plus he blocked a punt and recorded a key pressure on 3rd down that led to another punt.

Bengals standouts:
Skyler Green running back punts was outstanding, though he did get very good blocking on a couple of them. Made a nice catch on a poorly thrown ball, though he also didn't pick up a couple of hot reads.

Alex Stepanovich played very well at LG, dominated his gaps in the 2nd half

Chris Henry did what you'd expect for a starter playing against 2nd and 3rd teamers, though he did not help out Doug Johnson on a couple of throws

Marvin White at safety was all over the place. He blew the deep coverage on the long McDonald TD and let the WR behind him a couple other times, but dude can lay the wood and is one of those guys that always winds up by the ball on runs.

Reggie McNeal looked a lot better at WR and made some great blocks. He and Bennie Brazell should be in a spirited battle for the #4 WR spot all preseason

Chiwedel Ndukwe, the rookie from Notre Dame, played very solidly and looked good in coverage. Big hitter just like White. I can see those two both being starting SS in the NFL in a couple of years.

Matt Toeaina looked good aside from his 5-minute, 81 yard INT return. Good gap penetrator, uses his mass well.

On the flip sides:
The Bengals are dead if Palmer misses even a half. Doug Johnson is brutal, just not an NFL QB.

The Lions backup right side of the OL is awful. Jonathan Scott did a decent job at LT though.

Mike Martz is still too cute for his own good in terms of playcalling and personnel packages. Runs Aveion Cason up the middle on 3rd & 1, then throws a screen to TJ Duckett on 3rd and 13. Ugh.

Dan Orlovsky started slowly but looked pretty good against the 3rd and 4th stringers, but I credit his WRs more than him. The Lions have amazing depth at WR, quite a change from the last 5 years.

Leon Hall looked intimidated and too slow to react, just like at the Senior Bowl. I still think he'll be fine long-term, but he's not ready to be anything more than a #4 CB until their bye week.

Kenny Irons' ankle looked bad, like a high ankle sprain in hoops. Non-contact injuries like that are almost always worse.

[PhilipNelsonFan]

The fact that Ndukwe and Toeaina are showing signs of life is a good thing because this is not that deep of a squad and they need all the help we can get. Kenny Irons' injury will be a dark cloud that they can't shake, and thankfully they signed Jeff Rowe to watch Carson play.

Johnny Baldwin, from the sound of things, could be a beast in Detroit; at the very least, a representation of what Boss Bailey should have been.