The Bengals, who get the ball first, are missing both starting tackles. The Lions, on the other hand, appear to be missing about 50,000 fans tonight. I want to hear exactly zero complaints about how many Rams fans show up next Saturday.
Roooodi starts with a 20 yard run. Ernie Sims misplays it and leaves Rudi a gaping hole. Daniel Bullocks DESTROYS Chad Johnson on the next play, which is initially called a fumble but is overruled to down on contact. Getting plenty of time, Palmer hits TJ Houshmandzadeh on a deep post route. Bengals having an easy time running on Detroit, too, but Sims and, yep, TRAVIS FISHER, stop TJ short on 3rd-and-6 from the Lion 9 to force a FG. 3-0 Bengals.
Tatum Bell weaves for 11 to start Detroit's first drive, and Jon Kitna hits Roy Williams for about 25, before the Bengal pass rush gets to Kitna. Justin Smith sacks him on 2nd down, and good pressure from both DEs causes a bad throw on 3rd. Edwin Mulitalo got beat for the sack. Kitna's not showing us anything new as far as how he handles pressure. Two Lions collide at the goal line trying to down the punt.
I'm surprised Chad Johnson is back after that big hit. His 22-yard catch sets up a 49-yard Graham FG to make it 6-0. Lion defense is definitely playing bend-don't-break. Bengals are generally running well but the Lions are coming up with the stop when they have to have it.
Calvin Johnson enters game late in first, but it's Mike Furrey who makes a 25-yard catch on 3rd down near the end of the 1st quarter. 6-0 Cincinnati after one.
Bryan Robinson bats down a Kitna pass on 3rd down to open the 2nd quarter. Lions punt.
Doug Johnson takes over at QB for the Bengals. Drive stalls on a blitz and sack by Johnny Baldwin, who takes advantage of Corey Smith tying up two linemen at end. Lions have also been blitzing Travis Fisher a lot.
J.T. O'Sullivan is your new Lions QB, but it's a 3-and-out for starters, with Aveion Cason getting stopped on 3rd-and-1.
Poor throw by Johnson for TE in the flat leads to a Cincinnati 3-and-out, and oh, joy, a punt return attempt for one Shaun McDonald. Damn, it's a fair catch.
Bengal blitz forces Sullivan to take a grounding penalty. Erik Kramer questions why Mike Martz had Cason in for 3rd-and-1 the last drive, then calls a screen to TJ Duckett on 3rd-and-long this drive (broken up by a nice open-field tackle by Nedu Ndukwe). Me, I'm surprised that 3rd-and-1 run wasn't a sweep, or a reverse to Casey Fitzsimmons.
Skyler Green sets the Bengals up at the Lion 21 with a 37-yard punt return, but Cincy does little with it. Corey Smith beats Dane Upesera rather badly to tomahawk the ball away from Johnson, forcing a sack. Bengals have to settle for another Graham FG, making it 9-0.
Cason returns the kickoff from his end zone and GETS MURDERED at the Lion 15. I don't know how he does it, but Martz is working his magic on Detroit's special teams. No matter, O'Sullivan hits McDonald on the drive's first and only play for an 83-yard TD bomb. McDonald was open by a good 15 yards; nobody covered him. 9-7, Cincinnati.
After getting nothing going last drive, rookie Kenny Irons gets 18 on 2 runs, but he turned an ankle making a cut on the 2nd one. Kenny Watson takes over at tailback. Johnson hits Chris Henry a couple of times to get to the Lion 30, but tries to force a long one to him that Keith Smith picks off for Detroit at the goal line. Poor throw by Johnson, nice position by Smith.
And yes, Chris Henry can play in the preseason even though he's suspended. Seems like he should actually be tag-teaming with Pac-Man Jones, but anyway.
Hey, Blaine Saipaia is at center for the Lions. He's on the ground as O'Sullivan makes a terrible play deep in his own end just before halftime, forcing a pass over the middle that's picked off by Marvin White. O'Sullivan did almost everything wrong a QB could do wrong on that play.
Cincinnati converts that turnover just before halftime with a TD pass from Johnson to Henry at the right pylon. 16-7 Bengals.
Calvin Johnson gets his first professional catch about a minute before halftime for about 25, then makes a leaping catch for about 20 the next play. O'Sullivan then beats a blitz with an awkward throw while scrambling, hitting Shaun McDonald at the Bengal 11 for about 25 more. Drive stalls with a couple of end zone overthrows. There's that Martz red zone offense! Jason Hanson makes it 16-10 0:08 before halftime.
Johnson takes a knee to end the half. Rod Marinelli laments Detroit's red zone problems in the pre-halftime interview.
Cincinnati announcers take over; Anthony Munoz on color.
Lions open the 3rd with O'Sullivan nearly getting sacked when #73 hits the ground, then scrambling for his life (behind a big blitz pickup by Duckett) to convert on 3rd down. Shaun McDonald is making a nice impression at WR. He breaks a tackle for a 10-yard catch and snatches one out of the air the next play for 25. He did the same stuff here; I always thought he was a nice #3 or #4 receiver. Just not a punt returner. The drive ends with Duckett fumbling into the end zone, and replay shows he fumbled before reaching the goal line, so Cincinnati gets the ball. Marvin Lewis wins his second challenge of the night.
Langston Moore beats the bejesus out of Dan Santucci to sack Johnson immediately after the Duckett fumble. I'm pretty sure Santucci thought there was help behind him. There wasn't. A Skyler Green drop ends the possession. Viva preseason!
Dan Orlovsky in for the Lions at QB. NFL Network has edited out a couple of plays and DE Jonathan Fanene being carted off. CENSORSHIP! WE HAVE BEEN DENIED! 123-kick for Detroit. Fanene apparently just had muscle cramps. I think he just wanted a ride on that cool cart.
In no-huddle, Johnson hits Henry down the sideline with a long pass, and Green follows with a diving catch for 15. The tempo's really helping Johnson, who looks like a machine on this drive. He hits Henry at the 4, but then the drive moves backward. Santucci commits a hold on an apparent Curtis Brown TD run, about 5 Lions stuff Quincy Wilson for a big loss, good pressure by Claude Harriott and Gerald Alexander blows up a screen, and Cleveland Pinkney drops Johnson for a sack. The Bengal backup o-line seems very confused about its assignments. Graham's 4th FG puts Cincy up 19-10.
Classic bend-don't-break D from Detroit.
Lions open the 4th quarter at their 30. Did they show the kickoff? I dunno; it's getting late. Lions have passed for 265 yards and rushed for 48 through 3 quarters. Who's that offensive coordinator again?
Bengals are stopping the run, but Orlovsky is making key completions on 3rd down to move the chains - one to Troy Walters, another to Brandon Middleton, YET ANOTHER former Ram now in Honolulu blue and silver. They get inside the 20 before Andre Frazier blitzes in and hits Orlovsky's arm, forcing a goofy throw that flutters about 5 feet and into the arms of one Matt Toeaina, who hauls his 301 pounds 81 yards for an INT TD return to put the Bengals up 26-10. My favorite part of that return was DB TJ Wright throwing a big backside block for the big man instead of trying to steal the ball from him like DBs often do.
Cliff Russell splits some terrible Bengal tackling and breaks loose for a 60-yard catch-and-run. That eventually sets up a TD to Ron Bellamy in the back of the end zone. After dancing around for a good eight seconds, Orlovsky might actually have been trying to throw the ball away, but Bellamy's leaping grab and good footwork narrow the Bengal lead to 26-17.
Jeff Rowe now QBing for Cincinnati; Curtis Brown at RB. A sideline interview with Domata Peko obscures the Bengals' 3-and-out, and a partially-blocked Kyle Larson punt that only travels 24 yards to midfield.
Orlovsky hits Walters 4 straight times to get the Lions in the red zone but the Lions are forced to take a FG after a Kevin Kasper end zone drop and a 3rd-down blitz that flushes Orlovsky to the sidelines. Kenny Byrd narrows the score to 26-20.
With 2:45 left to play, Detroit attempts an onside kick, which is muffed badly by two different Bengals before the Lions fall on it all the way up at the Bengal 37. Orlovsky promptly hits Kasper for 25, and then 12 on a pass in the flat for the TD. DB Brandon Williams was kind of picked on the play, tripping over another Lion receiver. PAT makes it 27-26 Detroit. Well, what do you know?
Rowe hits a bunch of short passes and spikes with 0:01 left to get Graham a 47-yard FG attempt, which he chokes on and pulls left. Lions win, 27-26.
Detroit's got to be happy with the character they showed coming back from 16 points down. Orlovsky looked strong and the QBs combined threw for nearly 500 yards. Martz uncovered receiving weapons in McDonald and Walters. I liked Corey Smith's work at DE and think they're getting a solid foundation for their d-line. And the Lion D repeatedly came up with big plays in the red zone. Classic Mike Martz offense. 2/1 pass/run ratio, iffy in the red zone, gets into trouble when the opponent blitzes, but rings up 500+ yards and wins the game. Phew.
Cincinnati frankly ought to be disgusted. Yeah, it wasn't the starters, but giving up 500 passing yards and blowing a 16-point lead is all kinds of awful. Special teams had a pathetic second half, with the partially blocked punt, the Keystone Kops effort on the onside kick, and then there's Graham, who's had issues missing clutch FGs, choking on another one tonight. I know the Bengal starters controlled the game while they were in there, but the special teams, twos on defense and twos on the offensive line were terrible and really let one get away from them tonight.
3 down, 62 to go. Up next: Rams at Vikings Friday night, which will be at ramview.com, not here. After that, it's looking like I'll hit NFL Network for New England-Tampa Bay at noon Saturday, followed by Atlanta-NY Jets, Washington-Tennessee and Chicago-Houston if the Red Bull holds out.
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