Coming off a win against Pittsburgh last week, Detroit was looking to make it two for two against the AFC North. Sadly, they ended up short and suffered their first loss of the preseason. Detroit looked like a different team this week than the team that showed up in Pittsburgh last week. The first team got more reps and played the entire first quarter. While they looked good for a drive down the field, they couldn’t find the endzone and had to settle for a field goal. All three phases tonight looked weak and definitely will need to be worked on before taking on Baltimore next week. Let’s break this game down.
Preseason Week 2 Review
Offense
We saw some more of Matt Stafford as he played the entire first quarter, and boy did he look good. He ended with 8/11 for 113 yards and he had some great throws to Marvin Jones. Dan Orlovsky looked horrible, going 8/14 for 83 yards and a easy pick six interception. Orlovsky needed to have a better game than last week after throwing a pick six, but he decided to put up the same performance. Now Jake Rudock did go 8/11 for 90 yards and threw an interception himself, but this one was different. Rudock had no open receivers so he could have easily just ran for a few yards or threw the ball away, but he threw it into traffic and it cost him. Was it dumb? Yes, but at least the man was trying to make a play with nothing, got to give him that. Rudock was smart though and left the pocket three other times, twice running to gain 11 yards, the other time he left to add time for the receivers to get open and he found Quinshad Davis for the first down.
The run game was worse than last week, which is not a good sign. Dwayne Washington led the team with 22 yards and a touchdown on six carries. Riddick had the most carries with seven for 17 yards. The team overall had 27 carries for 73 yards. You can’t really pinpoint the problem with this game. Was it the poor blocking that couldn’t create holes, or is the Bengals defensive line just that good to shut down the run overall? Either way, Dwayne Washington has made a statement about making the team, while Stevan Ridley, getting four carries for 13 yards, looks like a long shot on the roster.
Receiving didn’t do too bad as Marvin Jones had four nice catches for 65 yards and looked like a number one receiver out there. Golden Tate finally showed up and had three catches for 41 yards. Orson Charles led the tight ends with four catches for 40 yards. Jay Lee had two catches for 15 yards, but on the Rudock interception you see him give up on the play. You can’t ever give up in a real NFL game, giving up shows a lack of character and a sign of weakness.
The offensive line did improve this week. Sure the run game was worse as the running backs sometimes had to create their own holes, but the majority of the time the quarterbacks had enough time in the pocket to get the ball out. They only allowed one sack again after allowing only one last week. Graham Glasgow had a low snap again for Dan Orlovsky and that is two weeks in a row that Glasgow has had bad snaps. He won’t start or even get the chance if he keeps messing things like that up. In a shocking move, Corey Robinson was the backup left tackle and Cornelius Lucas moved to the right side in the second unit, leaving Michael Ola to the third strings. Both didn’t look bad, but there was no run game today behind any of the units, first, second or third.
Defense
The defensive line was unable to put pressure on any of the quarterbacks, getting zero sacks and allowing 102 yards and two touchdowns on the ground. A’Shawn Robinson saw a lot of playing time, playing from the second quarter until the end of the game. He had two tackles, a tackle for loss, and he got a pass deflection. Robinson looked good again, getting pressure to move the quarterback in the pocket, but one play he got shoved out of the way and the run was an easy gain for the opponent. Haloti Ngata looked good as well. Ziggy wasn’t that impactful, as the rest of the defensive line didn’t showcase much to talk about.
Linebackers were lead by Tahir Whitehead who had five tackles and one for loss. Antwione Williams had two, along with Khaseem Greene and Kyle Van Noy. Van Noy looked good in tackling and was able to get where the action was happening. With DeAndre hopping off the NFI list, he could come back next week or the last week of preseason just to get some reps, but don’t be shocked if he doesn’t come back until week one.
Defensive backs were horrible this week. Darius Slay had a tackle and a pass deflection, Glover Quin had a tackle as well, and Nevin Lawson and Quandre Diggs had two. Tavon Wilson allowed a touchdown after missing his assignment and came in late as the wide receiver was wide open. Darrin Walls was horrible in coverage as well and it turned into a touchdown. Behind the starters, the secondary didn’t do too well. Sure there were only 189 yards allowed in the air, but there were many passes thrown to wide open receivers and some throws were just too easy for the Bengals.
Special teams even had some hiccups. Matt Prater did well, going 2/2 in field goals, his longest from 30 yards out. Sam Martin had three punts for 128 yards with two inside the 20. The return game though was questionable. Kick returns were a total six for 145 yards, which sounds good, but they weren’t the best and our punt returns were only three for 21 yards. The defense for special teams allowed 136 return yards on five returns, but they missed some tackles and looked sloppy.
Preseason Week 2 – What it Means
Jake Rudock looked like the better quarterback again. Surely not by much this week, but if he continues this pace, he could be the backup sooner than expected.
Dwayne Washington had a good day, getting the only touchdown and two point conversion. He could easily move up the depth chart and this could mean he makes the 53 man roster come week one of the regular season.
The defense not being able to stop the run could spell trouble for the regular season, but Levy coming back will have a huge impact once it happens. Also, allowing 30 points after doing well the week before could smell like trouble.
Preseason Week 2 – What to Think About
Will Dan Orlovksy keep up his horrible ways? This is the biggest question to watch for the next two weeks. If Dan continues his ways, the next Tom Brady might have to take a step up.
The offense looked consistent with the ones led by Stafford as he and Marvin Jones had chemistry and the offensive line was impressive in the first quarter. They couldn’t finish drives, which will need to get worked on because in games that matter, that won’t fly. Kicking field goals won’t win you games.
With A’Shawn Robinson getting a lot of play time, it means he has the chance to become the number two defensive tackle. He will get more playing time as the rest of preseason happens and we can see what else this monster of a man can do.
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