Cincy Jungle
The Cincinnati Bengals took on the Philadelphia Eagles for their first preseason game of 2025. The Bengals played their starters for a quarter against the Eagles’ backups. The starting offense did its job, but the rest of the team has room to improve after this loss. Most of the game, the backups and starting defense looked outmatched.
The Bengals’ offense started off the game with the ball on offense. There were no surprises, as they moved the ball well against the Eagles’ backup defenders. Joe Burrow was six for seven for 71 yards on the opening drive. He hit Ja’Marr Chase three times for 41 of those yards (not including a touchdown that was called back). Chase Brown also had a good series with four touches and 24 total yards. However, it was tight end Tanner Hudson who took the reception across the goal line, carrying two guys on top of him. There was very little resistance aside from a penalty in a goal-to-go situation.
Unfortunately, we saw a very similar story to how the last season played out on defense. Cincinnati’s defensive unit showed very little resistance against the backups for Philadelphia. That included a 38-yard run by running back Will Shipley through a hole any of us could have gained at least five yards before a defender was in the area for a tackle. The unit toughened up a bit near the goal line, but a “tush-push” on 4th-and-goal got the job done, tying the game, 7-7.
We then saw some more of the Chase Brown show, as he had 21 yards between running and receiving on the ensuing drive. It was Burrow and Chase combining for a touchdown to finish the drive, like we have seen so many times at LSU and with the Bengals. Chase took a pass toward the outside, and turned back inside, leaving the only defender with a shot of touching him in the dust. totaling 36 yards on the play.
The defense started off terribly again. Defensive back Josh Newton had an interception taken away from him at the highest point for 27 yards. Then a 15-yard pass on a play where the pass rush never even sniffed the quarterback set them up in field goal range. Fortunately, they were able to hold them to a field goal at the beginning of the second quarter.
That was the last we saw of the starters out there after two full drives. It appeared to be a healthy outing for that side of the ball, which was ultimately the most important thing about Thursday night’s matchup. However, it was a disappointing outing for the defense that seemed to be playing well in training camp. At least the offense is still fun, though, but it remains to be seen what things will look like on defense when Week 1 comes around.
We saw some of first round pick Shemar Stewart actually playing NFL football for the first time, too. He had a tackle for loss...
