[beer bacon]

It sucks to see Law giving a big cushion on 3rd down, but overall the scheme seemed to work. Cinci's WRs had a combined 9 catches for 97 yards with no TDs. Chad had 5 catches for 48 yards.

O-line: B- in run blocking, F in pass blocking

LJ: solid A

WRs: C-. Good job on forcing the interception Parker.

Gonzo: A. What a surprise! This Gonzalez is actually a pretty good target in the redzone. I wish we would have known that last season.

Trent: A-. The interception wasn't his fault.

Cruz: B. Nobody has really mentioned him, but he made some pretty good blocks out of the I.

Huard: D for a starting QB, B for a backup QB who hasn't played in six years. He was actually pretty good when he wasn't getting sacked or fumbling the ball.


Jared Allen: A: Played his heart out. He was all over the place all game making plays against the run and pass. His sack and forced fumble gave us a chance to get right back in the game, but our offense choked it away.

Hali: B+: He didn't get quite as much pressure as JA, but he was also all over the place. He drew a holding penalty on a play where he blew past Willie Anderson. He probably would have gotten a sack on that play. He also had at least three stuffs for no gain. I think JA and Hali had a combined 14 tackles.

interior D-line: B- (at least relatively to what we are used to seeing). Our DTs were stout against the run most of the time, and Reed is actually a playmaker. We also got a pretty decent push. As a whole our d-line got pretty good pressure considering who we were playing. We weren't killing Palmer, but we forced several throws. We also made it so Palmer just couldn't sit in the pocket for 10 seconds until a receiver came open.

Kawika Mitchell: B. He made that nice deflection on 3rd down early in the game, but then he got knocked out of the hole on Rudi's long run. I was going to give him a B- before I remembered he had that deflection. That was a nice play.

DJ: A-. He made plays against the run all game, and he finished with a team high eight tackles. The reason this isn't a flat A is because he didn't force any turnovers or get any sacks. He did recover JA's FF.

Bell: D. Wait, he actually played? He made a nice play on Chad Johnson early in the game, and then he disappeared. When is Fox going to get a chance?

Knight: C-. Maybe my bias is effecting my judgement of Knight's performance, but I don't remember him really doing anything either. I do know that the coaches weren't very happy with him either. Sometime early in the second half Jarrad Page came in and replaced him.

Wesley: C+. I can't point out any gigantic mistakes Wesley made, but I can't think of any big plays he made either. Still, I would rather have a solid if unspectacular Wesley over the boom or bust Wesley of last season. I do wish him or Knight could have filled on the two big runs Cinci had for TDs.

Jarrad Page: B-. I would have gave the rook a C+, but he had the carry for the first down on the fake punt. He seemed to be a lot faster then our other safeties when he was out there, but he only recorded two tackles.

Ty Law: B. He played loose coverage, but it didn't really hurt us all that bad in this case. CJ had less then 50 yards receiving and no TDs. The Bengals WRs as a whole had less then 100 yards receiving. He also had the tackle on Chris Henry for -5 yards which helped us hold them to a FG after Dante muffed a punt.

Surtain: B. I think Surtain actually had a better day in coverage then Ty, but I downgraded him a bit because of his two dropped interceptions.