Jungle Roar Bengals Camp Observations What Are Biggest Surprises, What Needs To Be Cleaned Up

I have been, uh, busy watching the Bengals in training camp, trying to, uh, get their act together, and I think they've certainly proven that they've done that on the defensive side of the ball.

I thought they, uh, did, uh, held up, uh, themselves very well, had a good accounting for themselves on the defensive side of the ball against Detroit.

The offensive side to me is still a work in progress, and we've seen this before, Skinny, right, where it takes the offense, um, a good month to really find its rhythm, find its identity, because every year it seems like this offense m- after Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins has to find their identity, and that's where we're at again this y- this off-season.

And I think it's just gonna take a couple of more pre-season games, and I think they'll be ready by Tampa Bay.

But at this point, uh, I d- don't know if you agree with me, but I still think the offense is a work in progress.

Well, it is because you're, you're trying to incorporate the more under center stuff.

I think what, out of the, what, 12 or 13 snaps in the, uh, in the pre-season opener, seven were from under center-

Right

... and they didn't look all that great.

Um, and, and I, I, I think everybody thinks that the adjustment is easy, like you're just gonna go under center and everything's gonna be timed up perfectly-

Right

... and work perfectly.

It's just all he's doing is taking a direct snap from center as opposed to being in the shotgun, but it is different.

Um, it's a different processing for him.

It's, it's just, it's just, uh, different.

I don't expect it to, to, to be smooth right now, but I do expect it to still be a focal point for what they do.

I was asked this on, uh, Interview Friday on WLW of, you know, at what point would you just scrap that and, and, and do what Joe Burrow's most comfortable doing? I said, well, their big thing this off-season was trying to develop more big plays, and you're not gonna get a ton of big plays from shotgun.

You're gonna get some.

You're gonna get more of your big plays off of play action being under center.

So I think that's probably part of why the offense has probably looked as sluggish as it has, Mike.

And the other part to your point, I mean, hey, if the one side's winning, the other side's not, right? [laughs] And so the, the other side's winning for the most part, and kudos to them.

Here's my other point about under center versus shotgun.

Um, if you are going to convince teams that you're serious about running the football more than you have been in years past, and I don't even worry about the 29%, uh, under center versus the 71% not under center, I don't worry about that so much.

If you're going to convince teams that you're not just gonna step back in shotgun and have Joe Burrow fire to Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins all the time, and, uh, h- you're gonna have no run game and you're just gonna allow the defense to rush the quarterback, uh, then you've gotta have, you absolutely have to have something under center.

You have to have an element of your offense that shows the defense you're serious about running the football.