It's been a little in-active here lately at Bengals Chatter, I apologize for that.

We'll be covering the pre-season but for me personally, it's difficult to get into

football until the season starts.

I suppose it also doesn't help that when you look at the quality of the Bengals

roster, it is without a doubt worse then last year. It doesn't mean certain players

will not improve and some additions (Simpson and, especially, Rivers) as well as a

few people we're getting back (namely Chris Perry), doesn't mean we won't do

better.

There was a lot of bad and...a little good we saw in Pre-Season game #1 against the

Packers. Here's some things we'll be looking for, hopefully we'll see it:

    * Better Tackling - PLEASE! I thought maybe with a new defensive coordinator

and an off-season of work the tackling would get better, but to put it lightly - a

bad start.
    * Profficient offense, good start - The offense was quite un-impressive against

the Packers, if the Bengals can get a good rythm going and get a solid run AND

passing game going, it would be a good thing to see. Hopefully TJ will be playing

and get some catches too.
    * Offensive Line Blocking - With Willie Anderson playing, it will be

interesting to see how the Bengals O-Line can do, especially against the mamoth

lions D-Line, 4 tackles between 295-310 pounds each.
    * Chris Perry - Especially if Rudi Johnson can't get it going this pre-season

or season, Chris Perry will be the guy. If Perry can have 4 solid pre-season games

it will go a long ways to get a lock on the starting job. This is his time for a

breakout year.

The game will be played this Sunday (August 17th) at 7:35 PM.