Matt’s Take: First place Bengals with a dominant performance; last week of Reds baseball

By Matthew McAdow
HCP columnist

The Cincinnati Bengals have a defense? Man, what a feeling! It’s been far too long since I have voiced those words.  

In dominating fashion, Cincinnati held the Texans to two field goals. In a game where many experts picked the Texans, Cincinnati went on the road and absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage.

Cincinnati now sits at 2-0 and heads to Pittsburgh to try and take their first divisional victory and improve to 3-0. The AFC North is always a blood bath, but I expect another dominant performance from this defense and I hope to see this offense start to click. That’s the dangerous part about this Bengals team, the offense hasn’t even reached their potential. 
 
Positives from Sunday

Dexter Lawrence through two weeks is the highest graded interior defensive lineman in football per PFF. Take that pick, we have an absolute game changer up front. What a trade.  

Cincinnati held David Montgomery and Woody Marks to 18 yards on 14 carries. Absolutely nowhere for them to run.  

Evan McPherson – Enough said.  

Ja’Marr Chase had maybe the wildest catch of his career, while reeling in two touchdowns for 75 yards.

Tee Higgins had a quiet 95-yard, five-reception game. He would be a wide receiver one for half of the NFL.  

Cincinnati never turned the football over. That alone will put you in position to win many games.  

Demetrius Knight, have a game: 12 total tackles, one quarterback hit.  

Sacks were recorded from Cedric Johnson (2), Jonathan Allen and Shemar Stewart.

The Steelers and Ravens both lost. 

Cincinnati had 41 pressures on Sunday. Over the last six years, per Paul Dehner Jr., their average pressures per game was 12.6.  

The Bengals through two weeks are tied for first in the NFL with eight sacks, tied for third in the NFL with four turnovers forced, and continue to carry this team. 

Amarius Mims is a Pro Bowler.

Negatives from Sunday

Cincinnati had eight punts, had the worst success rate of all teams last week, was nearly dead last in yards per drive, were 5-15 on third down, and still won by 14. Improvement is needed.Twelve penalties for 78 yards is simply unacceptable.  

The offense has to start clicking and soon. While the defense has been fantastic, the offense will soon have to step up for this team to be a true contender.  

Orlando Brown Jr. looks really bad. He was beaten numerous times and I am nervous to watch him try to hold his own against Watt and Herbig next week.  

As Steelers week approaches, I would be ecstatic to see this team improve to 3-0 and silence Acrisure Stadium. I think they will do just that and for the first time in years, I think the Steelers are the worst team in the division…Yes, worse than the Cleveland Browns.  

One week left of Reds baseball

Barry Larkin stated it best this week on the broadcast, as he called out the Reds by saying “…Change has to happen. This city deserves better than that…Something has to give.” 

This month proves just how far off we are from being a decent baseball team. For players with 150 or more plate appearances, the Reds have 5 of the 9 worst hitters in baseball. Nick Krall traded for 4 of them. Nick Krall, it’s time for a new job, but it doesn’t appear that is happening any time soon.  

Maybe a year off from Reds baseball during a strike wouldn’t be as bad as I thought.