Professor

The Cincinnati Post - Bengals have room for improvement

Either the Bengals or New Orleans Saints will come away with their first win of the preseason when the team's play tonight at Paul Brown Stadium. Barring a dreaded exhibition game tie, that is.

Regardless of the final score of tonight's game, the teams are both seeking the similar goal of simple improvement. The NFL regular season begins in three weeks. Keeping players healthy and progressing toward opening night are more important than winning a preseason game.

"I want to be efficient, complete balls all over the place, do great in the running game, see us make no mental errors, no mental mistakes, complete all of our assignments and improve overall," said Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer. "I'm not sure what the playing time is going to be yet, but I want to take advantage of the reps I do get."

The Bengals lost their preseason opener last week at Detroit, 27-26. The Lions scored 17 points in a span of 4 minutes, 58 seconds late in the fourth quarter to rally for the win.

New Orleans has lost both of its preseason games; 20-7 against Pittsburgh in the Hall of Fame game at Canton and 13-10 at home last weekend against Buffalo.

Palmer played the first two series against Detroit. The offense gained 121 yards against the Lions but couldn't put the ball into the end zone, instead settling for a pair of Shayne Graham field goals. The Bengals scored just one touchdown in three total trips inside the Detroit 20-yard line and had to settle for another Graham field goal after beginning one drive on the Lions' 21-yard line following a 37-yard punt return by Skyler Green.

The Bengals tied for sixth in the NFL last season scoring touchdowns 57.7 percent of the time they reached the red zone. While they were in the upper echelon of the league rankings in that category, there is always room for improvement.

"It's tough to get in there when you're working with 90 yards of field behind you and you've only got 10 to go," Palmer said. "Practice or game it's tougher. It's a tighter field with more people in less space."

Head coach Marvin Lewis said this week that Palmer would play more against the Saints than he did against Detroit but declined to specify how much more action Palmer would see.

The Bengals beat the Saints 31-16 in New Orleans last November, but it took four takeaways from the defense to overcome 595 yards of New Orleans offense. Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw for 510 yards in the game. The Bengals intercepted Brees three times, however, including steals in the end zone by safeties Madieu Williams and Kevin Kaesviharn.

__________________