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Week 3 Game Recap: Cincinnati Bengals 21, Seattle Seahawks 24
What you need to know
| Cincinnati Bengals |
The trio of QB Carson Palmer, WR Chad Johnson, and WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh were on the top of their game. Palmer passed to only those two in the first half (not counting a single screen play to a RB), and had no trouble doing so. This was all the more impressive when factoring in that the running game was stopped cold.
Halfback Rudi Johnson was ineffective in the first half (six of eleven carries for negative yardage) and went out with a hamstring injury in the third quarter. Kenny Watson replaced him and had success running the ball. If Johnson's injury is serious, look for Watson to get the call.
Palmer tried to no avail to spread the ball around in the second half. The Bengals couldn't quite get it done in the end, and despite his gaudy numbers, Palmer wasn't able to close it out when they needed to.
| Seattle Seahawks |
The Seattle Seahawks home field advantage is real. The noise in this stadium causes the most false start calls (for opponents) of any in the league. In this game it made a difference, slowing down the Bengals hurry-up offense just enough to keep them from getting any real momentum.
Shaun Alexander ran for 100 yards on 21 carries. That's the good news. The bad is that he looked very suspect doing it. Three long carries late in the game (22,14,20) padded the numbers to what was, for the second week in a row, a very questionable effort. He is in no danger of losing his job, so hopefully he is just working out the kinks while coming back from a sprained wrist injury.
The trio of wideouts, Bobby Engram, Nate Burleson, and Deion Branch, all had excellent games. Hasselbeck threw to each for a touchdown, and even though Burleson had a couple of key drops, he kept getting him the ball. All three had nearly identical numbers, though Burleson had more looks, especially late in the game.
What you ought to know
| QB Carson Palmer, Pass: 27 - 43 - 342 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0 |
Palmer played like an all-star in the first half, and struggled like a rookie in the second. He at first shredded the Seahawks defense, getting the ball to his star wideouts, Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh seemingly at will. The trio was unstoppable. Then, in the second half, when the Seahawks keyed on them, Palmer was unable to overcome it by spreading the ball around (He tried, but not very successfully). Instead, he forced the ball to his go-to guys, which resulted in a costly interception (in which he was rolling out and clearly should have thrown it away instead) and a lower ratio of attempts to catches. Still, a bad day for Palmer is better that a lot of other QB's good days. He ended the day with 342 yards passing, but only one TD, an early strike to Houshmandzadeh, before Seattle knew what had hit them.
| RB Rudi Johnson, Rush: 17 - 9 - 0, Rec: 1 - 33 - 0 (2 targets) |
The lack of success on the ground appeared at first to be a case of the defense dominating the line of scrimmage. Johnson had one big play, on a screen pass, but otherwise was not effective at all. He left the game in the third quarter with a hamstring injury. Replacement Kenny Watson quickly put up 60 yards on nine carries. No word on the severity of the injury.
| RB Kenny Watson, Rush: 9 - 60 - 1, Rec: 1 - 1 - 0 (1 targets) |
Watson relieved an ineffective Rudi Johnson partway through the second half, and went off for 60 yards on nine carries, with a touchdown. He looked very comfortable in the offense and showed a burst that Johnson was lacking. If Johnson's injury is anything serious, Watson would see the bulk of the carries.
| RB Jeremi Johnson, Rush: 1 - 12 - 0 (1 targets) |
The fullback had a couple of touches, but did not factor into the scoresheet much.
| WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Rush: 1 - 3 - 0, Rec: 12 - 141 - 1 (19 targets) |
Houshmandzadeh was on a mission to teach the Seattle fans how to pronounce his name. How he did it? Twelve catches for 141 yards and a TD didn't hurt, and an unheard of 19 targets. What was so astonishing was that he just kept on catching them like he was playing on a whole different field from everyone else. For those keeping track, he definitely outshone teammate Chad Johnson. He also had a possible second TD negated by a holding call. He caught the ball going out of bounds in the end zone, but looked to be pushed out, so it may or may not have been ruled a catch if there were not penalty.
| WR Chad Johnson, Rec: 9 - 138 - 0 (15 targets) |
Johnson, with 138 yards on nine catches, was the less impressive of the two Bengals receivers. His two drops near the end of the first half killed the Bengals drive, and in the second half, Palmer forced his throws to Johnson, resulting in a few nice catches, but only a 50% success rate.
| WR Skyler Green, Rush: 1 - 1 - 0, Rec: 2 - 15 - 0 (3 targets) |
Caught the ball early in the third quarter, when the Bengals were trying to spread the ball around. Then they went back to plan 'A' (throw the ball only to Chad Johnson and Houshmandzadeh). He was also the main punt returner, and had one rush (an end around for one yard).
| WR Glenn Holt (1 targets) |
Main duty was as kickoff returner. He fumbled his last return, which sealed the win for the Seahawks.
| TE Reggie Kelly, Rec: 1 - 4 - 0 (1 targets) |
Hardly used as a receiver, but his one catch was a nice one.
| TE Dan Coats, Rec: 1 - 10 - 0 (1 targets) |
His one catch was for a first down.
| PK Shayne Graham 2 - 2 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 7 points |
He was two for two on field goals, but botched a kickoff (kicked it out of bounds, giving the Seahawks the ball on the 40 yard line) which led to the winning drive.
| CIN Rush Defense |
They were able to stymie Shaun Alexander for most of the game, but to be honest, they did not look all that impressive; Alexander made them look good.
| CIN Pass Defense |
The secondary was just a hair away, it seemed, on every big play. On one hand, it means they are not too bad; on the other, it means that on every play, they are not quite good enough. The two interceptions came from bad bounces rather than anything caused by the defense.
| QB Matt Hasselbeck, Pass: 24 - 37 - 248 - 3 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 3 - -1 - 0 |
To say Matt Hasselbeck was on his game may be an understatement. From the first snap to the end of the game, he carried the team, throwing precision passes at will, and compensating for a ground game that didn't show up until late in the fourth quarter. The two interceptions were not his fault, and he was throwing into heavy coverage all day long, since the aforementioned rushing attack was no threat. Hasselbeck was simply outstanding.
| RB Shaun Alexander, Rush: 21 - 100 - 0, Rec: 2 - 8 - 0 (4 targets) |
Alexander somehow managed to hit the century mark in yards, but make no mistake, it was a very ugly hundred yard day for the former MVP. He did not look like his old self at all. He hit holes hesitantly, and it cost him. And against the team that gave up over 200 yards on the ground last week to the Browns. A hundred yards was almost a given, but he didn't gain most of the yards until late in the game (35 yards came on two carries within the final two minutes). To his credit, it wasn't garbage time, it was clutch time, and he came through for the Seahawks. On the few occasions that he did break the line of scrimmage, he did not threaten to break any truly long gains (his longest of the day was for 22 yards). One final key stat: ten of his 21 carries went either for no gain or negative yardage.
| RB Mack Strong, Rec: 2 - 9 - 0 (3 targets) |
Strong made his contributions as a blocker count in this game, freeing up some running room for Alexander on a crucial fourth quarter drive. He is important to the Seahawks offence, but rarely shows up on the score sheet.
| RB Leonard Weaver, Rush: 1 - 3 - 0 |
The interim backup while Maurice Morris is out, saw almost no action, finishing with one carry for three yards.
| WR Deion Branch, Rec: 6 - 77 - 1 (7 targets) |
Branch had a wicked first half, in which he torched the Bengals secondary on a 42 yard post pattern into the end zone, and caught four out of five targets. Hasselbeck was on the money in some pretty tight spaces, and Branch came through. In the second half, he was only targeted twice (both caught) and both for short gains. This should be attributed to Hasselbeck's ability and willingness to hit the open man instead of locking onto one key receiver. Branch should continue to have success, but having a versatile QB hampers his potential ever so slightly.
| WR Nate Burleson, Rec: 6 - 76 - 1 (12 targets) |
Burleson ran hot and cold. The good: he made the game winning touchdown catch look easy -- a well timed throw in tight zone coverage - and showed how in sync he was with Hasselbeck. The bad: Not quite his fault, but a bizarre interception resulted from a pass he was fighting for in mid-air. When he and the defender hit the ground, Burleson lost the ball and it bounced high and into the waiting hands of Madieu Williams. The ugly: The drop that would have been a touchdown. He had it in his hands, as he toed the line at the back of the end zone, but lost control as he hit the ground. Overall, the number of targets, and the fact that Hasselbeck looked his way in the clutch, bodes well for him going forward.
| WR Bobby Engram, Rec: 5 - 62 - 1 (6 targets) |
Engram started off with an 18 yard touchdown catch and settled in to be his usual, reliable self. In the second half he was only targeted twice, but caught both balls for first downs. This was a regular day at the office for Engram, and the touchdown was a bonus.
| TE Will Heller, Rec: 2 - 12 - 0 (2 targets) |
He is the second TE for the Seahawks and was mainly used as a blocker.
| TE Marcus Pollard, Rec: 1 - 4 - 0 (2 targets) |
Pollard is clearly an afterthought in the Seahawks passing attack.
| PK Josh Brown 1 - 1 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 6 points |
True to his enigmatic form, Brown actually looked shaky on a 23 yard chip shot, but it did make it through the uprights.
| SEA Rush Defense |
The Seahawks linebacker corps simply dominated Rudi Johnson and the Bengals ground attack for most of the game. Kenny Watson did a little better in the second half (and rushed for a TD) but Seattle controlled the ground when it mattered.
| SEA Pass Defense |
Against one of the most feared passing teams in the NFL, they actually did all right. One of the things that the Seahawks coaching staff does so well is adapt the game plan at half time. The first half was ugly -- Carson Palmer really had his way with them. But in the second half, he and his star wideout had very little success. The pass rush helped, as they forced Palmer to throw early, which led to a couple of interceptions.
