CINCINNATI — In the most extensive action that the Cincinnati Bengals will get before the start of the regular season, defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence made his presence felt with an interception, several pressures and a terrific performance in a joint practice against the Chicago Bears on Thursday.
In a scrimmage portion of the practice, Lawrence made the play of the day by reading a screen and tipping the pass to himself.
On the following drive, a stop that closed it out, Lawrence had a key pressure followed by a sack.
The interception was the highlight of this entire Bengals training camp.
“I saw the ball get tipped,” linebacker Barrett Carter said. “As a defense, we need to get those. I’m thinking, ‘Who’s the closest to it?’ And then I see this large man under the ball. I was thinking, ‘Please, Dex, just catch it.’ I didn’t know if he had the ball skills or not. He did. I’m glad he’s on my team.”
The Bengals defense won the day. There was one more “scrimmage” session, and Myles Murphy denied the Bears’ two-minute drive with consecutive sacks. One of the sacks looked as if it could have been a safety.
“He’s an all-pro guy. He’s one of the best if not the best defensive tackle with (Chiefs DL) Chris Jones and all of them up there. He’s a force to be reckoned with,” Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said. “They were a great test for us. They invested pretty heavily in the defense from last year and it showed up today. Then being able to cause some negative plays and things like that.”
The Bengals defense started slow but did a great job of closing out the practice.
“We were talking on the sideline before that period,” Murphy said. “We’ve got to end it out regardless of what the offense does. We’ve got to show them what we’re about.”
It wasn’t all perfect, and every level of the defense was given something to work on. The defense took a bit to get going and struggled more in the red zone. But on the whole, the defense won more than the Bears offense. The Bengals pass rush was the star of the day.
“The D-Line is a DB’s best friend,” cornerback DJ Turner said. “They were getting back there.”
The Bengals won both scrimmage sessions, closing out one of them with a field goal from Evan McPherson. After struggling to contain the pass rush all camp, the Bengals’ offensive line got to face a different opponent and took a step forward against the Bears.
“It was a great day,” center Ted Karras said. “We had a few things that we wanted to try. A couple of play actions could have been better in the base downs period. Other than that, it was smooth sailing. We got after it. Good runs. Good pockets. And we won both situations in the end.”
Wide receiver Tee Higgins had a productive day for the offense, and the run game continued to show promise.
The offense wasn’t firing on all cylinders, and the unit hasn’t had a consistent overall camp.
“We’re still figuring it out,” quarterback Joe Burrow said. “I think No. 1, we have to be more consistent. We’ve shown flashes, but not terribly consistent, and so we have to be better at that, for sure. And I definitely play a role in that. We have some things to fix, but we got three weeks until the first game, so we still got some time.”
The Bengals starters aren’t expected to play in the second preseason game on Saturday against the Bears.
There was one minor scuffle during the joint practice after Chicago’s Dayo Odeyingbo made contact with Burrow, which didn’t make wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase happy.
“I don’t care what we do, we just better protect Joe,” Chase said.
The Bengals’ first-team units got the overwhelming majority of the action on Thursday, so the preseason game will give the second, third and fourth-string units an opportunity.
The Bengals still have intriguing position depth battles at offensive line and cornerback. They could get more answers at those positions in the game on Saturday.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.