posted August 9, 2007 at 18:55 in NFL Articles

Lions look for positive start vs. Bengals

Those who can’t wait to enjoy some NFL betting will have a catfight on their hands on Thursday night, when the Cincinnati Bengals take on the Detroit Lions in Week 1 preseason action.

The big draw in this game will be the debut of Lions’ first-round draft pick Calvin Johnson. The former Georgia Tech standout ended a short holdout last week to take a boatload of money from the Lions. Johnson wasn’t out long enough to miss too much of training camp, but he could be a little shaky in this game considering he has to get caught up in a hurry and it’s his first NFL game.

Even if Johnson has to go through some growing pains, the Lions should be able to string him along thanks to their stacked receiving corps. Roy Williams and Mike Furrey combined for over 2,300 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns last season, and the addition of Johnson should make them even better. With three big targets like that, even veteran QB Jon Kitna should look good and put up some hefty numbers.

With immense talent at the receiving positions, the Lions’ passing game should work itself out, but the same can’t be said about the running game. Incumbent Kevin Jones is coming off major surgery on his foot and may not be ready to resume the starting duties on opening day. Just in case Jones can’t go, or isn’t the back he used to be right away, Detroit brought in Tatum Bell during the offseason as insurance. No matter how Jones makes out, Bell will likely see his fair share of carries early on - but whether or not that continues will depend on how he performs. Under offensive coordinator Mike Martz the Lions will be a pass-first, run-later offense anyway. The offensive starters won’t see more than two or three series on Thursday night, but Detroit may try to highlight Johnson to get some more buzz growing about their future star and to see what he really can do versus an NFL defense.

Unleashing Johnson against the Bengals may be a perfect plan considering the Cincinnati defense tied for worst in the league against the pass last year. Cincinnati had an extremely disappointing season after they lost their last three games of the campaign and missed the playoffs. Despite last year’s failures, the Bengals should boast one of the league’s best offenses led by QB Carson Palmer. Now that Palmer’s knee is reportedly back to 100%, the Bengals should avoid the timing mistakes they made at times last year and any injury fears that were buried inside Palmer should be gone.

Palmer has two top-notch receivers to go to in Chad Johnson and T.J. Houshmandzadeh, but he’ll need to find a replacement for Chris Henry. Even with his off-field troubles (that cost him the first eight games this season), Henry was a valuable piece of the Bengals’ offense last season after catching nine TDs in 13 games. The preseason will likely be a battle between Tab Perry, Antonio Chatman and Glen Holt for Henry’s old spot. Bengals’ running back Rudi Johnson will likely see little action in the preseason, while draft pick Kenny Irons could get a number of carries to see if he has the stuff to be Johnson’s backup.

The Bengals’ No. 1 mission during the preseason should be to work on their defense. The secondary was burned repeatedly for big passing plays last season, which means first-round pick CB Leon Hall will definitely have the opportunity to win a starting job. Cincinnati head coach Marv Lewis may also want to hand out copies of the criminal code with this season’s playbooks. After all of the off-field legal troubles that Bengals’ players have run into the over the past year, Cincinnati could use a break from run-ins with the law.

The Lions opened as a 3-point home favorite on the NFL odds list for this game, while the total was set at a fairly low 35 points. The Bengals and Lions haven’t clashed since 2005 when Cincinnati shredded Detroit 41-17. You would expect more of the same in a regular-season tilt, but during the preseason the Lions will likely be more eager for a win and a solid start to the new year.

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