Lions vs Bengals: Preseason Opener Game Round Up

The Lions and Bengals battled in a meaningless pre-season game with the Bengals winning by the score of 16 – 14.  The Lions played a handful of starters while the Bengals had theirs in for two series on both offense and defense. The game was pretty evenly played from a stats perspective, with the fumble that Bengals punched in for a TD in Lions end of the field being the main difference. Overall, it was just a sloppy game for both teams as expected, but entertaining, nonetheless. Here are some observations we had form the game

Surprise Stat of the Games

• It felt like the backup QBs played decently tonight, but they ended up with a combined QB rating of 55.1, largely on the backs of two INTs and a 57% completion percentage caused by numerous WR drops.

Player of the Game

• Ahmed Hassanein - Continues to make his presence known on the field.  Had two sacks including a strip sack that ended a TD threat, 4 total (3 solo) tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 2 QB hits.

Lions Ahmed Hassanein sacks Bengals QB Joe Burrow - Jeff Nguyen/Detroit Lions

Who Caught our Eye

• Rookie defensive lineman - Skyler Gill-Howard, Eric O’Neil and Anthony Lucas combined for 5 tackles, 1 TFL and 3 QB hits.  They always seemed to be around the ball on plays that ended near the line of scrimmage.

Lions Eric O'Neil - Jeff Nguyen/Detroit Lions

Winners

• Backup QB – Despite their Rating, both Luke Altmyer and Josh Dobbs looked better in one half tonight (against Bengals 1s and 2s) than any Lions backup QB has looked the last few years. Altmyer was making good reads, cool under pressure and tight spirals passes that were very catchable.  Dobbs showed veteran presence, a nice ability to scramble and escape pressure and keep plays alive, Altmyer showed similar traits late in the game and had both a sneak for a 1st down and a bootleg for a 2-pt conversion.

• Nick Whiteside – Continues to impress on the field, including a standout PBU on a play he was beat deep after losing his balance and recovered to just knock the ball away.

• Jacob Saylors - Saylors was running hard, making decisive cuts and finding holes all over the place.  Ended the first half with 6.9 YPC and 55 yards while also losing at least another 20 yards on penalties from his OL.

• Erick Hunter – This rookie UDFA LB is raw talent with lots of athleticism, but he was also around the ball a lot including making four solo tackles.

Lions backup QB Luke Altmyer - Jeff Nguyen/Detroit Lions

Losers

• Isaac Teslaa – TeSlaa had several drops including a key 4^th down play and one that went through his hands and resulted in an INT.

• Ennis Rakestraw - Was getting picked on by Joe Flacco giving up completions and chunks of yardage on multiple plays in a row at one point before injuring himself on an open field tackle

• Miles Frazier – Disaster of a first half with three holding calls and got beat on a play that resulted in RB getting stuffed for no gain after hit in the backfield by Frazier’s man. Also gave up a sack while playing LT in the second half. In defense to Frazier, he played all 66 offensive snaps across multiple positions on the OL, which was 20 more than he accounted for on offense in all of 2025.

 Game Observations

• Offense

  • Lions starting OL

    • Borom – Mahogany – McLaughlin – Frazier – Miller

  • Saylors ran extremely hard with good cuts and was picking up chunk yardage in the run and passing game, he also was also leading receiver with 28 yards on 3 catches and 5 targets

  • WRs dropped a ton of passes, with Dominic Lovett and Isaac TeSlaa the main culprits

  • OL continues to have communication issues on Blitz Pickups

• Defense

  • Whiteside made a handful of great plays in coverage, including a recovery from a slip for a PBU

  • Defense struggled with misdirection and staying home for their assignment on backside passes, losing TEs and RBs on those plays quite a bit

  • Lions gave up chunk plays on Slants all night

• Special teams

  • Punt returns were all North and South, no sideways nonsense like last few years from Khalif Raymond

  • Kick return coverage has to be better; Bates was forced to save a TD, and the Lions gave up 36.5 avg on the two returns

  • Bates was a perfect 2 of 2 (technically 3) on FGs with a long of 52

• General Observations

  • Lions played a sloppy game, with three turnovers (2 INts, 1 Fumble), four total fumbles, nine penalties for 84 yards)

  • Passing game was more dump off than down the field, but there were several opportunities that were either dropped or just missed

  • Feels like the Running game was featured tonight despite having less runs that passes, and the team responded with a 5.0 yards per carry and 129 yards rushing. There was a solid 20 additional yards lost due to penalties as well.

  • The passing attack used appeared to be more vanilla than normal, with lots of shot passes and a measly 4.5 yards per pass.  Likely die to a rookie and a guy in the system for two days taking the bulk of the snaps.

  • The game provided the Lions with a LOT of situational work.  They were able to run a 2-pt play, onside kick and a two-minute drill.

  • Injuries were a problem again, with multiple players getting nicked up or having to leave the game.

    • Ennis Rakestraw – Left with an apparent shoulder injury and went to locker room and did not return

    • Loren Strickland – Pulled up with a left leg injury, could be hamstring or Achilles strain

    • Amaris Brown – Upper Right Body injury on a tackle, was playing well prior to that

    • Jacob Saylors – Left briefly after tackled form behind, could be mild ankle or turf toe

    • Mekhi Wingo – Left with an apparent neck injury

    • Chuck Clark – Possible concussion symptoms after a tackle