The Cincinnati Bengals enter training camp for the first time
HBO’s hit program Hardknocks kicked off tonight (no pun intended) with their first episode of the season. This season Hardknocks will be focusing in on the Cincinnati Bengals making it their second time of being on the show. The Bengals have a good young team that has made the playoffs the last two seasons. With that being said the team is looking to make the Super Bowl.
The episode kicked off with Adam “Pac Man” Jones’ car running out of gas feet from the stadium. From there the fun continued as player’s complained about who deserved their own room and who didn’t along with someone eating their words. Carlos Dunlap can sure talk the talk, but it was the walking part where he struggled. Dunlap was ragging on his teammates prior to the conditioning test on the first day. At Dunlap’s expense he performed the worst out of the team by getting gassed rather quickly in to the first workout.
From there we met two of the Bengals’ rookies who will be sure to make noise this year. Those two men are TE Tyler Eifert out of Notre Dame and RB Giovani Bernard out of North Carolina. Bernard showcased his speed in many of the drills while also showing his toughness following some pretty big training camp hits. If you watched Notre Dame last season you know how good Eifert’s hands are when it comes to receiving. Here in the first episode we didn’t see Eifert drop one ball.
The Bengals’ made a splash this offseason when they landed former Steeler LB James Harrison. Harrison’s attitude and desire to win dominated his segment as he completely shunned the HBO cameras. In one scene it was tough to see whether Harrison was joking or being honest when it came to hitting WR A.J. Green in practice; the Bengals management are definitely hoping he was joking.
There is nothing that helps you blow some steam off like the Oklahoma drill. On the first day of full pads the offense took on the defense in the Oklahoma drill. For those who don’t know what the Oklahoma drill is (don’t worry I learned myself last night) the drill consists of one runner, one blocker, and one tackler. Here the defense is supposed to shake the blocker and get the running back. To finish off the drill TE Jermaine Gresham called out DT Geno Atkins. During their match up Gresham did jump a tad early when it came to hitting Atkins, despite the offside call Gresham pancaked Atkins.
The funniest moment of the whole show was when the focus turned to Safety Taylor Mays. When asked what two super powers he would have Mays wouldn’t let the conversation go. The conversation went throughout stretches until he came to the decision of having the power of teleportation. Along the way he even questioned what power Wonder Woman has and to be honest that is a very good question because I don’t even know that answer.
One of the downsides of training camp is the injury bug that lurks around the facility. The Bengals’ dodged a bullet when A.J. Green avoided injury, but lost three people throughout the remainder of the episode. WR Andrew Hawkins went out indefinitely after a teammate accidentally spiked his ankle during a play. Coaches told WR Marvin Jones to stop diving for passes during practice so he wouldn’t get hurt. Jones’ stubbornness proved through as he continued to dive for balls until he had to leave with a head injury. Rookie Larry Black who was showing promise to make the roster had a horrific ankle injury that will cause him to miss the season.
Episode two of Hardknocks will be next Tuesday at 10 o’clock ET.
– John McAuliffe (@John_Mac310)
