There was much to like during the Cincinnati Bengals’ season-opening victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Dexter Lawrence popped off and opened things up for the suddenly-solid defense. Among other things, Amarius Mims looks like an All-Pro, too.
Complaints? Not many. Joe Burrow knows he threw a bad interception and, overall, coughing up a lead is never good.
There is one more notable, overlooked problem from the day, though. As The Athletic’s Paul Dehner Jr. pointed out, both Barrett Carter and Demetrius Knight had three missed tackles each.
Now, disclaimer: Both guys had really solid games. Knight had the big touchdown return. Carter might’ve had his best-overall game as a pro.
Even so, Bengals fans will wince at any similar phrasing to “missed
tackles” after years of the issues. If the team is lucky, those misses are one-offs as the unit shakes off Week 1 rust. But if it continues, it will show up on film and teams will start finding ways to exploit it in gameplans.
And sure, this might feel like nitpicking after a strong start to the season. But it’s also the type of nitpicking probably going on in the halls of Paycor Stadium right now, too.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: 1 recurring problem still hurting Bengals defense
