Bengals / Lions Observations:
- Rudi and T.J. both out of the lineup...not happy about that. As Dave Lapham said on the broadcast, you ideally need at least 2 games to get ready for any season. One to get used to "football speed" and another to shake off the rust. By that mentality, they'll both need to be ready to play next Saturday.

- Considering the Bengals don't have a full-fledged number 3 receiver and don't have T.J. in the lineup yet, it wasn't exactly comforting to see Chad Johnson head to the locker room early in the first quarter after getting hit on a would-be catch. Yikes.

- The first team offense looked simply anemic in the first half...but in fairness...they were without Chad (who left early with an injury) and T.J. (who was scratched). Even still, you have to wonder how ready they will be if they can't get their regular 1st team on the field for more than a preseason game or two. Not very promising.

- Anyone else start tallying up the dropped passes?

- 24.5: That'd be Carson's QB rating through about a quarter and half before getting relieved by Ryan Fitzpatrick. I'm gonna take the preseason games with a grain of salt...but you have to hope when given both top WR's, that Carson will give us a reason to relax when thinking about the offense of this team.

- Despite all the negative feelings about Sunday's offensive performance, Chris Perry still showed signs of solidity. He was bowling over people...which is a credit to both Perry and the offensive line. If anything positive can be taken from this game...it'd be the Perry/O-Line Combo.

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Please don't tell me you're this stupid...
Lance predicted it....and he was right. It didn't take long for several callers on the postgame show last night to make the claim that maybe Carson's best days are past him and the Bengals should consider making Fitzpatrick a possible starter. Are you freaking kidding me? Even if you ignore the fact that Carson didn't have any of his starting wide receivers (after Chad went down with an injury) and no Rudi...he had a bad PRESEASON game. Listen...even with an awfully bad season last year, he still managed to finish 5th among all QB's in passing yards and was in the Top 10 for passing TD's....on a 7-9 team! I wouldn't have even taken the time to post anything had I heard this crap from one or two callers....but there were several. Spare me.

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Bengals Training Camp Coverage
C. Trent

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Volquez returns to form
Enquirer.com
A revived Edinson Volquez pitched seven shutout innings and traded up-and-in fastballs with counterpart Kyle Lohse today, leading the Reds to a 7-3 victory that ended the St. Louis Cardinals' four-game winning streak.

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Reds couldn't afford a walk-off by Alonso
Enquirer.com - Paul Daugherty
Yonder Alonso spent Friday afternoon watching a movie called "88 Minutes." It's about a shrink who works with the FBI in profiling serial killers. Eventually, the good head doctor becomes a target, and is informed he has 88 minutes to live. As his own clock ticked Friday, Alonso saw the quasi-parallel, and found it amusing. The Reds signed their first-round draft pick and Alex Rodriguez protégé with about 20 minutes to spare. Without a deal by midnight Friday, Alonso would have been headed back to the University of Miami, or to New York, to live with A-Rod. Not exactly homicidal choices.

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Tell me you saw it.....
I'll always remember where I was....a condo in Tennessee visiting my family....late Saturday night when Michael Phelps made Olympic history. If you missed it, you were among the few. overnight ratings for NBC were just ridiculous...for obvious reasons. I'm not even an Olympics type of guy, but it was really cool to see Phelps do what he did.

Also, as Bob Costas pointed out, it was fitting that Phelps set the new Olympic record with 8 Gold Medals in a single Olympic Games...which started on 8/8/08. Pretty funny stuff.

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Michael Phelps saves the Olympic Games
ESPN
According to archaeologists and historians, mankind has been working at this organized sports business since roughly 4000 B.C. Some think the Chinese might have started the whole thing. Sunday morning in the putative birthplace of sports, we saw the endeavor elevated to a new plane by Michael Phelps. We witnessed the apotheosis of the athlete -- 6,000 years in the making; 30 minutes, 51.68 seconds in the perfecting. That's the combined length of time Phelps swam to win his Olympic-record eight gold medals, to set seven world records, to swim five lifetime-best individual times, to endure two great escapes, and to become the singular competitor in species history. Over nine days and 17 swims, he was in the water for roughly the length of a sitcom. It turned out to be the greatest TV many Americans have ever witnessed.

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Jim Tressel pleased with young players
Columbus Dispatch
If there is a textbook on how to bring along a young phenom, Ohio State coach Jim Tressel apparently hasn't read it. Chapter 1: Shield the kid from unrealistic expectations. Don't put any more pressure on him than already exists. Yesterday, Tressel had a perfect chance to frame the outlook this season for freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor, to put a box around Pryor's potential and try to control the mania surrounding him. Instead, after a long jersey scrimmage that was closed to the public and media, Tressel did not hide his pleasure with his five-star recruit.

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Anna Kournikova back in Maxim....God bless America

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