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The players wore pads for the first time on Tuesday, which means everything becomes more physical. That is usually a big advantage for the defense, so it was no surprise that they dominated practice on Tuesday. It also helped the defense that the backup QBs threw a lot of errant passes. That is what happened last training camp where the defense dominated the offense without Burrow. So it was a surprise to me that yesterday's practice, which was the first one where Anarumo could gameplan, the offense outperformed the defense. The o-line held up better than they did in the previous practice, the QBs (especially Siemian) was far more accurate, many different receivers made good catches against strong coverage. There were some encouraging plays in the running game too. Like the 3rd-and-one play...the under-center QB hands the ball off to Chase Brown, a blitzing Hilton gets right into the intended running lane, Brown uses his speed to get around Hilton before driving hard into the always physical Taylor-Britt to (barely) get the first down. The defensive players did a good job, but on that play Brown was a little better. That's a play where a slower back gets tackled by Hilton for a loss. We haven't seen that kind of elusiveness from a Bengals RB in awhile.

Interesting quote from TE position coach James Casey about Irv Smith, Jr: "With our offense over the last couple of years, what we're studying as coaches with Zac (Taylor) and Brian (Callahan), is a big aspect is going be catching those underneath balls and run after the catch and he's got a chance to be really, really good at that because he's quick, he's athletic. He's got to be one of those guys who can catch underneath and the first guy who hits him doesn't bring him down. He can break tackles and turn a 2-3 yard flat route into a first down and that's critical. That will take our offense to the next level."

Will try to cover as much as possible this weekend. Also. mem...at practice tomorrow maybe you can note how many shotgun snaps there are compared to those under center. Also, how much RPO/PA are they doing out of the shotgun. The offense was finally installed 100 percent on Monday, so this is the way the offense should be set up when a healthy Burrow gets back on the field where he belongs.