Burfict and Flowers in training camp fool-de-rol

[|High School Harry|]

http://bengalswire.usatoday.com/2017/08/16/vontaze-burfict-marquis-flowers-trouble-bengals-camp/

 

One day removed from Andy Dalton’s miserable day at camp, Cincinnati Bengals linebackers Vontaze Burfict and Marquis Flowers stirred up a bit of trouble.

Tuesday, with the defense still winning the tug of war and even getting safety George Iloka back in pads, it seemed like Burfict and Flowers got a little overzealous on separate occasions.

According to Jim Owczarski and Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Flowers got too chippy with quarterbacks and head coach Marvin Lewis wound up kicking him off the field for a while.

Burfict? The polarizing linebacker got into it with an offensive lineman and had a noteworthy chat with his head coach, per Owczarski and Dehner: “Lewis also had to talk with Burfict after a mini-altercation involving the starting linebacker and offensive tackle Cedric Ogbuehi. Nothing major came of it, but the play was on the radar of the head coach.”

Jay Morrison of the Dayton Daily News echoed these observations, noting rookie running back Joe Mixon helped get between Burfict and Ogbuehi.

Disclaimer—these things happen in training camp.

It’ll be easy for Burfict detractors to jump all over this like they did when he seemingly went low on Giovani Bernard recently. The two were laughing it up not even a few hours later.

 

This one hasn’t made any major headlines with practices now a secretive affair. More than anything controversial, this one falls under the “interesting” classification because—paired with yesterday’s dismantling of Dalton—it sounds like the Bengals defense has the bite and attitude back that playoff units of the past brought to the table each week.

For Lewis and the coaching staff, a few emotional moments in practices likely serve as good teaching tools and double as a strong sign of what the unit’s identity against actual competition.