Three Quick Thoughts on Bengals' Preseason Opening Loss to Eagles

The Bengals lost to the Eagles 34-27 in Thursday night's preseason opener. There were plenty of good things and multiple things that they definitely need to work on.

Here are three thoughts on the Bengals' preseason loss to the Eagles:

Burrow Balls Out

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow had quite the debut on Thursday night against the Philadelphia Eagles.

After missing on his first pass of the night, Burrow completed his next nine throws, including two touchdowns. He ended the night 9-of-10 for 122 yards, two touchdowns and a 157.1 quarterback rating.

Burrow missed Higgins on 2nd-and-5. He pointed to himself, before finding Ja'Marr Chase for a first down on the next play. He was perfect the rest of the night.

Chase appeared to score the first touchdown of the season, but the play was nullified by a chop block penalty on Lucas Patrick. Burrow and the offense calmly overcame the gaffe and he found Tanner Hudson for a 12-yard touchdown two plays later.

The Bengals followed up the 10-play, 71-yard drive with another scoring drive. This time it was a five-play, 65-yard drive that ended with Burrow finding Chase for a 36-yard touchdown.

Worries on Defense

The Bengals' defense struggled against the Eagles backups. Philadelphia went on back-to-back scoring drives to begin the game. They went on a 9-play, 75-yard touchdown drive on their opening possession, despite not playing their starters. Quarterback Tanner McKee scored on a tush push from the one-yard line to tie the game 7-7. They followed that up with a six-play, 47-yard drive that ended with a Jake Elliott field goal.

The Bengals had a 14-10 lead midway through the second quarter, but the defense didn't force a punt until the Eagles' third possession. They only got one stop in the first half.

Key Detail: It is worth noting that the defense was playing without multiple starters, including Trey Hendrickson, Cam Taylor-Britt, B.J. Hill and Dax Hill.

They need to play better and they have to learn from Thursday's struggles, but it isn't like they were at full strength and the Eagles were playing all backups. Cincinnati was playing multiple backups.

Regardless, plays like Will Shipley's 38-yard run can't happen. Watch the play below: