Bengals Camp — Aug 23: Lawrence Won His Extended Audition

Dexter Lawrence tipped a Caleb Williams screen pass to himself for an interception on Thursday and spent the joint practice against Chicago pushing double teams into the backfield, per Geoff Hobson at the team's site — the closest thing to a real starters-versus-starters test this defense has had all summer, and Lawrence controlled it. His own review, per Dan Hoard at the team's site: "Yeah, it felt good going against another team for more than three plays." Ted Karras, who blocks him daily, gave the practical version — "You've got to be ready to go or he'll dump you," per Hoard — and, after watching him do it to someone else's line, per Hobson: "It validates my insecurities." The interception set up an Evan McPherson field goal, and the defense closed the session with three consecutive stops and two interceptions, Lawrence's tip +1 from cornerback Jalen Davis, while Myles Murphy stacked back-to-back sacks on the final drive, per Hoard. Murphy's frame afterward: "We have guys that know what it takes to dominate." Practice wins are still practice wins, but a first unit closing out a playoff opponent's first unit in scripted situations is a different grade of evidence than backups outrunning backups.

Joe Burrow's side of the same afternoon was nearly as clean. He went 16-of-25 with two red-zone touchdown passes, to Tee Higgins and Mike Gesicki, plus an interception when a throw bounced off Gesicki's fingertips, per Hobson. Higgins caught all five balls thrown his way in Hoard's charting, two of them past 15 yards, and called it a fresh start of a day. The quote of the week was Burrow's, and it wasn't about health: "I'm tired of saying next year, next year, next year. This is it." And later, "Your life is too short to keep pushing things down the road." Two days earlier, in the final full practice before Chicago arrived, Hobson's report had Burrow escaping pressure to hit Ja'Marr Chase for a red-zone score — and Chase declining player-of-the-day honors over a drop he wouldn't excuse. The honors went to cornerback Josh Newton, who intercepted Joe Flacco and broke up a third-and-15 throw in the unscripted period; Gesicki's read on Chase's gravity, per Hobson: "He was the reason I was open on my deep ball... when we feed Ja'Marr, someone else becomes open."

Saturday's game gets deflated on arrival — Bengals 27, Bears 9, with Burrow, Chase, Lawrence and the rest of the starters watching — so everything in it is roster-battle material, and the battles produced. 14-year veteran Josh Johnson started and went 15-of-23 for two touchdowns in a half, per Hobson, with head coach Zac Taylor crediting coordinator Dan Pitcher's play-calling. Fourth-round receiver Colbie Young led the wideouts with 58 yards on three catches and a 17-yard touchdown — Johnson on the score, per Hobson: "His patience was awesome... He worked it. He stopped his feet." Dohnte Meyers, the CFL import who keeps forcing his way into these reports, caught six for 50, took a jet sweep, and ripped a 29-yard punt return. Seventh-round defensive tackle Landon Robinson turned in one and a half sacks, including a 12-yard takedown of Miller Moss, celebrated with a salute, and has been moonlighting as a short-yardage lead blocker in practice, per Hobson. Sean Clifford threw for 126 yards with a touchdown and an interception in the second half, McPherson hit from 25 and 58, and Taylor's postgame read, via the team's site: "I thought it was a good game... I thought we tackled well on defense and special teams." The quiet delta in the lineup card: center Connor Lew and tight end Erick All Jr., both coming off torn ACLs, started the game, per the team's recap — first game action for two names the summer had filed under losses.

The absence ledger, briefly. Rookie edge Shemar Stewart spent the week on the rehab field and remains weeks away from full participation, per Russell Heltman at Bengals On SI — the knee is reportedly ahead of schedule, but there is still no return window. Safeties Dax Hill and Bryan Cook also worked the rehab field and sat Saturday; Taylor, per Heltman: "They will not play in this game, so we'll get them through the week and then see where that lands going into next week." On the plus side of the ledger, defensive tackle B.J. Hill passed his physical and came off the active/physically-unable-to-perform list, per the team's August 15 announcement.

Back in July we previewed Cincinnati as the rare team whose case was entirely causal — no luck to give back in last year's six-and-11, so the playoff argument came down to a healthy Burrow plus a defense rebuilt by checkbook from 20-ninth toward the middle — and we've been checking that preview against camp every week, with one more check before the season. This week fed both causes: the expensive front finally got extended reps against another team's starters and dominated them, and Burrow put a full joint-practice workload on the repaired foot without incident. The remaining asterisks are the unwitnessed pieces, not the witnessed ones.

What to watch next: Stewart's designation when the roster cuts to 53 on Sunday, August 30 — a spot on the initial roster reads very differently than a reserve list — and whether Meyers's month survives the numbers game at receiver on cut day. We'll check after cut day.

_Data via nflverse._