Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis

Paul Brown Stadium
September 8, 2010

What have you learned about the team in the preseason that you didn’t know coming in?
“Well I don’t know that you knew what contributions some of the young guys would make. I think we feel pretty good about a few guys, and I think other guys will be making contributions down the line in the season when called upon. Through the preseason, we got a really long look at those guys, and that was good. We feel good about that. Obviously we have two veteran free agent players that joined us in Adam (Jones) and Terrell (Owens), and we feel really good about what they bring to the table, and how they prepare now. Those are the things you don’t know about guys – how will they prepare at this level, their ability to retain (information), adjust, and do those things.”

Can you explain how you’ve seen the chemistry develop between Carson (Palmer) and Terrell (Owens)?
“I think Carson has done a very good job of trying to immerse Terrell in the offense very quickly, almost to a fault at times. Carson has done a great job with that, and Terrell has worked extremely hard. Terrell’s a very good learner, and he spends a lot of extra time trying to learn. He knows he needs to be at the right spots and so forth, so it’s a good thing.”

With all the new weapons you added to improve the passing game, is this still a run-first offense?
“It’s still going to be a physical offense – whatever we have to do, we’ll do. We’ll still need to be physical as a football team.”

Talk a little bit about the Patriots, both offensively and defensively…
“They’re obviously a gifted football team, starting with the quarterback (Tom Brady). They’re a little bit of a different team the last time we faced them in the regular season (in 2007), but offensively, they haven’t changed a great deal as far as personnel, still with Tom Brady and a lot of the guys in the offensive front group (line), Randy Moss. (Wes) Welker’s been there three years with them. They’ve got some new guys – (Brandon) Tate, who they’ve added to the outside, who they basically redshirted last year. They’ve really got some offensive weapons – a good stable of backs, they’re kind of interchangeable for them right now. They do a good job running the football, and a good job on third down. They added Alge (Crumpler) at tight end, and then the two young guys (Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez) through the draft.

“On defense, it’s kind of a reconstructed group there. There’s a lot of youth, and a lot of guys we spent time evaluating for the draft. That group has changed, other than big Vince (Wilfork) in the middle. They’ve changed guys around from the last time we played them. And in the kicking game, they’re very strong. They’ve done a great job with returns this preseason, and they have two very good specialists (kicker Stephen Gostkowski and punter Zoltan Mesko).”

A coach like (Bill) Belichick loves to be flexible. Do you expect them to try to throw the whole playbook in with a young group?
“Well they’re going to do the things they’ve been working on, and we know that. They’re going to do some things that they feel are good to work against us offensively and defensively, and we’ve got to beat that. We’ve got to focus on that. In the first game, there’s going to be some unexpected things, some looks that are different than what we’ve worked on, and hopefully we’ll show some looks that they haven’t worked on, and we’ll go that way. That’s what opening games are. There’s been a lot of time and task on this one, and you’ve got to go from there.”

Talk about your defensive line – how you feel about them, and if you hope you’ll get a little more of a pass rush this year…
“We return a lot of the same guys. We’ve added two young guys (Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap) to it, and hopefully we’ll continue to play well.”

What has Jordan (Palmer) done to show you he deserves to move up to the number two role?
“I think he’s got a good command of the offense. He’s done a good job of getting the ball down the field when needed. We’ll just continue to groom him and work with him.”

How different is the Patriots offense with Wes Welker in there?
They had number 80, (Troy) Brown and guys like that that played those positions for them in the past and done a nice job. Wes is a tremendous football player. He does a great job both catching the football and running after the catch, and works well against leverage and so forth, so he’s a productive player.”

How does Fred Taylor look with that running game?
“As I said earlier, I think the backs are all good runners, productive guys throughout their careers in the National Football League.”