Hill’s early TD helps Bengals to 30-14 win over Lions

Backup safety Derron Smith captured the highlight of the night when he picked off Lions backup quarterback Dan Orlovsky and returned the ball 60 yards to the end zone for the Bengals second touchdown of the night. Those same, familiar, seemingly unfix-able issues that continue to haunt The Pride haunted them in this game. He completed 8-of-11 passes for 90 yards, but threw an interception in the fourth quarter.

“No concerns, just a bad night”, he said.

The starting offensive line got some opening live action reps together and seemed to succumb far too easily to the Bengals’ pass rush. The Bengals head into this season with high expectations as always but they are also undergoing a bit of an overhaul, especially on defense as one of their top players over the last few seasons in Reggie Nelson bolted to the Oakland Raiders while Vontaze Burfict will be suspended for the stat of the season thanks to his antics in last year’s playoffs.

In shades of his longtime deep connections with Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford hit new receiver Marvin Jones on a deep sideline pass for 32 yards in tonight’s exhibition home opener against the Cincinnati Bengals at Ford Field. It’s not the end of he world, yet.