GREEN BAY -- The Green Bay Packers take on the Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati for their third preseason game Thursday, August 23rd. The teams will face off at Paul Brown Stadium at 6:00 p.m. Thursday. The Packers are 0-2 in the preseason -- falling to the Cleveland Browns and the San Diego Chargers.
Green Bay lost to Cleveland, 35-10, in the 63rd installment of the Upper Midwest Shrine Game in front of 68,201 at Lambeau Field last Thursday night.
Following that game, Packers Coach Mike McCarthy responded to any concern the team has to being 0-2 early in the season.
“We don’t brush anything off. I thought what was concerning was the final score. And that’s about as far as it goes. Because the reality of it was that it’s a preseason game. You play to win, but you have other objectives, you have other goals. The one main goal is to make sure you hit your target as far as how many reps and particular plays you’re able to get in this game. And I felt good about that because we needed a lot of information about our younger players and I felt we were able to do that tonight. So we’ll go through a normal Monday, in-season schedule tomorrow. The players will have strength and conditioning responsibility, we’ll look at all the tape together, special teams, quarterbacks, and offense and defense. I’ll give a final review of the game to finish up in team meetings. The quality might not be quite what we want, but we’ll let the film tell us that. But I was pleased with the way the team was repped today," McCarthy said.
The Packers and Bengals last preseason meeting came in 2008, when the teams squared off in the opener at Lambeau Field on Monday Night Football. That contest marked QB Aaron Rodgers’first NFL start (preseason or regular season), a game the Bengals won, 20-17.
The Bengals have won the last two regular-season meetings. Prior to that, Green Bay had won three straight.
The Packers will hit the practice field three times before they square off with the Bengals, with two of the three sessions (Sunday-Monday) scheduled for 11:15 a.m. and one scheduled for 11 a.m. (Tuesday).
This will be the final game before the league’s first mandatory roster reduction, one that requires teams to get down to 75 players by 3 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27.
Following the Cincinnati contest, the team will take two days off (Aug. 24-25) from the practice field before returning on Sunday, Aug. 26. The Packers will practice Sunday, Monday and Tuesday leading into the preseason finale. The Aug. 28 practice will be the final session open to the public.
Important dates to remember:
Packers Coach Mike McCarthy is in his seventh year as the Packers’ 14th head coach. McCarthy has led the Packers to playoff appearances in four of his six seasons as the helm, and the team’s four postseason berths over the past five seasons are the most by an NFC team.
Marvin Lewis is in his 10th year as Bengals ninth head coach. He has posted the longest tenure and the most wins (69) of any head coach in franchise history. His Bengals are among only 10 NFL teams to make the playoffs in two or more of the past three seasons.
The Packers close out their preseason slate next Thursday night against the Kansas City Chiefs at Lambeau Field.