Chad Johnson Injures Shoulder In Poor Preseason Loss to Lions

The Cincinnati Bengals offense looked poor ... again ... in their 27-10 loss to the Detroit Lions.

The bigger news coming from the game is that Chad Johnson left the game after injuring his shoulder. He injured his shoulder on the Bengals first series when he attempted to catch a Carson Palmer pass. Detroit CB Brian Kelly laid a hit on Ocho Cinco (forcing a tipped interception) that landed him awkwardly on the field:

The Pro Bowl receiver rolled around on the field in pain for several seconds, then got up and went to the sideline. Trainers examined the shoulder on the field before Johnson went to the locker room for further examination and treatment. He was ruled out for the rest of the game.

After the game, ESPN's Bob Holtzman was told by the team that Johnson suffered a sprained shoulder and would not play next week.

Johnson had a different take, however, telling ESPN that he would return next week against New Orleans.

This is big news since Cincinnati's other Pro-Bowl receiver, T.J. Houshmandzadeh, has been slowed by a hamstring injury. After T.J. and Chad, no other wide-out has made any kind of positive impression (though rookie Jerome Simpson came alive in this game).

Right now, nothing on the Bengals offense is leaving a positive impression. Palmer was 6-of-13 for 50 yards and an interception in his limited time. The Bengals rushed for 100 yards on 21 carries, but 32 of those yards came on a couple of Ryan Fitzpatrick scrambles.

The line looked rough and allowed whomever was the quarterback dodging and getting hit by a Lions pass rush.

On the defensive side, the backups were bullied late in the game (especially the line) and the secondary just couldn't handle Calvin Johnson (who can?). There were more missed tackles, but it wasn't as bad as last week's embarrassment against the Packers. That complete buy-job on a Drew Stanton red-zone bootleg was horrible.

All wasn't bad. There have been concerns about if Fitzgerald can shoulder the load if anything happens to Palmer. He's looked pretty darn good in pre-season and adds some mobility in the pocket.