This weekend’s Battle of Ohio between the Bengals and Browns is a bit short on luster with both teams looking for their first win.
Bad feelings are still brewing, however. Bengals linebacker Rey Maualuga got the ball rolling earlier this week when he gave his largely dismissive impression of Browns rookie running back Trent Richardson’s running style.
“He can run you over and you can miss a tackle, at the same time, from what we’ve seen he didn’t do nothing spectacular,” Maualuga said, via CBSSports.com. “From running screens, missing passes, trying to find a hole when he’s running the ball. He just didn’t do anything spectacular from what I’ve seen. I’m pretty sure he’s going to want to get after it once he plays us.”
The comments made their way to Richardson, who told Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer that they were “very encouraging.”
“When somebody wants to talk mess, I mean, hey, that’s them. I let my game speak for itself, so if they want to see how mad I am, or how upset they got me about the comment, you’ll see Sunday,” Richardson said.
Richardson had a fairly disappointing debut performance against the Eagles with 39 yards on 19 carries. He did steamroll Eagles safety Kurt Coleman, though, and that’s got us looking forward to a moment where the only thing between Richardson and daylight is Maualuga. Should that collision go down, we’ll be interested to see just how spectacular either man feels when they make it back to their feet.