The preseason’s third and final game, plus two weeks of preparation, are all that stand between the Cincinnati Bengals and the 2025 regular season.

The final practice of camp was held Aug. 21 across the street from Paycor Stadium. It featured an 11-versus-11 scrimmage that was comprised of 51 plays in full pads, and the defense allowed a lone touchdown throughout the exercise.

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The practice was the team’s last ahead of Saturday’s preseason finale against the Indianapolis Colts at Paycor Stadium (1 p.m.).

Play of the day at Bengals camp

The play of the day for the final Bengals training camp practice was an act in two parts. The first act was undoubtedly positive, and the second act was entertaining and uncommon.

During 11-versus-11 scrimmaging, Joe Burrow had a pass batted by Shemar Stewart. That was the positive part. The ball fluttered in the backfield, though, and Burrow decided to catch it and make something positive of the play. It wasn’t clear from the media’s vantage point if it ended up being a positive-yard play in the end.

You can certainly appreciate yet another attempt by Burrow at improvisation, even if doing so in an actual game situation would leave him prone to unnecessary contact (he hustled to the sideline and got out of bounds on this particular play).

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Defensive coordinator Al Golden was complimentary of Stewart.

“Ball disruption is a learned skill. It’s not easy, and you have to work on it constantly,” Golden said. “Every opportunity to disrupt the ball is an opportunity to give the ball back to our offense and that’s what we’re in the business of doing.”

Bengals DC Al Golden explains decision to not reveal too much about defense

Golden spoke to media members Aug. 21 and shed light on the decision to keep his defense’s looks relatively milquetoast through two games compared to what they actually drilled on during training camp sessions.

“Yeah, again, any blame on that (defensively) goes absolutely on my shoulders,” Golden said. “That’s a decision that that we made in conjunction with Zac and just trying to limit anybody’s purview in terms of what we’re doing. So again, from that standpoint, what we have to do better in every phase of the game is we need to tackle better. We need to take the ball away. We need to be situationally aware. All those little things are really what the standard is in terms of what we’re trying to get done in these games, but not necessarily trying to out-scheme somebody.”

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Fair enough. There’s rational thinking behind shielding the Bengals’ early-season opponents from valuable insights into how Cincinnati will actually operate defensively. If there’s an advantage to be gained there, even a marginal one, the Bengals coaching staff is well within their rights to attempt snatch that up.

Golden also believes there’s reason to feel confident about his unit. Enquirer beat writer Kelsey Conway wrote on this topic at-length.

Camp attendance

Guard Cody Ford, receiver Andrei Iosivas and defensive end Myles Murphy were on the rehab field at the outset of camp Aug. 21.

Linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. was held out from the day’s session due to a lower extremity issue, Golden said. Oren Burks played in his place.

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D.J. Turner and Trey Hendrickson did not dress for the session.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Bengals training camp observations before preseason finale vs. Colts