The Cincinnati Bengals flopped in Sunday’s season opener against the New England Patriots, losing 16-10.
A day filled with mental errors, turnovers and head-scratching decisions dropped the Bengals into the “upset” trap, with the defense struggling and Joe Burrow’s offense unable to do anything down the field.
Here are some quick thoughts, takeaways and numbers to know from the game.
Quick Thoughts
- Rough first drive for Burrow’s offense, including what looked like a sack fumble. Notable was Jermaine Burton getting a snap or two on the second drive, while Ja’Marr Chase worked both.
- Lou Anarumo had a theme over the first two drives — send pressure. His defense struggled while attempting to fluster Jacoby Brissett, though some poor tackling (such as Dax Hill missing a ball-carrier in the backfield) didn’t help.
- Bengals were outgained 107-17 in yardage before going down 7-0 early in the second. Quick, stuttering drives for the offense and getting gashed on the ground were deja vu-inducing, yet not necessarily a sign of how things would go all game.
- Greatness to disaster in the second quarter — the best drive of the game for the offense resulted in a Mike Gesicki touchdown that was overturned, then Tanner Hudson fumbled while scoring a touchdown to lose possession.
- Week 1 blues personified pretty much all day. Charlie Jones broke off a big punt return early in the second half, only to fumble.
- Gameplan was bizarrely afraid of going deep until the second half, with Burrow rarely throwing beyond the sticks. Even so, the ground game eventually opened up for Zack Moss.
- An inability to create pressure seemed to play a part in the soft zone coverages that veteran passers were able to exploit. The Bengals desperately need someone besides Trey Hendrickson to reliably get after the quarterback.
- End of the game was a nice summary of it all: The offense couldn’t get any yardage when it had a chance to win, the defense whiffed tackles in the backfield when it needed a stop.
Key Stat
2: Number of turnovers for the Bengals, while the Patriots had none through the first three quarters and change. It doesn’t matter how bad the opposition seems going into a game, that’s a differential that comes up huge in close games.
Game Balls
RB Zack Moss: Say hello to the new lead back. Moss was the lone man carrying the team on his back to that first scoring drive of the day in the second half.
WR Ja’Marr Chase: Contract noise aside, he played and led the team in receiving, catching all six of his targets for 62 yards.
Top Takeaway
Limping out of the gates: Surviving Week 1 is usually the goal. It’s when all sorts of strange things happen as the hits start to matter. Given the silly happenings at wide receiver over the last week, the Bengals clearly had a hard time getting a proper offensive gameplan going. Fans have to hope that the early struggles of the last few seasons have all worked themselves out after just this game.
