Cincinnati Bengals Beat Carolina Panthers Instant Reaction

Cincinnati Bengals On SI

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00:00And it wasn't perfect, but it doesn't matter. There are plenty of takeaways from this game.

00:04First things first, this Bengals often pick picked up the offense, picked up where it left off

00:08last week and they moved the ball last week. They played well last week and I look at the

00:13possessions and yeah, they had to punt on their first drive after picking up a first down,

00:18but there are two first downs rather, but then touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown.

00:23They score four straight touchdowns and you do that regardless of your defense, which I promise

00:29we'll talk about. And that includes touchdowns to end the first half and to start the second

00:35half. And you look up and you have a 14 point lead. You can build a 17 point lead. There's

00:40room for error for a defense that is clearly flawed. Still, there's room for error on a

00:46miscommunication with Burrow and Jamar chase when they could have put the game away earlier in the

00:50fourth quarter. All of those things matter always, but they don't hurt you as much when you have a

00:58lead and when you're playing from ahead. And that's what this Bengals offense did. I mean,

01:02you look at their touchdown drives and their first one was a short one aided by the Trey Hendrickson

01:07slash Yvonne bell forced a turnover, but this Bengals offense, a four play drive, 81 yards,

01:15eight plays, 46 yards, eight plays, 71 yards. These weren't these long methodical drives.

01:19They were quick. They were quick. They were moving the ball. They were efficient. Joe Burrow was

01:24dialed in and his final numbers. They're not going to wow you 22 of 31 to 32, two touchdowns

01:30and an interception had just over a quarterback writing just over 100, but he controlled this

01:35game. I mean, if he throws that touchdown to Jamar and Jamar cuts the other way and they're on the

01:38same page, we're talking about a guy that evaded the pass rush at the end of the third quarter,

01:43evaded it there on third down and, and finds Jamar chase for a backbreaking touchdown.

01:48Joe Burrow is playing at a very, very high level and it translated in the beauty of it for those

01:54wondering about the under center stuff. Remember that all off season, this team needs to play more

02:00under center. They need to be able to run the ball. Well, they did. And I think that's the,

02:06the big takeaway averaging four and a half yards, a carry today, 15 attempts for chase Brown,

02:1280 yards, 15 attempts for Zach Moss, 51 yards. Both guys had double digit long runs.

02:18Moss with a 13 yard or chase Brown with a 20 yarder in both guys produced at a high level.

02:23Zach Moss had 80 yards from scrimmage. Chase Brown had 92 yards from scrimmage. This offense

02:30that had Joe Burrow in Jamar chase and T Higgins on the field at the same time pulled Jamar chase

02:37pulled T Higgins on a third and four. As you're trying to extend the drive, trying to keep the

02:43Panthers off the field, they pulled those guys and Joe Burrow got the Panthers to jump offsides

02:47third and four, a huge part of that game because the ground game was working because this Bengals

02:53team was doing something that they haven't done in the past. They were using their tight ends again,

02:59Eric, all with four receptions, only 28 yards, but still those are big yards. This Bengals team

03:05showing a little bit of everything from Jamar chases, explosiveness, T Higgins, the possession

03:10receiver that he was, he had six receptions for 60 yards in the first half. Didn't have a catch

03:14in the second half, but you see, you can see the vision. You can see this offense and how good they

03:19can be because as good as they were today, there's more meat on the bone. There's plays that you can

03:24have back. There's things that they can work on. And so I look at Joe Burrow, not sacked by the

03:30way, and he's just seeing the field while he's moving. Well, he got stepped on by Cordell Wilson

03:35early in this game. And I was like, all right, how's that going to impact his mobility?

03:38He's probably going to be sore tomorrow, but that didn't impact him today. I thought that

03:44overall this offense, it's just a big step in the right direction. And I get it. The Carolina

03:49Panthers. You probably don't think highly of them. I get it. I understand it doesn't matter.

03:53I thought this offense played really, really darn well. We're going to get to the defense

03:58in just a second, get to a key injury as well. But the other thing that I want to hit on Jamar

04:05chase three catches 85 yards in probably the best touchdown of the week. I mean, this is just a,

04:12a normal pass from Joe Burrow to Jamar chase. And to me, this is what makes Jamar chase special

04:22is he can turn a normal play into a crazy play into an amazing play into a play that you only

04:27see in Madden when in full disclosure, Andrew Fox Miller, what me and Madden on Friday night,

04:33not what me, but beat me. And, uh, that's what he looked like is breaking tackles. Jamar chase,

04:38looking like a video game, a 63 yard touchdown at three catches for 85 yards is the fastest player

04:46in Bengals history. 49 games to have over 30 touchdowns over 4,000 receiving yards is only

04:52the fifth player to do it in NFL history in under 50 games. All right, let's get to the defense

04:58in this defense. It was up and down. And let's start with the, the bad slash good.

05:05The bad is the Panthers took the ball, went 11 plays, 69 yards, racked up three first downs

05:11and got the ball to the Bengals. One. The good news is Chris Jenkins made a huge play and not

05:16just Chris Jenkins. So did Dax Hill. Dax Hill makes a big play on Deontay Johnson to force

05:22them on the goal line to continue to go for it, to keep them out of the end zone.

05:26And then they go forward on fourth down from the one after the defensive line steps up once

05:31and Chris Jenkins steps up, wrecks the play. And this is exactly what you want to see from

05:36the young defensive lineman. Those are the type of splash plays flash plays that you want splash,

05:41flash, whatever you want to say at the water cooler on Monday, Chris Jenkins stepped up and

05:45made a huge play. And then the defense did what we kind of need to see the defense do, because I'm

05:51not sure they're going to consistently get stops, but they forced an interception and that set up

05:55the first score of the game. Trey Hendrickson tips a ball as Andy Dalton's throwing it. It is

06:00literally a pop fly to Von Bell who gets the ball and gets it into the red zone on the return and

06:07makes it easy for the offense. And then the Panther say, hold on, hold on. You guys aren't

06:12that good on defense. And they went downfield and scored twice. So Trey Hendrickson makes a huge

06:18play. Chris Jenkins made a huge play and you need those plays. The Bengals weren't getting those

06:23plays much in the first three weeks, those splash plays that change things and a fourth and goal

06:29stop huge, big play by Chris Jenkins and Trey Hendrickson slash Von Bell interception, huge,

06:36huge play by the Bengals tandem that has made so many big plays because then the Panthers go 11

06:42plays, 65 yards and score 11 plays, 70 yards and score. And that includes a fourth down conversion

06:47and just like that, it's 1414. But then Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense

06:50answered with back-to-back touchdowns to end the half and start the half to really take control of

06:55the game. And that's it. I mean, the Bengals defense is weird as it felt. They gave up 10

07:01points in the second half as crazy as it felt. And so you'll take that, uh, the, the downs play

07:08where they go for it on fourth down, shout out to Dajon Anthony, Dajon Anthony with a huge play.

07:13It looked like they converted the Carolina Panthers go for it on. And let's see the,

07:18the last play from scrimmage was the 35 yard line. So they go for it from their own 35 yard line.

07:27Looks like they're going to get it. And they don't get it because Dajon Anthony's able to

07:31poke the ball away. That was a huge heads up play by the rookie safety. But then after that

07:36Carolina responded with a touchdown, a field goal. And then here's the key situation.

07:43The Panthers get the ball back. They're down 3124. They get the ball back by the way,

07:47Ryan Rico, huge day. Ryan Rico was great. Tyson Anderson, great on special teams.

07:51They get the ball back at their eight and the Bengals don't give up any yards, three plays,

07:58zero yards, make them punt. And the Panthers don't get the ball back until it's 3424, uh,

08:03with a minute 14 left. That's exactly what you want. This defense gets got off the field there

08:09today. As annoying as it was, was a step in the right direction for this Bengals defense.

08:15Not perfect. Cam Taylor Britt. I don't know if he's dealing with a nagging injury issue.

08:19I don't know what's going on. Clearly doesn't look like himself, but overall this Bengals

08:24defense stepped up and made some plays that they, if they had just made one or two of those plays

08:28against Washington, one or two more of those plays week one, we're talking about a different

08:34situation. One more play a week too. And that's the difference between winning and losing between

08:40taking control of games and not between having a margin for error and not in this Bengals team,

08:45they played well enough today to win special teams. Really darn good. Evan McPherson, by the way,

08:50awesome. The 56 yarder. Boom. I know a lot of people have been wondering about him all. He

08:55missed an extra point. He missed a field goal and made a 56 yard on a 46 yard of the 46 yard to put

09:00the game away on Sunday. Huge, huge day for Evan money, Mac McPherson, huge day for this Cincinnati

09:06Bengals team wasn't perfect, but it's something they can build off of. It's exactly the type of

09:11win that can jumpstart your season, whether it's Chris Jenkins on the goal line, the interception,

09:17the Joe bro to Jamar chase. Well, the celebration was a lot of fun too. Today was a fun day for this

09:23Cincinnati Bengals.

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