Two halves, two completely different football teams. For 30 minutes on Sunday, the Bengals looked like they were still on their bye week. For the next 30, they looked like the best team in the AFC North.
The final score was 35-13. Cincinnati improved to 4-2 and finally got that first division win. But a game like this deserves a full breakdown, warts and all.
Let’s get into it.
The Good
Second-half Joe. After halftime, Joe Burrow went 16-of-18 for 249 yards and four touchdowns, which is a perfect 158.3 passer
rating. The Bengals scored on five straight possessions and put up 298 yards and 19 first downs in the second half alone. Burrow finished 22-of-30 for 292 yards and four scores. He has 15 touchdown passes through six games, his most ever at this point in a season.
Tee Higgins shows up when it counts. Higgins was shut out in the first half. In the second, he caught six passes for 148 yards, including a 44-yarder and the 13-yard go-ahead touchdown. That’s his 17th career 100-yard game, and he went over 6,000 career receiving yards in the process.
No. 1 talks, No. 1 delivers. Burrow credited Ja’Marr Chase for lighting a fire at halftime. Chase then put the exclamation point on it with a 2-yard touchdown in the fourth, his 10th career score against Baltimore.
The defense slammed the door. Baltimore didn’t score after halftime. It managed five first downs on six second-half drives and turned it over on downs on a fourth-and-2 at the Bengals’ 12 while trailing by a point. The Bengals scored on the very next drive. For the day, Huntley was sacked four times, with Boye Mafe, Dexter Lawrence II and rookie Cashius Howell (his first career sack) all getting home. Demetrius Knight Jr. added an interception.
Derrick Henry, bottled up. Henry ran 17 times for 45 yards, a 2.6 average, and the Ravens averaged 3.1 yards a carry as a team. When you hold King Henry under 50 yards, you’re doing something right up front.
Tight ends and the punter. Mike Gesicki (6-yard touchdown, his fourth straight game with a score) and Drew Sample (16-yard touchdown) each found the end zone. Ryan Rehkow dropped all four of his punts inside the 20.
The Bad
The run game is still stuck in neutral. Chase Brown had 11 carries for 39 yards, and the backs combined for 61 yards on 18 carries. Samaje Perine did punch in a touchdown. The passing game carried this one, but you can’t count on Burrow throwing for four touchdowns in a half every week. This offense needs to be able to run the ball when it has to.
Huntley had a career day. A backup quarterback, with Lamar Jackson out for a third straight game, threw for a career-high 298 yards against this defense. Zay Flowers caught eight passes for 137 yards, including a 48-yard screen for a touchdown on Baltimore’s first drive. The second half was great. But the secondary gave up too many explosive plays early, and a better quarterback makes them pay.
Baltimore let them off the hook. Baltimore had two red-zone trips in the first half that ended in field goals instead of touchdowns, and the Ravens committed 10 penalties for 57 yards. They also were in chip-shot field-goal range to begin the fourth quarter but opted to go for it on fourth down and failed. If they cash in on even one of those trips, this is a much tighter game.
The Ugly
That first half. There’s no way to dress this up. At halftime:
- Burrow was 6-of-12 for 43 yards.
- The Bengals had two first downs and crossed midfield once.
- Baltimore outgained them 258 to 59.
- The Ravens ran 39 plays to Cincinnati’s 19 and held the ball for 22:20 of the first 30 minutes.
- Baltimore converted 8 of 11 third downs, its most in a first half since 2018.
- Higgins didn’t have a catch.
FOX19’s Jeremy Rauch called it “arguably the most incompetent half in the Joe Burrow era,” and I’m not going to argue with him. The defense couldn’t get off the field, and the offense couldn’t stay on it. That’s how you end up down 13-0 to a team starting its backup quarterback.
The Bengals got away with it this time. They won’t against Buffalo, Kansas City, or anybody else they might see in January. The comeback deserves the headlines, but the coaching staff needs to spend this week figuring out why this team keeps coming out flat.
Injuries and Erick All Jr. on I.R.: The safety position got banged up in this one, with Bryan Cook, Kyle Dugger, and Jordan Battle all getting dinged up in one form or another. Cook and Battle returned, but Dugger has a lingering injury.
All landed on Injured Reserve this week, with the fear being that he yet again tore the ACL in the knee he did so twice before. It’s a sad end to his season, after coming back ahead of schedule this offseason and integrating himself well into the offense.
