The Cincinnati Bengals lost Ja’Marr Chase and outright lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars 22-17 on Sunday.
A struggling defense made some key mistakes on its home turf and quarterback Joe Burrow threw multiple interceptions behind an offensive line shaky from injury.
The Jaguars eventually pulled away late in the fourth quarter, dropping the Bengals to 2-2.
Here are some quick notes, stats to know and takeaways from the game.
Jaguars vs. Bengals notes
- Bengals defense had a rough go in the first half. Besides Boye Mafe’s constant pressure, weak spots like Jordan Battle and Demetrius Knight missed tackles and/or had other issues. At one point, Knight was out of the game and Oren Burks was in the lineup.
- Dalton Risner limped off at one point after being questionable to play at all, which might explain some of the running game woes.
- The Ja’Marr Chase injury came on a flagged facemask, but the hit to the head and ground by the second defender is what likely caused the concussion.
- For what it’s worth, Joe Burrow’s interception happened as he was hit trying to deliver a pass.
- Burrow’s second pick, though, was a horrendous play in the redzone during the fourth quarter.
- Bengals entered the fourth quarter averaging…1.6 yards per carry. Enough said.
- The backbreaking Jaguars touchdown in the fourth quarter saw no Bengals defenders get very close to the ball-carrier, who scored from 25 yards out.
- Burrow did lead a scoring drive to make it 22-17, but the defense continued the poor tackling and especially screen defense. He did get the ball back one more time and drove down the field, but a fourth-down converstion with no timeouts left came up short.
Key stat
2: Number of turnovers by the Bengals. End of the day, those are going to swing these close conference battles. The Jaguars had zero.
Top takeaway
No excuses: Every team deals with injuries. Yes, the Bengals would have loved to have Bryan Cook at safety and to not lose Chase. But this was a perfectly winnable game with big mistakes from the expected
places, and the not-so-expected places.
What’s next?
The Bengals hit the road again to face their third opponent from Florida since the start of the season thanks to a Week 5 encounter with the Miami Dolphins.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Instant analysis after Bengals' comeback bid vs. Jaguars falls short
