It was indeed a bounce back performance for the Bengals. After all, prior to their win over the Raiders, it had been a while since they won a game. The let down loss to the Jets in week 8 and blowout loss to the Browns in week 9 were followed by the bye in week 10. It came at a good time. Right around that mid-way point where the rest might be a bit more meaningful than if it were earlier. As well, it gave them the chance to reset at a time they needed it.
They have had a somewhat puzzling trend of starting slow offensively, and that continued on Sunday. Their first drive resulted in a fumble that was returned by Vegas inside the Cincinnati 10. Luckily, the defence was able to set up the wall. The Raiders had to settle for a field goal.
The Bengals answered with a field goal of their own. The biggest plays of the drive were a 14 yard pass to Tyler Boyd and a 15 yard unnecessary roughness penalty committed by the Jets. It stalled out at the LV 36 and Evan McPherson hit from 54 yards out.
The teams would trade punts before the Raiders would go ahead 6-3 after a Daniel Carlson field goal. The Raiders had good starting field position, beginning the drive at their own 39. After a smaller string of modest gains, their drive stalled out at the Bengals 29. The field goal was from 47 yards out.
Cincinnat’s offence finally woke up on the next drive. Completions to Boyd and Chase got the chains moving early. Later on, Burrow was sacked on 3rd & 12, but an offsides penalty on the Raiders proved to be costly for them. Getting another try, Burrow hit Boyd for another 1st down. A few plays later, the Raiders would commit yet another costly penalty on 3rd down. Having gotten the stop, they were then called for unnecessary roughness, extending the Bengals drive and setting them up at the 11. Joe Mixon ran it in for the TD on the next play. That made it 10-6 Bengals, which is how the half ended.
The Bengals came out hot to start the half. They stopped Edwards for no gain on 3rd & 1, allowing the offence to get back on the field. On the ensuing two drives, the offence drove down far enough to kick two field goals. One from 53 and another from 51. The second one of the half was Evan McPherson’s third kick from beyond 50 in the game. Bengals led 16-6.
On their next possession, the Raiders showed a lot more urgency on offence. Carr hit the TE Waller for two straight big plays. One of 25 yards and another of 31. On the third play from scrimmage, Carr hit his other TE, Moreau, for a 19 yard TD. There was some confusion on the Bengals side of the ball. Logan Wilson eventually ended up isolated in coverage against Moreau, a matchup that Carr was able to take advantage of.
Looking to respond, Burrow found Higgins for 9 yards out of the gate, and then Mike Thomas for 12 just a couple plays later. From that point on, Joe Mixon would account for 27 yards on this drive, which would help get the Bengals all the way down to the 6 yard line. On 3rd & goal, Joe Burrow found Ja’Marr Chase in the back corner of the end zone. After making three field goals from beyond 50, Evan McPherson would miss the extra point, meaning the score was 22-13 in favour of the Bengals.
On the next Raiders drive, Carr was picked off on just the second play. It was Eli Apple who made a nice play in zone coverage. With the ball back, Joe Burrow handed it off twice to Joe Mixon. The first went for 7 yards, the second, a 20 yard TD run. 29-13 Bengals.
Down 16 late in the game, the Raiders began to drive down the field in an attempt to pull off a big comeback. However, on 2nd & 14 from the Bengals 21 yard line, Carr was strip sacked by Trey Hendrickson. Carr was scrambling to his right and Hendrickson was able to catch him from behind. Sam Hubbard recovered the ball and returned it to the LV 31.
The Bengals would then hand it off a few times before sending out Evan McPherson for one more field goal. He hit from 47 yards out. That made the score 32-13 for the Bengals, which is how it ended.
The Bengals improve to 6-4 and now sit in 2nd in the AFC North. A near loss by the Ravens almost had the Bengals back on top, but it wasn’t meant to be. At least not this week. The Bengals will head back home to Cincinnati to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in an important divisional matchup.
