Coming off a tough home loss to the Packers, the Bengals flew to Detroit to take on the winless Lions in week 6. Going up against a weaker secondary and having Joe Mixon return to his full workload were two factors expected to work heavily in the Bengals’ favour this week. As well, the constantly heated debate of Chase vs Sewell was something to keep an eye on.
The Bengals won the coin toss to start, making it 11 in a row. The odds of that are 1 in 2,024.
Moving on to the game, the defence started out strong. Aided by Detroit penalties, they were able to force a three and out on the opening drive, setting up the offence at the Cincinnati 39. The opening drive for the Bengals included a 14 yard pass to Higgins and a couple of solid runs by Joe Mixon. Facing 3rd & 5, Burrow then took advantage of an excellent matchup. Chris Evans was lined up out wide against a LB, and Burrow was able to lob a pass to him down the sideline for a 24 yard TD.
After the opening TD, both offences had a lacklustre first half. The Bengals defence was rock solid. Awuzie was great in coverage, while Trey Hendrickson was getting around 1st round pick Penei Sewell. The highlight for the defence was a Logan Wilson interception. The initial ruling was that Amon-Ra St. Brown was down by contact, but after Zac Taylor threw the challenge flag, it was determined that Wilson had come up with the ball.
Wanting to take some momentum into the half, the Bengals went on a quick 9 play drive in only 1:21. They started at their own 24, but soon ended up at the 40. After a questionable throw that was almost picked off, Burrow shook it off and found Ja’Marr Chase deep down the right sideline for 34 yards. Yes, another game, another deep pass to Chase. This helped set up an Evan McPherson field goal. The Bengals led 10-0 at the half.
In the 2nd half the Bengals took over, dominating both sides of the ball.
The opening drive on offence was all about Joe Mixon. After already rushing for 19 yards on the drive, Joe Burrow then found him on a well designed play action fake on 4th & 1. Mixon took the short pass and, led by excellent blocking by Chase, took it to the house for the 40 yard score. This made it 17-0 for the road team.
The Lions were unable to respond to the Bengals TD, instead going three and out. The Bengals got the ball back, looking to add to their lead. Early in the drive, smaller gains by Mixon and Higgins helped get the Bengals up the field. The smaller plays eventually set up a 23 yard pass from Burrow to Higgins. The drive eventually stalled out at the Detroit 22, but McPherson’s 40 yard field goal extended the lead to 20-0.
The Lions did begin to show some life on offence, as Goff was able to find his favourite target, TJ Hockenson, deep for 33 yards. But they could not get anything going on this drive, following the big play, and had to punt. In the end, the Lions put up a couple of garbage time scores. Dan Campbell decided to break the Bengals shutout by kicking a field goal, despite being down big. Finally, the Lions did manage to score a TD, via a D’Andre Swift TD. But by this time, the Bengals had their second team defence in the game.
The Bengals offence, meanwhile, also finished strong. They went on a long 95 yard drive that included a 53 yard catch by Chase, and 25 yards receiving by Chris Evans. The drive was capped off by a 2 yard CJ Uzomah TD.
Cincinnai’s final TD came with most of the backups on the field. Brandon Allen found Auden Tate for a short score off of a play action pass.
The Bengals 34-11 win over the Lions boosts their record to 4-2. They will head to Baltimore next week for a massive divisional matchup against the Ravens.
Modified Homescreen Image Via: All-Pro Reels (CC)