49ers blast the Bengals in their home opener
San Francisco runs all over Cincinnati’s porous defense to embarrass Bengals in their home opener.
Cincinnati gave up 572 yards in a 41-17 loss and began hearing it from the home crowd in the third quarter Sunday afternoon.
49ERS 41, BENGALS 17
CINCINNATI — A week after a surprisingly strong performance in the season opener, the Cincinnati Bengals quickly got back to drawing boos from the crowd.
Cincinnati gave up 572 yards of offense and fell 41-17 to the San Francisco 49ers in the home opener Sunday in front of 50,666 fans at Paul Brown Stadium.
The booing became audible on the Bengals’ first drive of the third quarter after San Francisco had extended its lead to 31-10 and Andy Dalton took two sacks to force yet another punt. It didn’t get any better from there.
Here are five takeaways from the loss:
1. Same old defensive woes
Last year, the Bengals allowing 500 yards or more to their opponents in three straight games, and this contest closely resembled the woes of that defense. Missed tackles were a huge problem, and the 49ers quickly realized they could run the ball down the Bengals’ throats and then confuse them with trick plays.
Cincinnati gave up 259 yards rushing, and the 49ers averaged 8.4 yards per offensive play. Matt Breida rushed for 121 yards on 12 carries. Their third-string running back, Jeff Wilson, who came off the practice squad this week, had more yards rushing (34) than all of the Bengals combined.
The most telling play came on San Francisco’s first drive when Marquise Goodwin lined up at the tight end spot and floated across the field on a wheel route that no one saw coming. Left wide open, he caught the pass around the 20-yard line and took it in for a 38-yard touchdown.
“We never could stop the bleeding there in the first half,” coach Zac Taylor said. “They kept moving the ball, rushed for a ton of yards, that’s tough. Especially
the 49ers, when they can run the ball on first and second down, then it opens up all the play-action screens, all the things they can do to keep you on your toes and then it’s tough to get pressure on the quarterback when (you)are reeling like that. When they are playing with a lead, they are going to be tough to beat and we gave them a lead in the first half.”
2. Absentee run game
For a second straight week, the Bengals couldn’t get the running game going. That was somewhat expected in the opener at Seattle, but Joe Mixon came back healthy after an ankle injury in the third quarter last week and still managed only 17 yards on 11 carries with a long of nine yards in a full game Sunday.
The Bengals finished with 25 yards on 19 carries for an average of 1.3 yards per carry.
“It’s definitely frustrating to me,” Mixon said. “Honestly, I feel like Week 1 I got hurt, Week 2 that was a peon performance. At the end of the day, I gotta look myself in the mirror. How bad did I want it? Like I said, I don’t know what I gotta do, but I’m gonna get it done. I’m gonna figure it out.”
3. Mental errors
Taylor felt like the difference between last week and this week was mental errors — they didn’t have those at Seattle and he was baffled to see so many this week. Mental mistakes led to blown coverages on defense and penalties were a problem for the offense. It didn’t help that the Bengals had to turn to thirdstring left tackle John Jerry for much of the game and rookie left guard Mike Jordan left on a cart after a knee injury in the fourth quarter.
Left tackle Andre Smith, who has been starting in place of Cordy Glenn (concussion), went out in the second quarter with a right groin injury and returned briefly to block for a field goal but never again reappeared. He hadn’t been playing particularly well before his injury, either, as he allowed a sack, was called for a hold on what would have been Mixon’s longest run and two plays later was charged with a false start.
“I just felt like they got us a little rattled today,” cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick said. “We could have communicated better, executed better, but for the most part there wasn’t a lot they did. They just played hard-nosed football and took it to us.”
4. Dalton struggles
Dalton got off to a decent start, completing his first nine passes, but he struggled for a while after that and finished 26 of 42 for 311 yards with two touchdowns, four sacks and one interception. He badly underthrew Tyler Eifert as the Bengals were moving into 49ers territory late in the second quarter, trailing by 11 points, and San Francisco tacked on a late field goal to extend their lead going into the break.
Tyler Boyd still finished with 10 catches on 10 targets for 122 yards (one touchdown negated by a penalty) and John Ross had 112 yards and one touchdown (a 66-yarder late in the fourth quarter) on four catches. Ross had a 34-yard catch that he might have been able to turn into a score had he just kept running, instead of trying to make a move with two defenders to his sides.
5. Too early to worry
Ross’ score prevented the Bengals from suffering their worst loss in a home opener in franchise history (the worst was a 34-6 loss to San Diego in 2002), but that’s not much solace after allowing the fifthmost yards in team history.
Taylor was adamant it was a loss the Bengals “have to own” because they “weren’t good in any phase,” and players remain confident this isn’t the team they want to be.
“Right now there is no reason to jump off the ship and say we aren’t worth a (darn) because I know the work we put in,” safety Shawn Williams said. “We just have to put it together. ... Every Sunday counts. Yes, this counts, but it doesn’t mean we are out of anything. Everything we want to accomplish is still ahead of us. Tomorrow we come back in and fix it and go back to work.”