Burrow’s big night leads Bengals to win
In front of 63,198 fans at Paul Brown Stadium, the Bengals rallied from a 14-0 deficit at the half to beat the Jaguars 24-21 and improve to 3-1 on the season.
The game went down to the wire. After trading touchdowns in the fourth quarter and with the score tied 21-21, Joe Burrow got the ball with 5:33 to play and never let the game out of his hands, eventually setting up a 35-yard Evan Mcpherson field goal.
Here’s what we learned from the Bengals’ win:
Burrow has his best game
For the last three weeks, the Bengals defense has been carrying the team. Thursday night, Burrow returned the favor. He and Tyler Boyd, Ja’marr Chase and C.J. Uzomah carried the team in the second half, even without wide receiver Tee Higgins, who was unable to play with a shoulder injury. Burrow completed 25 of his 32 passes for 348 yards, two touchdowns, and more importantly, didn’t have one turnover. His best play came when he diagnosed Jacksonville’s Cover 0 look and was able to throw a jailbreak screen to Uzomah for 25 yards on second down from the 46yard line to set up the game-winning field goal.
“You guys have heard me talking about just having the playbook in the back of my head and seeing looks that I can take advantage of, and that just comes with experience,” Burrow said.
Boyd shows his importance
Without Higgins in the lineup for a second straight game, Boyd stepped up and caught nine passes for 118 yards. Four times he kept the offense on the field with third-down catches.
“He doesn’t care about his touches. He’s happy when his teammates get it done,” said head coach Zac Taylor. “He’s just a tremendous example of what we want to be all about.”
The defense made stops when it mattered
The Bengals defense had been a top-10 unit for three weeks straight, but in the first half, couldn’t stop Jacksonville running back James Robinson. Then it was Jaguars wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr. who couldn’t be contained. But when the Bengals needed to make a stop and give the ball back to Burrow and Co., they did. Cincinnati’s defense allowed just one touchdown in the second half and had a crucial goal-line stand at the end of the first half.
Linebacker Logan Wilson led the team in tackles for a second consecutive week with 10.