3 takeaways from Bengals’ loss to Ravens
The Cincinnati Bengals have not allowed a second-half touchdown this season, but despite keeping that trend going Sunday, they still weren’t able to avoid losing their third game on the final play of the game.
Justin Tucker nailed a 43-yard field goal at the gun to lift the Baltimore Ravens to a 19-17 win Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens now sit alone atop the AFC North standings, while Cincinnati’s two-game winning streak came to an end.
The Bengals offense struggled to move the ball for most of the game, doing just enough to take the team’s first lead on a 1-yard run by Joe Burrow with 1:58 left. Baltimore managed three first downs on the final drive to set up Tucker’s fourth field goal for the game winner.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
1. ‘Lack of execution’
The Bengals scored 10 of their points on drives of more than 10 plays, and they finally got the running game going a bit with Joe Mixon finishing with 78 yards on 12 carries. Joe Burrow scored on a 1-yard keeper after earlier this week noting how much he likes those plays because they are “easy first downs.”
That wasn’t the play call on another goal-line opportunity on Cincinnati’s last drive of the third quarter. After moving 73 yards on 11 plays, the Bengals had first and goal at the 2-yard line. The fourth-down call was a shovel pass to Stanley Morgan that fell incomplete amid heavy traffic behind the line of scrimmage.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor defended the play call, saying it was the right decision based on what they had seen on film from the Ravens, but it was poor execution.
“It’s a really tough structure of the front,” Taylor said. “So we feel good about some of the stuff we called. Obviously, it didn’t work. We took a sack on a specialty play, and then it didn’t quite go how we wanted to on the shovel [pass] on the fourth-down play. I felt comfortable with our package going in. When it doesn’t work, you wish you did something
different.”
Burrow thought it was a situation where Cincinnati needed to go for it, rather than take the field goal to tie the game, after already having to climb back from a 10-point deficit in the first half.
Taylor was caught on camera after the turnover on downs in what appeared to be a heated exchange with right tackle La’el Collins, but both players said they have a good relationship. Collins said “emotions were flying high” and he couldn’t remember
what Taylor was saying.
2. Defense still getting it done
The Bengals fell behind 10-0 early in the second quarter on a Mark Andrews touchdown reception on what seemed to be a missed assignment when Tre Flowers stopped following on the play, just before the throw from Lamar Jackson.
After that, the defense settled in and gave some life to the offense temporarily when Vonn Bell intercepted Jackson for Bell’s third pick in two games. That set up their first touchdown, and Cincinnati climbed back to tie the game going into halftime on an Evan McPherson field goal.
Baltimore had a turnover on downs and was limited to field goals on its next two drives to keep the score close enough for the Bengals to take a brief lead. Cincinnati just couldn’t get the stop to prevent the game-winning field goal.
Jackson opened the final drive with a couple passes to Andrews, then broke loose on a 19-yard run and was able to keep the ball on a few more carries to run down the clock before Tucker’s field goal.
“It’s really hard because you’re thinking about rushing the passer to end the game, but they got the whole rushing attack and all they need is a couple of yards,” Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “They have all the timeouts and stuff. It’s just a tough spot to be in with that offense. But you know, we could have avoided being in that spot by defensively, making some more plays, some missed opportunities, but we’ll look at the film and get it corrected.”
3. Tough break again
The defense’s play has been good enough to put the Bengals in position to win more games, but with the offense not clicking as it did often in 2021, they find themselves on the wrong side of scores.
Bell said it’s frustrating to play so well and not have more wins.
“It’s tough for sure,” Bell said. “We’re putting a lot of work in and going out there just laying it on the line for one another and for the team and I just thought the short end of the straw this week so we’ve just got to get back to work and just keep on going.”
Taylor said he told the players to “keep taking shots” because “these things have a way of balancing out.” Losing on the final play of games three times stings, but eventually those situations will swing the other way.
“Just a resilient bunch,” Taylor said. “We’ve been down in these games. We fight back. We can see the recipe for our success is start faster and play with the lead. We have to continue to find ways to do that.”