Bengals will look to defense vs. Giants
Jessie Bates and Vonn Bell, two leaders on the Cincinnati Bengals, recognize the challenge in front of them.
Joe and Joe are not walking through the door anytime soon.
Franchise quarterback Joe Burrow is out for the year and running back Joe Mixon is sidelined because of a right foot injury. As a consequence, Bates, Bell and the Bengals defense has to step up to aid the team’s hobbled offense, beginning Sunday with a game against the New York Giants.
“It goes around to consistency. Especially now with (Burrow) being hurt,” Bates said. “The standard for the defense just has to raise 10 times more with that part being out. That’s something that’s not a secret. (It’s) something we have to address in the room: we are going to win games because of our defense these next couple weeks.”
The entire team was listless once Burrow suffered an injury to his left knee in the third quarter of last week’s 20-9 loss to Washington, which scored 13 unanswered points after Burrow left the game.
If the Bengals want to increase their win total, the defense can ill afford to be poor the rest of the way.
“We don’t have any time to hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves,” Bengals second-year coach Zac Taylor said.
Cincinnati comes into Sunday’s game with the 26th-ranked defense in the NFL. They are tied for sixth in lowest opponent completion percentage (63.0) and tied for ninth in interceptions (nine).
Bates has a team-leading three interceptions and 13 pass deflections, while Bell’s 74 tackles are a team-high. Bates and Bell have played well this year, but the duo and the entire defense have to raise their level even more now.
“What an opportunity. We just got to go out there try for each other, hold the next man accountable and really play for one another for the bigger purposes,” Bell said.
The Bengals will face a Giants team that is still in a playoff derby in the lowly NFC East despite losing their first five games. The Giants (3-7) have already beaten divisional rivals Washington (4-7) twice, and split games with Philadelphia (3-6-1).
But they’re not thinking about playoff possibilities yet.
“It’s kind of hard for us to look that far ahead,” defensive end Leonard Williams said. “If we do something like that, we might mess around and overlook a team.”
Like Cincinnati, New York is offensively challenged. It is without its best player in running back Saquon Barkley, who suffered a torn ACL in week 2. The Giants’ offense ranks 30th in the league.
Still, the Bengals are an underdog mostly due to the team’s offense being void of Burrow and Mixon. It’s a position the Bengals will be in for the remaining six games, but Bell believes the defense can rise up to the challenge.
“You go out there and do your job and go out there and play football. Let loose and get the ball back to the offense as much as you can,” Bell said. “Really be the spark plug. What a challenge. You just got to accept it and go out there and have fun.”