The Cincinnati Bengals dropped 34 unanswered points on the Buccaneers to overcome a 17-point deficit and win on Sunday, 34-23.
Buy Bengals TicketsCincinnati dominated the second half after looking outright terrible in the first, forcing four turnovers while Joe Burrow threw four touchdown passes.
It was an ugly game with an AFC North feel, yet a sixth straight win for a team with eyes on the No. 1 seed in the conference, not just the divisional crown.
Exiting the classic, there are good and bad things to point out as far as takeaways go, so let’s outline some of the notables before turning attention to the next game.
Tough CB games are going to happen
…and this was one of them. A team can’t lose a player as good as Chidobe Awuzie and just cruise. Ditto for Mike Hilton. Tom Brady diced up the defense often in the first half, exploiting the fact the Bengals started two rookies (Cam Taylor-Britt and Dax Hill). Luckily, not every team has Brady and they especially don’t have Mike Evans.
Concerns about a blueprint and injuries
The Bengals lost Sam Hubbard to injury, a concerning development considering Trey Hendrickson was already out. They need both guys for a key three-game stretch against AFC teams to close the season.
To make it worse, Cam Taylor-Britt suffered a shoulder injury late and was quickly ruled out, which is more bad news for cornerback depth.
Perhaps more concerning is the blueprint the Bucs wrote in the first half. They ran a ton of motion and play action, getting the ball out fast enough that the pass-rush didn’t matter. If better teams try the same thing, it could go much worse, so Lou Anarumo needs to have a counter-ready.
Anarumo props
We’ve often hailed (and mostly never jokingly, either) Lou Anarumo as a guy superb at second-half adjustments. He put on a clinic in that regard on Sunday, throwing more guys back into coverage in the second half and giving the Bucs fits.
He also gets props for accomplishing the feat without his top two cornerbacks and pass-rushers.
The Reader and Wilson show
DJ Reader, one of the league’s most underrated players, was personally responsible for two of Brady’s four turnovers. And Wilson, fresh off a 17-tackle game last week, had 15 more on Sunday, plus a sack and two quarterback hits.
Malleable
That’s the word we keep throwing out about the Bengals. The team can play with any opponent and boast a completely different look on a week-to-week basis. Need to run it old AFC North style? Can do. Need to air it out against the Chiefs? Done. Need an amoeba defense that can adapt to any offense? The Bengals have that.
This is what makes the Bengals arguably the most complete team in the league and Sunday showed it again. They hit halftime down big, switched things up. The defense showed new looks and forced turnovers. The offense gritted it out in really ugly fashion, putting up points in the process.
In-game notes
— Burrow’s woes with tipped passes continued on the opening drive. A superb drive was ruined by an interception off a tip at the line of scrimmage. He leads the league with 26 of those and five picks off tips. It’s a problem they’ve yet to clean up and why some of these games that should be blowouts have been nail-biters.
— Defense got steamrolled down the field before tightening up in the redzone and limiting the damage to a field goal. Bucs smartly called a ton of quick-hitters with motion and it tore up the unit starting two rookies at defensive back and missing their top edge rusher.
— Same story on ensuing drives. The Bengals were trying to cover their rookie defensive backs with more passive play-calls and Brady just bullied it, helping Mike Evans reach the 70-yard mark in the first quarter.
— Rough day for the offense until the final drive of the first half, too. But that final drive of the half was a beauty that suggested more to come. Burrow throwing a short pass underneath without timeouts was a major whiff, but three points to get on the board helped. Tampa Bay couldn’t handle the tempo look.
— Bengals got a huge break after halftime as the Bucs tried a fake punt and failed. But the Bengals could only get three points out of it, yet another missed opportunity.
— Burrow suffered a pinky injury on his throwing hand. Sam Hubbard was declared out with an injury, putting even more stress on a line already without Trey Hendrickson.
— Bengals got another huge break when Tre Flowers made an incredible interception of Brady, which the offense then turned into a touchdown as Burrow connected with Tee Higgins.
— Of note in a 17-12 game, Bengals were forced to burn one of their three timeouts when officials didn’t reset the ball properly. In the moment, it could amount to nothing — or everything, later. Zac Taylor lit into the referees for good reason.
— How about another huge break? DJ Reader punched the ball out of Brady’s hands, defense recovered. Burrow eventually hit Tyler Boyd for a touchdown, then Higgins for the two-pointer.
— How about another? After the Bengals took the lead, Brady and Leonard Fournette fumbled a handoff and Reader recovered. Burrow hit Chase for a touchdown to make it a 27-0 run.
— One more? Germaine Pratt picked off Brady, who was hit as he threw.
— Up 10, Joe Mixon really started breaking out as a rusher while the offense milked the clock, with some nice sledgehammer attempts from Samaje Perine.
— Bad news? Rookie corner Cam Taylor-Britt suffered a shoulder injury and was quickly ruled out, a potentially very serious problem for the final three games of the season.
— Tampa native Mitchell Wilcox caught Burrow’s fourth touchdown pass to put the game out of reach.
