The Cincinnati Bengals won what might be one of the season’s most shocking blowouts with a 42-21 dismissal of the Carolian Panthers on Sunday.
Shocking, because the Bengals were flattened just six days prior in humiliating fashion by the Browns while falling to both 4-4 and 0-3 in the AFC North.
Suddenly, a 5-4 record at the bye isn’t terrible and one could argue the team picked up some serious momentum with the win over the Panthers.
Along the way, some key names put up huge numbers, some serious lessons were learned and the injury bug appeared to strike multiple times again.
Here’s a look at some key takeaways and notes after the win.
The Joe Mixon game
Who saw this coming? Mixon was under fire for his inability to break tackles and his rough pass protection entering the game. He leaves it with a broken franchise record thanks to five total touchdowns. He did whatever he wanted all day, running for 153 yards on an 7.0 per-carry average with four touchdowns. Through the air, he added four catches for 58 yards and a score, too. This is a major outlier, but if the Bengals are lucky, Mixon can translate it to future weeks.
The injury bug and depth concerns
The Bengals suffered two notable injuries, with running back Chris Evans going out with a knee injury and being quickly ruled out. The same — but with an elbow injury — befell first-round pick Dax Hill. That leaves the Bengals thin at running back and even worse off at corner. They’ll probably need to dip toes in free agency for help at corner.
Kevin Huber
The veteran Huber had another awful showing. He entered averaging 37.3 average net punt yards, 31st in the league. His average was just 40 over three tries on Sunday, landing just one inside the 20. It feels inevitable the Bengals promote Drue Chrisman from the practice squad during the bye week.
Evan McPherson
The outlook isn’t amazing here, either. McPherson missed a kick and extra point last week, then went out this week and missed his lone attempt from roughly 48 yards out. We could argue the change at long-snapper has thrown him off a bit, but we’re now nine games into the season. He’ll need the bye to reset for a strong winter finish.
How much will translate?
That’s the big question now. The Panthers had been playing better lately, but they are a struggling team that fired a head coach and traded away two stars. Mixon probably isn’t going to come out firing like this in every game by any means and some of the usual problems — like pass blocking — will again show up against better opponents. What’s encouraging is the better gameplan and execution while down some key players on both sides of the ball. If the team can translate this to after the bye while also getting healthier, they could pull off a similar run like last year’s 5-4 sprint.
In-game notes
— Bengals had a rough start with a penalty on the opening kickoff, yet it wasn’t a sign of things to come.
— Instead, Joe Burrow was in rhythm from the pocket and an embattled Joe Mixon-led running attack effectively moved down the field for a score on the opening drive.
— It was blatant very early that the running game was, in a word, unstoppable. Mixon did whatever he wanted on the ground, as did backups such as Samaje Perine.
— Mixon had four total touchdowns by the half as the Bengals jumped to a 35-0 lead.
— Zac Taylor’s gameplan looked much improved (suggesting the team might overthink the Browns).
— Bengals had some serious injury concerns in this one:
- Chris Evans was quickly ruled out with a knee injury.
- First-rounder Dax Hill was ruled out with a shoulder injury.
— Burrow left the game in the third quarter with a comfortable 42-7 lead.
— Jessie Bates got in on the fun with a pick, as did Germaine Pratt.
— Games like these are a great way for backups to get reps. Linemen Hakeem Adeniji and Max Scharping were out there flashing at times.
— There’s reason for concern with rookies Dax Hill and Cam Taylor-Britt given their rough showings over the last two weeks. The latter was in position to make a play on the football in the endzone in the fourth quarter but instead got Moss’d, giving up the touchdown.
