Bengals vs. Packers: Highlights, game tracker and more

The Cincinnati Bengals faced the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Sept. 24 in Week 3 of the 2017 NFL season. Here are the highlights from the game.

After a gritty win in their season-opener, the Green Bay Packers could’ve used a little more finesse in Week 2. They didn’t have it, though, and were run off the field by the Falcons in primetime. Likely angry, they headed back to Lambeau Field in Week 3 to welcome an ailing Cincinnati Bengals team. To put it simply, no team envied the Bengals on Sunday.

However, Cincy came out looking like a new team. After firing their offensive coordinator following Week 2 and having not scored a touchdown, they seemed to have new life entirely with the ball.  On their first drive of the day, the Bengals got things going immediately. Andy Dalton looked the best he has all season, while Joe Mixon busted out a big 20-yard run as well. They went 79 yards in 10 plays before Dalton found A.J. Green for the opening touchdown.

Always potent, the Packers offense wasted little time in providing an answer, though. Aaron Rodgers and his men went 60 yards in six plays on a drive spanning less than two minutes before the perennial MVP candidate found Lance Kendricks for the score to tie it up. After a punt for each team, though, Cincinnati was able to really take control.

Dalton again put together a nice drive for the Bengals, finding Mixon on two nice runs and then Giovani Bernard breaking off a big 25-yard run. Bernard was then rewarded to wrap things up as a he caught a six-yard touchdown from Dalton to go up 14-0. That’s when the Cincy defense got in on the fun. It looked like Rodgers was about to drive again to answer, but then a truly rare thing happened: He threw a pick. If that wasn’t rare enough, the intercepting William Jackson III took the ball to the house for a 75-yard pick-six, only the second of Rodgers’ career.

Things stalled out for both teams from there as the Bengals went into halftime leading 21-7 after a shocking first half.

Green Bay came out seemingly possessed from halftime as they were intent on getting back on the scoreboard. Rodgers marched 75 yards down the field in just over five minutes before finding Jordy Nelson for a one-yard score. Then, with the score at 21-14, things were all about defense for the rest of the third quarter as no one else scored. Defense was also the name of the game for most of the fourth quarter, with only a field goal apiece to speak of.

The Bengals’ field goal pushed the lead back to seven points, but gave Green Bay the ball with around four minutes left. As per usual, Rodgers started going to work as he both used the clock and broke off chunks of yardage. With only 17 seconds left on the clock, he found his favorite target, connecting with Nelson for six. Mason Crosby converted the PAT to send it to overtime.

Cincinnati got the ball first, but they couldn’t get a first down as rookie safety Josh Jones came up with a great open-field stop. However, the Packers looked as if they might be in the same position in terms of not having rhythm. That’s when the Bengals jumped offside, Rodgers noticed it, and took a shot deep. He found Geronimo Allison down the sideline, and the wideout almost took it all the way, but was tackled just short. After centering it, Crosby came out for the game-winning kick and split the uprights to give Rodgers his first-ever win over the Bengals — even if it was less convincing or as easy as they’d hoped.

Highlights

https://twitter.com/packers/status/912056862194798592

https://twitter.com/packers/status/912078639163875328

https://twitter.com/packers/status/912083312637644800

Next: NFL Week 3: One burning question for each team

On paper, this would seem to be a massive advantage for the Packers. As they say, games aren’t played on paper. The Bengals fought hard, but Green Bay was just too much on Sunday afternoon.