Cincinnati Bengals: 3 Reasons they lost vs. Packers in Week 3

1. Third Down Discrepancy

Third downs have been a key issue in every Cincinnati game this season. While their defense has been solid at forcing the opposition to fall short on the down (6-of-14 for Baltimore in Week 1; 4-of-15 for Houston in Week 2), the offense for the Bengals has consistently come up empty far too often themselves (4-of-13 vs Baltimore; 4-of-15 vs Houston).

This week, the team got the worst of both worlds. The offense began really well actually, converted four of their first five third down attempts into first downs. Those successes were integral to Cincinnati picking up touchdowns on two of their first three offensive drives.

After the hot start, however, the Bengals wouldn’t convert even one more for the entire game. A 4-of-5 conversion rate after three drives became a 4-of-12 rate by the end, with Cincinnati going 0-of-7 on third downs across their final eight drives.

The defense started out strong too — and the score followed. In the first half, Cincinnati forced the Green Bay offense into a 2-of-7 conversion rate on third downs. These weren’t just happenstance incompletions, either. Those stops resulted in two sacks, a tackle for loss, and a pick-six (plus a delay of game penalty beforehand). With those successes, Cincinnati led 21-7 at the half.

The second half saw the defense become less stingy, however. The 2-of-7 third down rate in the first half was replaced with a 5-of-8 one for the Packers offense; with it came four scores on Green Bay on six drives for the half (including overtime).

The ability of Green Bay’s offense to make things happen on third down — combined with Cincinnati’s inability to do so as well when their offense had the ball — in the second half shows the difference between a team with quality weapons and a team with a quality offense.

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Cincinnati has all the weaponry at their disposal a team could ask for. Their lack of quality game-planning, insufficient in-game adjustments, and (perhaps most importantly) a putrid offensive line undermine their ability to effectively use the skill position players they have in tow, however. Unless they manage to make strides in some (if not all) of those areas, this discrepancy in third down play will likely remain a core issue for them.