Cincinnati Bengals: 3 Reasons for loss vs. Vikings in Week 15
By Kenn Korb
2. Driving Nowhere
That interception return touchdown was a damaging blow, but it was just the most glaring failure for an offense that did as close to nothing as they could muster. In the first half, Cincinnati went on seven different drives.
Care to guess what those drives became? Five punts, one turnover on downs, and the aforementioned interception-return touchdown. What’s worse: not a single one of those drives managed to survive for even five plays! Now, would you also like to guess how many yards they amassed on those drives? 42. That’s it.
This was an awful opening half, but this isn’t exactly a new thing for Cincinnati in 2017; in fact, despite a star receiver, a veteran quarterback, and a supposed cavalcade of talented skill position options at their disposal, the Bengals have been one of the worst offenses in the entire league.
Looking at their drive stats on Football Outsiders, only one word comes to mind: pathetic.
The Bengals have just a single area in that chart better than 20th in the NFL (surprisingly, it’s interceptions per drive); the rest fall somewhere in the bottom third of the league. Starting field position (20th), turnovers per drive (21st), fumbles per drive (24th), and points per drive (25th). They are better than only the Colts in Drive Success Rate (.663) — and that margin is as small as can be (Indianapolis’ DSR is .662 — a .001 difference). Here’s the most important cherry on top: Cincinnati is dead last in time of possession per drive (2:26), plays per drive (5.12), and yards per drive (24.80).
Based on all that, we shouldn’t be too surprised that the Bengals failed to put up a quality effort against an elite team. Even still for a notably bad offense though, this is an especially abysmal showing. Because of it, Cincinnati found itself down 24-0 in a hurry, on their way to possibly their weakest effort of the entire season.