Cincinnati Bengals: 3 Reasons for win vs. Ravens in Week 17
By Kenn Korb
2. Opening Scores
Getting a score to open a game or a half is an incredible advantage on your opponent. At the start of a contest it allows your team to immediately work from a position of strength, and when exiting halftime it can work to either give/increase an already-formed lead or be the opening salvo of a comeback in the making. It can work wonders in easing the pressure that mounts on a team throughout a game, allowing them to function at their preferred pace and letting them influence the tone and flow of the matchup in their favor.
All of that is especially important to a team like Cincinnati. As I’ve mentioned just about every week it seems, this team was consistently one of the worst offenses in the NFL at embarking upon not only scoring drives but possessions that could get beyond their first ten yards (per Football Outsiders: entering Week 17, Cincinnati was 31st in punts per drive, 32nd in plays per drive, and 32nd in yards per drive).
Against a Baltimore defense which ended the season among the league’s best in numerous metrics (No. 3 in Football Outsiders’ Defensive DVOA, No. 5 in yards allowed per drive, No. 1 in turnovers per drive) and already embarrassed these Bengals to open the season, it seemed Cincinnati was going to need any and every advantage they could find to come away victorious, and getting points on the board to open either half would be a boon to their chances.
They wouldn’t make it happen once; rather, they did so twice. Boy, did they need it too.
Their game-oping drive was the anomaly of anomalies for the 2017 Bengals. Not only did they score, but the drive was textbook for what teams want to do on a solid drive. Of the eight plays on the 78 yard drive, only one was for less than six yards — and it came on a one-yard touchdown pass. Meanwhile, the team added in three 10+ yard plays (one by penalty) and picked up five first downs along the way.
The game-opening score was huge in allowing Cincinnati to hold the lead for the entire first half; the score to open the third quarter was even more seismic. A huge kick return and subsequent Baltimore touchdown right before half left Cincinnati ahead just 17-10; with the Ravens receiving the second-half kickoff, they could quickly turn a double-digit deficit into a tie ballgame.
Baltimore was driving to exactly that conclusion, but another series of Cincinnati anomalies came to fruition: an interception (only 11 total in 2017; tied for 20th in the NFL) by a cornerback (only five of Cincinnati’s 11 were by their corners) put an end to Baltimore’s drive. Not only that, but the interceptor (Darqueze Dennard) returned that turnover for an immediate score. In an instant, a likely tie game was flipped back into a 14-point Cincinnati advantage.
The 14 points to open the halves were of dire importance to the end game. Outside of those two scores, Cincinnati would pick up just 10 points on 11 meaningful drives before the miraculous ending.