Cincinnati Bengals: Big takeaways from Week 2 vs. Ravens

Let’s look back at the Cincinnati Bengals victory over the Baltimore Ravens in Week 2 and observe some notable takeaways from an exciting battle.

After a victory over the Colts to open the year, the Cincinnati Bengals were faced with a Thursday Night Football matchup against their rivals from Baltimore. After the Ravens’ demolition of Buffalo in Week 1, it may have seemed like this could quickly turn into a redux of the Week 1 from 2017.

Lucky for Cincinnati, the Bengals came out strong on their way to a second straight 34-23 victory and a 2-0 record.

Off their second win of the young season, let’s take a look at the major takeaways from this game for the Bengals.

One Line Blocked, The Other Did Not

Coming into this game, the single-biggest factor I was paying attention to was which offensive line would end up doing the better job at keeping their quarterback upright. It wasn’t the only factor in the final result, but it ended up being as instructive as I initially expected.

On Cincinnati’s side, we saw a group which had its issues along the way but saw its results be mostly impressive. Billy Price suffered an injury, which forced Trey Hopkins in at center for most of the night, and the right side of the line is likely going to be an issue all year.

Despite the built-in disadvantages, Cincinnati didn’t allow a single sack to a team which just had a half-dozen of them the week before. Hart may need replacing (though nobody currently on the roster is exactly an inspiring option to turn to instead), but assuming Price is able to return quickly and stay healthy, over half of the offensive line should be good enough to continue keeping Dalton on his feet.

The story was much different for Baltimore. Everyone on their line — even former All-Pro guard Marshal Yanda — found themselves firmly planted in a seat on the struggle bus. Geno Atkins had another excellent game, sacking Joe Flacco twice and racking up two tackles for loss and four QB hits. 2018 third-rounder Sam Hubbard got his first career sack. Carlos Dunlap batted down three passes, while Jordan Willis got one of his own.

Overall, Cincinnati’s defense had four sacks, four tackles for loss and eight QB hits. They couldn’t keep it up for 60 minutes (as evidenced in Baltimore’s comeback attempt), but they did enough damage along the way to help put the team up big and not give it all away.

There will surely be much worse days for that Cincinnati blocking group going forward, but because of their ferocious defensive line talent and depth, just about every team they face will have a mountainous blocking task ahead of them as well. It’ll give them plenty of opportunities to win as the season moves forward.