Cincinnati Bengals: 3 Takeaways from Week 3 loss vs. Panthers

Can’t Stop The Rush

As bad as Dalton was in throwing away Cincinnati’s final chances at victory, nothing killed the Bengals more in this game than their inability to stop the running game by the Panthers.

Coming in, it was a clear key to victory for them. Though their strengths on the defensive line laid more in pass rushing, they did enter Week 3 by allowing just 3.2 yards per carry to their opposition (one of the lowest rates in the NFL through two weeks) and at least few players on the line — particularly their stars — have really good run defense chops.

Not only was Carolina able to beat that supposed challenge, but they absolutely dominated the Bengals with their ground game.

For the contest, Carolina ended up running the ball nearly as many times (41) as Cincinnati had faced in their first two games combined (44). Not only that, but Carolina was almost exponentially more successful than either Baltimore or Indianapolis were able to be on the ground. On those 41 carries, Carolina racked up a ridiculous 230 yards — good for 5.6 yards per carry — and two touchdowns.

This yardage was built up on the efforts of two players: Christian McCaffrey and Cam Newton.

McCaffrey was the workhorse here. Of those 230 yards, he provided 184 of them himself (on 28 rushes and 6.6 yards per carry). This wasn’t bolstered from one big full-field breakaway, either; while McCaffrey did have a long rush of 45 yards, it was his only play of 20+ yards on the afternoon.

McCaffrey came to his huge total on the ground based on churning out chunks of yardage every time he got the ball and rarely going down for a loss. Including that 45-yard burst, he had 10+ yards on seven different carries (i.e.: one quarter of his total rushes). All of this was done while McCaffrey lost yardage on just one of those 28 attempts.

The second-year back got the yardage, but Newton was definitely the finisher. He ended two of Carolina’s scoring drives by plowing into the end zone himself for scores. He also had the run which essentially sealed the win. After Dalton’s third interception, Carolina was draining time off the clock.

On first down from the Bengals 37-yard line, Newton faked the handoff up the middle before quickly turning around and running into a completely open field for a 12-yard gain where he wasn’t even close to getting touched before sliding to a halt– essentially sealing the game in the easiest possible fashion.

It was a difficult loss, but Cincinnati is still in great position as they enter Week 4. Atlanta will pose their own set of challenges, but the defense will have a shot to show that this was just a negative blip of a performance and not the standard they follow for the scope of the 2018 season.