Cincinnati Bengals: Big takeaways from loss in Week 6 vs. Steelers
By Kenn Korb
This Offense Is Clutch
Despite the loss, the offensive side of the ball has to give this team something to be happy about. While the team couldn’t rely on their defense to make a stop at the end, right before that it did seem like yet again their offense would come through in the clutch and win it.
Down by six points with 3:32 remaining, the team had their backs against the wall; either they were going to score a touchdown here or they would lose, plain and simple. What came next was exactly what the Bengals needed.
The offense methodically moved themselves down the field early, converted a third-and-4, and then picked up yardage in chunks (14 yards awarded on defensive pass interference penalty, 16 yards to Tyler Boyd, 23 yards to A.J. Green) before Joe Mixon rushed the ball through a hole in the middle for the touchdown.
Had the defense held up their end of the bargain, this was a picture-perfect game-winning drive, the sort which would tell the story of Cincinnati’s success this season once it’s all said and done. That drive wasn’t the first time Cincinnati has been able to do this sort of thing this year, either. If anything, it’s been an exciting trademark for the team.
Down by six points as they entered the fourth quarter against Indianapolis, the Bengals scored 10 points on their final two offensive drives to turn a 23-17 deficit into a 27-23 lead before a Clayton Fejedelem forced fumble/recovery/return touchdown set the final margin at 34-23.
Baltimore made things close at the end in Week 2, but two straight field goal drives by the Bengals ate up nearly seven minutes of clock time while putting the Ravens down by eight points (which would’ve made them need to convert a two-point conversion to tie it on the following drive) and then 11.
We know Cincinnati scored that game-winning touchdown with seven seconds left versus Atlanta, but on the previous drive, they also scored a field goal while eating up over six minutes of the clock to keep the game within one score even after Atlanta would score a field goal of their own in between.
Against Miami the team came back from a 17-0 deficit to score 24 points in the fourth quarter, and while that was hugely fueled by the defense scoring twice the offense put together two scoring drives along the way (including a field goal drive to finally take the lead.
That should’ve-been-game-winning drive against Pittsburgh wasn’t even the only clutch moment for the offense in this particular contest, by the way: at the end of the first half, they answered a late Pittsburgh touchdown with one of their own. Alex Erickson made a huge 47-yard return to start the drive across midfield. Dalton went 5-of-5 for 44 yards. Green and Boyd each had two catches, with Boyd finishing things with an easy 14-yard touchdown catch.
There’s work to be done for the unit — sans Tyler Eifert, the offense hasn’t been scoring at anywhere near the rate we saw before he went down halfway through the game against Atlanta. But when they have needed to score this year (and are given the opportunity to try) they keep proving that more often than not they will get the job done.
Too bad the other side of the ball can’t quite say the same, because…