I had the privilege to attend this week’s matchup as the Cincinnati Bengals traveled to East Rutherford, New Jersey, to play the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.

It was a mostly cloudy day with a slight breeze, but it was perfect weather for football. On the train heading towards the stadium, there were a lot of Bengals fans, and I began to wonder if there would be an overwhelming number of the Who Dey faithful taking over the stadium.

However, as soon as I stepped off the train, there was a sea of green milling around the perimeter of the stadium. New York fans are as loyal as everyone says, regardless of whether or not the team is winning. 

The Bengals looked like a completely different team this week. Both the offense and defense clicked in every way possible. The Bengals won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball and came out surging from the get-go, something we haven’t seen all season. They relied heavily on the pass game in their first drive, only running the ball once for a loss of five yards.

Fortunately, Burrow was on fire yesterday, as he only had two incomplete passes in the first drive. After a series of passes for an average of 11.8 yards per throw, running back Samaje Perine caught a pass for a 12-yard touchdown. 

When the defense came on the field, it was clear that this game wouldn’t be very close. The Jets offense isn’t anything spectacular, especially with Joe Flacco at quarterback.

The Bengals defense was able to rush the quarterback and break-up some big throws. The biggest threat to the defense yesterday was Jets rookie wide receiver Garrett Wilson.

Anytime Flacco would throw him the ball, he made big catches for a lot of yards. Fortunately, the only points the Jets scored for the duration of the game came from field goals, with the closest one coming from 40 yards out.

The defense also forced four turnovers yesterday, after only forcing one in the past two games combined. Trey Hendrickson had a monster game for the Bengals, recording two-and-a-half sacks while forcing Flacco to fumble three times. Flacco also threw two interceptions, with one getting returned for 47 yards.

By the fourth quarter, fans were chanting for backup quarterback Mike White to be put in the game. 

Joe Burrow had a great game, throwing 23-of-36 for 275 yards and three touchdowns. Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins were the two leading receivers with a small number of catches.

Boyd only had four catches, but he managed to come away with 105 yards and one touchdown. Higgins had five catches for 93 yards. Despite not having a lot of targets, both players made their mark on the game when they did have the ball. These two are tough, agile players, and it shows when they break multiple tackles after catching the ball.

Samaje Perine was the leading rusher yesterday, with 47 yards on nine carries, and a touchdown catch. After a rough first two games, it was evident yesterday that the Bengals offense has started to find their groove.

Even the offensive line has drastically improved since last week. Burrow finally had time to throw the ball, which was capitalized upon almost every time he threw. He was sacked twice, which is significantly lower than the 13 sacks he’d endured through the first two weeks of the season. Even when the pocket began to collapse, Burrow was finally able to scramble or throw the ball away instead of taking a sack. This is a great improvement for Burrow, and it is clear that this was a talking point in practice last week as we had not seen Burrow run around to buy himself time in the first two games of the season.

Two players that looked concerning this week were Joe Mixon and Ja’Marr Chase. Mixon averaged two yards per carry yesterday on 12 attempts. Not what you want to see out of your starting running back. Chase had the most targets of the game at 10, but only caught six of them for 29 yards and one touchdown. If these two can figure out how to find more success, the Bengals offense could be unstoppable.

Overall, the offense and defense worked together. Anytime the defense would force a turnover, the offense took advantage and put points on the board. You can’t ask for a better collective performance than that. Following the game, head coach Zac Taylor was asked if he was worried about his team after starting the season 0-2. He replied, “We knew we were gonna get a great performance from our guys and they delivered.” He’s not wrong about that. 

If the Bengals can continue to play as well as they did this weekend against the Dolphins on Thursday night, we will have an incredible game to watch.

Up Next:

Miami Dolphins (3-0) @ Cincinnati Bengals (1-2), 9/29 @ 8:15 pm EST on Prime Video