The Cincinnati Bengals emerged losers in the season-opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
While the Bengals entered favored, there was a chance the team would be just rusty enough to let a bad Steelers team keep it close despite the contest going down in Paycor Stadium.
And that’s just what happened, headed up by repeated mistakes from quarterback Joe Burrow and some straight-up bad luck in terms of injuries, highlighted by the problems on special teams after the loss of long-snapper Clark Harris.
While a loss in Week 1 is hardly the end of the world — the Bengals started very slow last year too — there are some notable winners and losers to point out.
Star: WR Ja'Marr Chase
Who else? The pass-blocking and passing attack struggled all day but not when the ball went toward Chase. He finished with 10 catches for 129 yards and a score on 16 targets. That doesn’t count the fact he probably had a touchdown that Zac Taylor didn’t challenge in time.
Stud: RB Joe Mixon
Mixon didn’t seem like he had an overly amazing day as a whole on first pass. But he was taking a beating in all facets of the game. While 27 totes for 82 yards (3.0 average) won’t blow anyone away, he also added seven catches for 63 yards. Not a bad day at work in a grind-it-out game.
Dud: QB Joe Burrow
Fans probably won’t like this but that’s just how it goes sometimes. Burrow himself took his performance and the loss pretty hard too. Some of this was on the offensive line but Burrow also just wasn’t seeing the field well en route to his 338 yards with two touchdowns, four interceptions and one lost fumble.
Stud: DE Trey Hendrickson
This could be pretty much any defender and fans wouldn’t be too surprised — the entire unit was that good all day. But Hendrickson was his usually disruptive self, causing pressures and even earning at least one holding call. He’s clearly picking up right where he left off last year and seems healthy compared to the playoff run, too.
Dud: Zac Taylor
We could spotlight rookie guard Cordell Volson here, but that’s a bit unfair since he was asked to go against Cam Heyward all game. Instead, we’ll go with Taylor, whose game management at times was rough. His offense and special teams (in an emergency scenario) weren’t ready to go, either. It’s by no means all on Taylor, but on the coaches and guys up in the booth too, but it’s his job to rip them out of preseason form quickly.
