It’s hard to find a lot of good in the face of a Cincinnati Bengals drop to 0-5 while losing to an 0-3-1 team in 26-23 fashion at home.
But we’ll try anyway.
Coming out of the loss, a few guys stood out and a few more were notable duds, including a coach. Here’s a look at some winners and losers.
Stud: Brandon Wilson
Wilson had some brief shine a week ago in a loss and did even better this week. He got on the field as a returner after Alex Erickson’s injury and took his first attempt 50-plus yards. If nothing else, it’s nice to see Wilson is back to his college days a bit with good burst on special teams, which is important with Darius Phillips out of action.
Dud: Tyler Eifert
Another week, another Eifert mishap on what could have been a touchdown. In the third quarter, some sort of miscommunication between Eifert and Dalton occurred on what should have been an easy score. No dice, and Eifert finished with two catches.
Stud: Joe Mixon
Mixon erupted on the game’s first drive and didn’t slow much when the coaches actually put the ball in his hands. He’s finally back to form and finished the day with 93 yards on a 4.9 average. Impressive considering the state of the offensive line and poor passing game.
Dud: Auden Tate
With a chance to step up big thanks to the absences of A.J. Green and John Ross, then the injury to Erickson, Tate mostly fell flat like the other receivers. He finished the day with three catches on six targets and had a late score.
Stud: Sam Hubbard
Hubbard might’ve been far from perfect, but he was one of the only guys with consistent energy up front and the drive to keep after Kyler Murray. He was also the only guy to put up a sack during a woeful day for the pressure creators.
Dud: Andy Dalton
Dalton didn’t get help from his cast of weapons at times, yes. But he was again erratic, dropped a ball after a snap, missed on the would-be Eifert touchdown and more. He’s not meeting middling expectations, which is rough considering there was a hope an offensive-minded coach would help him make strides. He tossed two touchdowns late, but he shouldn’t have needed to escape the deficit in the first place.
Dud: Zac Taylor
The miserable quarterback shotgun run on fourth down in the third quarter is going to get a ton of attention. And that was terrible, undoubtedly. Fourth-and-one and the call is a shotgun QB run? But this has to span everything — Taylor was overmatched Sunday, which is concerning considering he was facing off with another first-year coach. The offense was mostly vanilla, besides on the game-typing score, drives weren’t sustained and the defense hasn’t fixed the obvious problems.
