That’s about as ugly as it gets.
The Cincinnati Bengals were down 14-0 at the end of the first quarter with the Baltimore Ravens in town and it didn’t get any better from there. The final tally? A 43-19 blowout favoring the visitors.
It was mostly all bad from the Bengals, but we’ll include a few winners here to counteract the losers.
Winner: Brandon Wilson
On a date most of the defense was awful and the offense was so-so, the Bengals at least got another encouraging performance from Wilson on returns. It feels like he’s about to pop off a massive gain on each attempt. He finished the day with 95 yards on his three returns, averaging nearly 32 yards a pop.
Loser: Jessie Bates
Feel free to swap out almost any member of the secondary for Bates here. But Bates was disastrous in the opening quarter and change, misreading plays, missing tackles and seemingly whiffing on plays where the corner otherwise did his job well. That continued throughout the game, though he did pluck a terrible Robert Griffin throw for an interception late.
Winner: Ryan Finley
It wasn’t all pretty. But Finley had some bright moments and flashed some of that pocket awareness and keeping his eyes downfield that the coaches wanted to see. He made some terrible mistakes too — like the pick-six — but rookie growing pains on the fly with a terrible roster surrounding him were expected. Finley finished with 167 yards and the score and pick.
Loser: Zac Taylor
Safe to say the Ryan Finley experiment seems like it backfired. Taylor’s playcalls were questionable at times, even though it was nice to see him get aggressive on fourth downs with the game on the line. He’s also still not doing much for notable investments like Giovani Bernard and Drew Sample. After a loss like this, he might have to make some changes to the coaching staff if his message about accountability is supposed to stick.
Winner: Joe Mixon
Mixon showed signs of life in all facets. He was reading the field well while showing patience and it led to 114 yards on 30 carries (3.8 average). In part thanks to Finley’s mobility in the pocket, Mixon had some notable gains through the air, catching two passes for 37 yards.
