It was ugly. This game was extremely important, it was a battle of backup quarterbacks and Cincinnati suffered their worst loss in franchise history and there wasn’t much if anything to cheer about in this one. Here is what we learned from the Bengals week three loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
The Jake Browning struggles continue
As someone who had high hopes for Jake Browning, this shocked me. On Sunday Browning tallied 140 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions. Browning was coming off a week two matchup against the Jaguars that saw him throw not one, not two, but three picks and the one thing that Bengals fans were hoping to see less of was Browning’s bad decisions. You could say he improved by throwing one less interception but in my eyes it wasn’t any better. Since the loss there has been many posts of Kirk Cousins in a Bengals jersey, though I see that being very unlikely. If this continues though, I would heavily consider finding another quarterback.
Turnovers spoiled this game early
Five turnovers. No, you did not read that wrong. Cincinnati threw two interceptions and coughed up the football five times. Fortunately two of them were recovered but that didn’t change the outcome. Ja’Marr Chase fumbled once, Samaje Perine fumbled once, Noah Fant fumbled once, and Chase Brown fumbled once. Since week two Jake Browning has thrown five interceptions and the team as a whole has eight turnovers, which leads the league. Zac Taylor addressed the miscues going into halftime yesterday:
“Anytime you have four turnovers in the first half, two for touchdowns, one as you’re trying to run out the clock, it’s unacceptable.”
Run game is non-existent
Something needs to change, Chase Brown is a great running back playing behind a below-average offensive line. His stats from this game reveal it all, 10 carries for three yards. Wow. Samaje Perine, who they should utilize more than they do ran for 21 yards on four attempts. But you have to give credit to where it’s due. For the first two weeks of the season, the Vikings allowed 5.6 yards per carry. In week three, they allowed just 2.5 yards per carry, which was tied for first with the Patriots. The run game needs to be cleaned up because the Bengals cannot afford to throw the ball 40+ times per game.
We learned a lot from this game and hopefully there are better things to come for Jake Browning and the Bengals. Cincinnati goes on the road next week for a Monday night matchup against the Broncos, which will be another test for the Bengals. This game really showed that Joe Burrow may be the best quarterback in the NFL. And it’s not close.
