Bengals victory over Cleveland in season opener postgame review
Bengals beat reporter Kelsey Conway breaks down the Bengals’ victory over the Browns in the first game of the season.
Ask columnist Jason Williams anything − sports or non-sports – and he’ll pick some of your questions and comments from his inbox and respond on Cincinnati.com. Email: jwilliams@enquirer.com
Subject: Cincinnati Bengals are 1-0, should fans still be worried?
Message: You made a great point in your column after Sunday’s game: The Bengals will take an ugly win any day in a season opener, and fans should enjoy finally winning Week 1. Count me among those fans. But with the emotions wearing off from Sunday, should I be worried about this team?
Reply: Whatever concerns you had going into the season – if you had any at all – Sunday’s game should’ve done nothing to change anything. The Browns gifted that win to Cincinnati, and we really didn’t learn much about the Bengals.
The offense sputtered in Week 1. Nothing new there. Most expect the offense to be fully humming along in a few weeks.
No one should be concerned about Joe Burrow’s side of the ball. The Browns’ defense has always been a tough matchup for the Burrow era Bengals in Cleveland. I believe the Bengals’ offensive players have nightmares about Myles Garrett. Good news is the game in Cleveland is out of the way.
The Bengals’ defense is a different story. Major concerns remain. Yes, the box score looks good. The Bengals gave up 16 points. They had three sacks and two takeaways. The Bengals stopped the run.
But the Bengals’ two interceptions were gifts, balls that Browns receivers should’ve caught, got their hands on and tipped to Cincinnati defenders. Browns receivers also had back-to-back drops on third and fourth down early in the fourth quarter in Bengals’ territory.
Had Jerry Jeudy not dropped that fourth-and-5 pass in his hands over the middle – what looked like a routine pass and catch – we’re all likely talking about how the sky is falling for the Bengals right now.
The Browns may be the worst offense the Bengals will face all season. Cleveland has a 40-year-old quarterback and no star power on offense, and yet Joe Flacco and the Browns still put up 327 total yards. The Browns no longer have Nick Chubb, and projected No. 1 running back Quinshon Judkins didn’t play after legal and contract issues kept him out of preseason practices.
Nearly 300 of the Browns’ yards were in the air, exposing a secondary that the Bengals’ front office neglected to upgrade in the offseason. Perhaps the biggest red flag: Flacco feasted on cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt all game.
CTB is one of the players the front office thought new defensive coordinator Al Golden could fix after a rough 2024 season. Taylor-Britt thought his performance was bad enough to get ahead of things by going to Golden before Monday’s defensive meeting. Speaking to reporters, Golden said CTB told him: “I’ve got to do a couple things better, and I got you this week.”
We’ll see.