MINNEAPOLIS (WKRC) – Despite the Bengals giving up a pick six and falling behind the Minnesota Vikings 17-0 in the first half on Sunday, they appeared to be slowly working their way back into the game as they drove to the Minnesota 36 with two minutes left in the half before a chain of events sent the game spiraling out of control that leaves a lot of questions about them.
On 1st-and-10 from the Minnesota 36, quarterback Jake Browning threw a pass into the right flat to tight end Noah Fant, who had the ball stripped by Vikings cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, and he returned it 66 yards for a touchdown to increase the Vikings lead to 24-3. Rodgers also had the earlier interception return for a touchdown, which covered 87 yards, and became the first player in NFL history with two defensive touchdowns and two forced fumbles in the same game.
Then on the third play of the Bengals next offensive series, Rodgers forced wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase into a rare fumble (just the sixth of his career) and Minnesota’s Jeff Okudah recovered on the Minnesota 48. Three plays later the Vikings scored another touchdown to up the lead to 31-3.
The Bengals were not done with the buffoonery yet, because running back Samaje Perine fumbled on the next play from scrimmage and Minnesota recovered on the Bengals 47 with 20 seconds remaining in the first half. Vikings kicker Will Reichard then put the final touch on the half by booting a 62-yard field goal.
Instead of the Bengals pulling within 17-6 and maybe 17-10 by halftime and getting the ball to start the second half, they were on their way to the worst loss in franchise history, 48-10.
“I mean it’s 17-3. We’ve been in some of these games over the past several years that I’m thinking of as we’re going through that moment, and we just want points on the board,” said Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. “Love the touchdown, field goal would be great, and then use all the clock, get the ball to start the second half. Obviously, we had two turnovers there in quick moments that gave them a bunch of points. So that was a tough one that set us back there. I don’t know how clearly I can say five turnovers put you in a horrible spot, four of them in the first half, two of them for touchdowns, so that’s going to lead to a lot of historical issues, when you have two that suck the momentum right out of you, when you’re in scoring position and they get 14 points out of it without their offense having to walk on the field. That’s a blow to the gut , and the score is going to be ugly when that happens. Usually when there’s one turnover for a touchdown on the road is tough. Two is tough, but again, just three more on top of that.”
Browning struggled in his first start in place of injured Joe Burrow, completing 19 of 27 passes for only 140 yards and throwing two interceptions.
The first of those came with the Bengals trailing 10-0 and facing a 2nd-and-9 from the Minnesota 29. Browning stepped up in the pocket to avoid pressure and tried to loft a pass down the field to either Chase or running back Chase Brown around the 15-yard line, but the pass was tipped by safety Harrison Smith and intercepted by Rodgers, who returned it for the touchdown.
“The takeaway from the pick six is just knowing when to throw the ball away,” said Browning. “Thought I saw Chase, he (Smith) got a hand up on it last second. I think for me, it’s just finding ways to survive those plays with incompletions and throwing the ball away.”
Part of Browning’s struggles were because the Bengals were inept running the ball, which meant he was faced with a lot of third-and-long-situations. In the first half the Bengals were faced with the third down distances: 10, 8, 12, 7, 17, 5 and 8 yards. The Bengals rushed for a scant 53 yards on 21 carries, including three yards on 10 carries by Brown. In the first three games of this season the Bengals have rushed for 147 yards on 61 carries, which is 2.4 yards per carry.
“It’s hard to stomach it, especially me personally,” said veteran offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr.
Taylor hinted at changes needing to be made in the run game.
“There’s a lot we have to prove in the run game,” said Taylor. “It’s not pretty right now. We’re not going to run from that. We’ve got to really identify where we’re going to be in the run game, what we’re going to hang our hat on, who we’re going to run behind. I mean, there’s a lot of that going on that we gotta really sort out and identify problems and be able to correct them ,on the run and during the course of the week.”
The defense also played a role in the loss, especially early in the game, and then in the second half. The Vikings drove 64 yards for a touchdown on the opening drive of the game, and then put together touchdown drives of 74 yards and 68 yards on the first two series of the second half. Minnesota rushed for 111 yards on 17 carries in the second half.
“We got worked today, and you got to sit in it,” said Browning. “You got to go through those emotions of like, just being miserable, and then you got to watch the tape and find your key things that you need to focus on. For me to do my part and making sure that we move the ball better on offense and don’t turn the ball over and get some points up on the board, and so yeah, it’s kind of the same process whether you win or lose, but obviously it’s just much more painful when you lose especially the way we did.”
It was an ugly way to fall to 2-1 on the season, but Browning had a valid reminder after the game.
“Very fortunate, it only counts as one loss,” said Browning. “I think cool heads prevail. Cool heads prevail but not letting that what we just put on tape, not letting that go unaddressed, and trying to remove the emotion of everyone’s frustrated. I’m frustrated. Nobody’s happy about what just happened. Finding the balance of like, knowing, sitting in that feeling, knowing how it feels, going through watching the film and addressing the issues, but not letting this emotion of how you feel after a game like that, turn it into a bad locker. I don’t think that’s the case at all. You know, we got worked today, but we had a lot of turnovers, and that’s kind of what happens. Trying to separate what you put on film from the emotion of how you’re feeling after having a very poor game.”
Taylor said he is trying to take the same approach.
“I think realistically, we need to look at why this game got away,” he said. “You’re going to hear me talk about these five turnovers over and over. It’s going to be easy to make this game a bigger game than that, but really that put us in a horrible spot to where, when you’re on the road and you give them the momentum like that, two defensive touchdowns, times we’re getting momentum and they’re punching the ball free and getting the ball, it’s tough to come back from that. And so it’s as simple as that. I’m not saying there’s not a lot we need to clean up in all phases, but that made the game really ugly, and it was hard to come back from. We just need to fundamentally clean some stuff up, be better with the ball security. And this is one loss. We have 17 games. Don’t let this game beat us twice in terms of our preparation this week and what the negativity is going to be. That exists. We put that on ourselves, and so we just got to do a great job sticking together, battling, and again, unbelievable stage to go on next week (Monday night in Denver) if we want to prove who we are.”
Turnovers or not, they have a lot of work to do to prove that.