{"id":114456,"date":"2025-06-08T20:31:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T20:31:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/114456\/"},"modified":"2025-06-08T20:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T20:31:43","slug":"cincinnati-bengals-finally-nab-their-first-victory-of-2024-knocking-off-panthers-34-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/114456\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Bengals finally nab their first victory of 2024, knocking off Panthers 34-24"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no more stark example of the Bengals\u2019 early-season futility than this: They stumbled their way into their Week 4 game against the woeful Carolina Panthers, and Carolina had more wins on the season, since \u201c1\u201d is more than \u201c0.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Carolina tends to be good for what ails its opposition, and Cincinnati managed to pull out a 34-24 victory<\/a> for its first win of the season. Joe Burrow still lacks the sharpness of old, and the Cincinnati defense was far too charitable to former Bengal Andy Dalton, but a win is a win.<\/p>\n

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The Bengals were already facing huge odds to make the playoffs; only six teams have ever made the playoffs after starting 0-3, and only one \u2014 the 2018 Houston Texans -\u2013 has managed it since 2000. And only one team in NFL history \u2014 the 1992 then-San Diego Chargers \u2014 made the playoffs after starting 0-4. Yes, Cincinnati lost its first three games of the season by a combined total of 12 points \u2026 but there\u2019s no \u201cnear miss\u201d column in the standings. So until further notice, the Bengals are in a must-win situation from here on out.<\/p>\n

\"Joe<\/p>\n

Joe Burrow and the Bengals managed to hold off the Panthers. (Grant Halverson\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

(Grant Halverson via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sunday won’t go down in Bengals history as a pretty win, but it was a necessary one. The teams traded touchdowns for most of the first half, but Cincinnati took the lead for good one second before halftime, when Burrow found Zack Moss for a one-yard touchdown to go up 21-14. The Bengals would extend the lead to 31-14 before the Panthers got back on the board.<\/p>\n

Burrow finished the day with 232 yards on 22-of-31 passing, with two touchdowns. But he made some uncharacteristic mistakes, none more obvious or glaring than a fourth-quarter interception. Scrambling to elude pressure, Burrow slung a pass in the vague direction of Ja\u2019Marr Chase, but ended up lofting it right into the hands of Carolina’s Xavier Woods:<\/p>\n

It was a bit of redemption for Woods, whose missed tackle on Chase earlier in the game led directly to a long Cincinnati touchdown:<\/p>\n

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Dalton, meanwhile, was once again steady in his second start after the benching of former No. 1 overall draft pick Bryce Young, throwing for 220 yards and two touchdowns against one first-quarter interception. It wasn’t enough for a victory, but it was likely enough to keep Dalton in the QB1 role going forward.<\/p>\n

Opportunity still looms for Cincinnati, which faces division rivals Baltimore and Cleveland in the next three weeks, with an out-of-conference date with the Giants sandwiched between. The opponents will likely get tougher than Carolina, so now’s the time for the Bengals to step on the gas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no more stark example of the Bengals\u2019 early-season futility than this: They stumbled their way into their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[10122,228,1476,260,227,256,2296,7,519,253,1577,6,8505,3800],"class_list":{"0":"post-114456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-andy-dalton","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-bryce-young","11":"tag-carolina-panthers","12":"tag-cincinnati","13":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","14":"tag-cincinnatibengals","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-giants","17":"tag-houston-texans","18":"tag-joe-burrow","19":"tag-nfl","20":"tag-xavier-woods","21":"tag-zack-moss"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114649647395947969","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}