Bengals Report Card: Grading the loss to the Jaguars

Here is the report card from the 23-7 loss the Cincinnati Bengals suffered against the Jaguars in Jacksonville on Sunday:

RUSH OFFENSE

The Good: Joe Mixon's 7-yard touchdown run was well blocked and Mixon showed great body control in lunging for the goal line to barely get the ball across before his arm was down.

The Bad: More of the same with the offensive line repeatedly getting dominated at the point of attack, leading to the team gaining just 29 yards while averaging just 1.7 per carry against the 32nd-ranked run defense.

Key Play: Down 16-7 midway through the third quarter, Giovani Bernard was stuffed for a 1-yard loss on first down, knocking things off schedule. And the Jaguars teed off after that, sacking Andy Dalton for a 9-yard loss on second down and dropping Bernard for a 5-yard loss on a third-down reception.

Grade: D-

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PASS OFFENSE

The Good: Tyler Kroft continues to emerge in Tyler Eifert's absence, catching a career-long 59-yard reception over the middle that set up the team's only touchdown.

The Bad: Ten completions, 136 yards (59 on one play), 1 of 8 on third, two sacks and pressure allowed on 27 percent of passing snaps, per Pro Football Focus. And all while the team's first-round draft pick John Ross watched – healthy – in street clothes.

Key Play: Trailing 3-0 in the first quarter, Dalton had Green open on a deep ball that likely would have been a touchdown, but he threw the ball too wide, running Green out of bounds in what has becoming an ongoing trend.

Grade: F

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RUSH DEFENSE

The Good: Chris Smith tackled T.J. Yeldon for a 4-yard loss and forced a fumble that Shawn Williams recovered to thwart Jacksonville's opening drive and snap the Bengals' NFL-record, 18-game streak of not recovering an opponent fumble. They also limited the league's No. 1 rushing attack to a respectable 3.7 yards per carry.

The Bad: Even after the Jaguars surprisingly benched starter Leonard Fournette 90 minutes before the game, the Bengals allowed 149 yards on 40 carries.

Key play: Late in the second quarter Carlos Dunlap dropped Chris Ivory for a 2-yard loss that would have set up a third and 7, but Andrew Billings was called for defensive holding. The penalty gave Jaguars a first down and they converted it into an 11-play, 37-yard drive to get a 56-yard field goal to up their lead to 13-7 with 23 seconds left in the first half.

Grade: D

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PASS DEFENSE

The Good: Jacksonville only had one pass play longer than 19 yards.

The Bad: The Bengals made things easy on Blake Bortles by allowing receivers to repeatedly run wide open through the secondary. Usually that's a by-product of heavy pressure, but not Sunday. The Bengals had zero sacks and marginal pressure.

Key play: Shawn Williams had a gift-wrapped interception at the goal line and dropped it, enabling the Jaguars to kick a field goal on the next play for their first points of the game.

Grade: F

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SPECIAL TEAMS

The Good: Newly signed Marshall Koehn made his NFL debut and first career extra point with regular kicker Randy Bullock out with a back injury, and punter Kevin Huber dropped three punts inside the 20 while averaging 48 yards.

The Bad: The Jaguars averaged 29.0 yards on kick returns and 29.3 yards on punt returns, including a 63-yard touchdown.

Key Play: Jaydon Mickens' 63-yard punt return for a touchdown was the dagger, upping the Jaguars lead to 23-7 with 14:35 remaining.

Grade: C-

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COACHING

The Good: Presumably some credit goes to the coaching staff for keeping the deficit somewhat within reach despite being thoroughly dominated in ever facet.

The Bad: Even though it was the mild-mannered A.J. Green, the ejection for fighting furthers the narrative that this is a team lacking discipline and composure, which is on the coaching staff.

Key Play: There's no way they could have predicted what was coming, but had the Bengals – who were getting the ball first in the second half – simply taken a knee rather than calling a hopeless running play at their own 21 with 23 seconds left in the first half, the Green fight and ejection never happens.

Grade: D-


Next game

Cincinnati Bengals (3-5) vs. Tennessee Titans (5-3)

When: 1 p.m. Sunday

Where: Nissan Stadium, Nashville, Tenn.

TV: Ch. 7, 12

Radio: 700-AM, 1530-AM, 102.7-FM, 104.7-FM

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