The Jets (1-7) collected their first win of the season and spoiled the Bengals’ “Ring of Honor” game, celebrating the induction of former cornerback Lemar Parrish and offensive lineman and current team radio analyst Dave Lapham.
Cincinnati (3-5) was trying to get back to .500 for a chance to go into the Week 10 bye with a winning record.
The Bengals scored on six of their first eight possessions Sunday, but they couldn’t get anything out of their final two drives. Up until that point, the Jets had struggled inside the 30-yard line, but they turned around their fortunes in the fourth quarter thanks to a dominant running game Cincinnati simply couldn’t slow.
New York had to settle for field goals on three of its first four trips inside the 30-yard line, including twice after moving inside the 10-yard line, but scored touchdowns on its last three drives to win the game. Cincinnati was without Trey Hendrickson for the entire second half after he re-aggravated the hip injury that sidelined him last week.
The Jets appeared doomed early after Justin Fields audibled to a pitch wide right on a fourth-and-1 their first drive, and the Bengals defense quickly snuffed it out with Barrett Carter closing in for a tackle for loss. The turnover on downs put the Cincinnati offense on the Jets’ 35-yard line and set up Flacco’s first rushing touchdown since 2017.
After Samaje Perine came up just short of the end zone on a 10-yard run, Flacco finished it off with a sneak to give the Bengals a 10-0 lead with 5:35 left in the first quarter.
New York managed four times to draw back within seven but finally was able to turn the tide after making it a six-point game with about eight minutes left on Breece Hall’s 27-yard run. The Jets then forced a three-and-out, and that set up their nine-play, 58-yard game-winning drive.
Mason Taylor caught a four-yard pass from Hall to tie it up before Nick Folk’s PAT pushed New York ahead for the first time in the game with just under two minutes left.
Cincinnati managed just 20 yards on six plays the final drive. Andrei Iosivas couldn’t come up with a reception on fourth-and-9 with 27 seconds left, and that ended it.
The Bengals had led by as many as 14 points and went into halftime up 24-13 after the Jets scored on a walk-off field goal to end the half. Cincinnati’s running game took over in the second half, and it seemed that would be the key to closing out the game.
However, neither the offense nor defense did enough in the fourth quarter to get the job done.
Perine scored on a 32-yard run late in the third quarter and had another long run to set up Brown for a 1-yard touchdown run on the next drive to make it 38-24 with 10:24 remaining, and that was the last bit of success the Bengals would enjoy.
New York managed to respond to both of those scores with touchdown runs by Hall, coupled with a pair of two-point conversions, before Hall threw the game-winning touchdown.
Hall finished with 133 yards, and the Jets racked up 502 yards of offense, topping 500 yards for the second time in the last 25 years. Both instances came against the Bengals with the other in 2021. Fields, who had been benched the week before, completed 21 of 32 passes for 244 yards, despite being without leading receiver Garrett Wilson.
Cincinnati managed 181 yards rushing to build on its first 100-yard performance last week against Pittsburgh, and Flacco finished with 223 yards passing.
Flacco went to the locker room with a right shoulder injury right before coming back for the last drive. He said he landed awkward on a sack but was focused on getting back in the game and he feels fine now.
The Bengals are back home next week against the Bears before the bye.
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