CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bengals were in a game on Sunday that felt a little too familiar.
In many key categories, the Bengals outperformed the Dallas Cowboys at Paul Brown Stadium. It should have been enough to allow Cincinnati to snap its losing streak. Instead, the Cowboys won 30-7 , handing the Bengals their fifth straight defeat.
Under second-year coach Zac Taylor, the Bengals have been in a few games that they arguably should have won, including Taylor’s debut in 2019 in a road loss at Seattle. At the time, the performance indicated there could be good things to come for the Bengals under the young but unproven coach.
Instead, Cincinnati has four wins over the last two seasons and likely squandered their last chance at a victory in the 2020 season.
It should be noted that it’s hard to fault Taylor for how the Bengals (2-10-1) lost Sunday. Cincinnati was playing with backup quarterback Brandon Allen, who has been the starter since Joe Burrow was hurt on Week 11 against Washington.
Even with Allen, the offense moved the ball well early against a bad Dallas defense. But Cincinnati fumbled on its first three possessions, with two of them coming inside Dallas’ 20-yard line.
The Cowboys jumped out to a 17-0 lead and nursed the advantage to the finish. Even though Cincinnati had a sizeable advantage in total yards and allowed two offensive touchdowns.
The loss puts the Bengals in the driver’s seat for the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NFL draft. And while it’s unclear if Taylor is in serious jeopardy of losing his job after this season, Sunday’s loss is a reminder of Cincinnati’s inability to win games they probably should have over the last couple of years.
Troubling trend: Once again, the Bengals’ offensive line put their quarterback at risk. Allen appeared to suffer a right leg injury after taking a hit in the fourth quarter. For the second straight week, he was unable to finish the game and was replaced by Ryan Finley. In the previous game against the New York Giants, Allen had the wind knocked out of him on a sack and couldn’t continue. Allen tried to play through the leg injury but really struggled to move around before he was replaced.
Troubling trend II: Oh, we’re not done with the offensive line. It’s not just that the Bengals have struggled to protect their quarterback throughout the season. It’s that Cincinnati might not have the solution to fixing the line’s interior on the roster. Xavier Su'a-Filo replaced Michael Jordan at left guard, a move that was expected given the preceding week of practice. But in a surprising move, Jordan was inactive. The Bengals must figure out that unit no matter what happens with their coaching situation this offseason.
Eye-popping Next Gen Stat: The Bengals did not ask Allen to throw the ball downfield often. Of Allen’s 36 pass attempts, 31 of them were for 10 air yards or less, according to NFL Next Gen. On passes longer than that, Allen was 2-of-5 passing for 32 yards.
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December 14, 2020 at 04:01AM
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Bengals fall to Cowboys, stretch losing streak to five - Cincinnati Bengals Blog- ESPN - ESPN
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