First-Half Recap: Ravens Lead Bengals 14-7 After Two Quarters

The Bengals are trailing the Ravens by a score of 14-7 after the first half of play. The Ravens are set to get the ball first in the second half after they won the coin toss and deferred to start the game. The Bengals struck first but it was the Ravens who came back in the second quarter and took all the momentum away from Andy Dalton and the Bengals.

Here's a recap of the Bengals' first half against the Ravens in Week 11.

For once it was the Bengals who took an early lead over an opponent. After both teams went three-and-out to start the game, it was the Bengals who took an early seven-point lead after Jerome Simpson caught an amazing juggling 47-yard catch and a diving first down catch from Andrew Hawkins on a third down setting up a seven-yard touchdown run for Cedric Benson.

The Bengals took that lead into the second quarter and it looked like they might be able to pull of the upset if they continued to play the way they did in the first quarter, but the second quarter belonged to the Ravens and it all started with bad punt.

After the Bengals were stopped on a third-down play by the Ravens, Kyle Huber came on to the field and shanked a punt so bad it only went 15 yards setting up the Ravens on their own 45-yard line. That seemed to breathe some life into the Ravens. On a first down play from the Bengals' 35-yard line, Joe Flacco rolled out to the right and found Anquan Boldin in the middle of the field wide open. Boldin caught the pass and ran the 20 yards into the end zone without being touched until he was diving for the score.

The Ravens forced the Bengals to go three-and-out on their next possession and got the ball right back, this time at their own 34-yard line. However, after two straight passes to rookie wide receiver Torrey Smith, one for 14 yards against Adam Jones and the other for 49 yards over the head of Nate Clements, the Ravens had the ball on the Bengals four-yard line. All it took from there was back-to-back runs from Ray Rice for the Ravens to take a 14-7 lead and all the momentum in the game.

After the Ravens took a seven-point lead traded punts back and forth for a couple of possessions. The Bengals defense did a good job of stopping the Ravens offense but the Bengals weren't able to do anything on offense themselves. After their touchdown in their second possession, they punted five straight times and in four of those drives, they went three-and-out. The 23 plays ran in those five possessions only went for 38 total yards.

It looked like the Ravens were going to drive down the field and score again but Nate Clements picked off a very poor pass thrown by Flacco and the Bengals got the ball back with about a minute and a half left in the second quarter. After a couple passes, one to Simpson on the sidelines and one to Brian Leonard across the middle, they were able to move the ball across midfield. With seconds left and one timeout, Dalton rolled out to the left looking down field. He threw a jump ball up to Andre Caldwell in the end zone instead of looking for a safer pass that could set up a field goal. Caldwell was in double coverage and didn't even get close to the ball because none other than Ed Reed came down with the ball and ended the Bengals drive. That throw was one of the few "rookie" mistakes that rookie Andy Dalton has made so far this season.

The Ravens will get the ball first in the second half and it will be extremely important for the Bengals to begin applying some pressure to Flacco in the backfield and for the Bengals to get things going on offense. It wouldn't take too much for this game to get out of hand and for the Bengals to get down in too deep of a hole to dig out of. Right now, they're only down by seven and there's plenty of time left that this is anybody's game, but the Bengals are going to have to come out swinging in the second half to win.