Over seven minutes still remain in the first quarter and the Cincinnati Bengals have already turned the ball over twice, fumbled the football that lost 18 yards, committed a handful of presnap penalties and had yet to record a first down. Dalton's second interception was horribly thrown, intended for Andre Caldwell, picked off by safety Jim Leonard who was over five yards away from the intended receiver. Leonard returned the interception to the Bengals 10-yard line and at this point you're thinking, "here we go again" not even caring that you're unintentionally covering a god-awful Whitesnake song.
With the opposing offense on Cincinnati's 10-yard line, the Bengals defense faced a challenge to prevent an early 14-point lead, hoping to avoid a repeat of last week. With 7:18 left in the first quarter, the Jets come out in single-back formation and a slot receiver on the right. New York attempted to score quickly with quarterback Mark Sanchez calmly setting his feet, against an ineffectual four-man rush, targeting Plaxico Burress in the endzone. Jonathan Wade forced Sanchez to add touch on the pass while Chris Crocker and Nate Clements quickly covered ground flanking the wide receiver, who watched the pass drop in front of him.
The razor-sharp teeth Bengals defense began foaming at the mouth. Five guys sit on the line of scrimmage with Rey Maualuga patrolling like a battle commander in the field. Tomlinson takes the second down handoff with the offensive line zone blocking to the left. Domata Peko drove Nick Mangold onto his heals into the backfield. As Tomlinson approached, Peko literally pushed Mangold into Tomlinson's flight path forcing the running back to halt. Peko held his ground as Tomlinson redirected to the right. Jonathan Wade covering the backside, helped Peko with his iron grip on the running back to complete the tackle. Two yard loss.
Third-and-goal at the Bengals 12-yard line and Sanchez takes the shotgun snap. Geno Atkins exploded into Jets left guard Matt Slauson, bull rushing him backwards, even though Nick Mangold tried to help. The pressure forces Sanchez up into the pocket, unable to connect with Tomlinson on a dump-off pass forcing the Jets to convert a chip-shot field goal.