When your offense is on the field for 58 snaps and the defense plays 75, that’s probably going to be a game the opposition wins. Somehow, the Bengals came close to beating the Giants in East Rutherford and fell by only one point to notch their fifth loss of the season.
Paul Guenther preached that there would be changes on defense leading up to this week. And there were. Margus Hunt was inactive for the first time this season and Wallace Gilberry saw a very significant number of snaps before exiting the game with a calf injury. But, those weren't necessarily the changes fans really wanted to see. Will Clarke also played more, as did Darqueze Dennard, but rookie linebacker Nick Vigil was not one of the players who saw an increased amount of playing time on Monday. Here's a look at our takeaways from the Bengals' offense and defensive snap counts on Monday Night Football against the Giants.
- Carlos Dunlap played 92% of snaps, which is a season high for the defensive end.
- Giovani Bernard again took more snaps than Jeremy Hill. It seemed like Hill may have been dealing with an issue in the first half, as he was used minimally before halftime. He may have gotten knocked into while on the sideline on a run by Bernard during which he toppled out of bounds.
- George Iloka nearly played the entire game (95% of snaps) before exiting in the final minutes with an injury.
- Vontaze Burfict played his best game of the season, and fittingly, was on the field for 100% of the snaps taken.
- Darqueze Dennard started earning some playing time back, but, he didn't perform particularly well and Josh Shaw ended up back in the game for more snaps than Dennard once again.
- Cedric Ogbuehi did not have a good night and was again benched for parts of the game in favor of Eric Winston.
- Rookie wide receiver Cody Core got on the field for seven offense snaps, though he wasn't targeted on any passes.
- Ryan Hewitt remained minimally used and was mostly in on short, obvious run plays. He played 10 snaps total on offense.
- Michael Johnson was questionable to play and has been highly inefficient thus far this season, but, he still played 75% of defense snaps.
Here are the snap counts on offense and defense for the Bengals on Monday night against the Giants.
| Position | Player | Snap Count | Percentage of Time |
| Offensive Line | Kevin Zeitler | 58 | 100% |
| Clint Boling | 58 | 100% | |
| Russell Bodine | 58 | 100% | |
| Cedric Ogbuehi | 40 | 69% | |
| Andrew Whitworth | 58 | 100% | |
| T.J. Johnson | -- | -- | |
| Jake Fisher | 9 | 16% | |
| Eric Winston | 18 | 31% | |
| Christian Westerman | INACTIVE | INACTIVE | |
| Tight End | Tyler Eifert | 47 | 81% |
| C.J. Uzomah | 1 | 2% | |
| Tyler Kroft | 23 | 40% | |
| Quarterback | Andy Dalton | 58 | 100% |
| AJ McCarron | -- | -- | |
| Jeff Driskel | INACTIVE | INACTIVE | |
| Wide Receiver | A.J. Green | 50 | 86% |
| Tyler Boyd | 32 | 55% | |
| Brandon LaFell | 53 | 91% | |
| James Wright | INACTIVE | INACTIVE | |
| Cody Core | 7 | 12% | |
| Alex Erickson | -- | -- | |
| Running Back | Jeremy Hill | 27 | 47% |
| Giovani Bernard | 31 | 53% | |
| Rex Burkhead | -- | -- | |
| Fullback/H-Back | Ryan Hewitt | 10 | 17% |
| ----------------------- | ---------------------------- | ---------------- | ---------------------------- |
| Defensive Tackle | Geno Atkins | 55 | 73% |
| Domata Peko | 36 | 48% | |
| Deshawn Williams | INACTIVE | INACTIVE | |
| Pat Sims | 24 | 32% | |
| Defensive End | Margus Hunt | INACTIVE | INACTIVE |
| Will Clarke | 30 | 40% | |
| Carlos Dunlap | 69 | 92% | |
| Michael Johnson | 56 | 75% | |
| Wallace Gilberry | 30 | 40% | |
| Linebacker | Karlos Dansby | 35 | 47% |
| Rey Maualuga | INACTIVE | INACTIVE | |
| Vincent Rey | 44 | 59% | |
| Nick Vigil | -- | -- | |
| Vontaze Burfict | 75 | 100% | |
| Marquis Flowers | -- | -- | |
| Safety | George Iloka | 71 | 95% |
| Shawn Williams | 74 | 99% | |
| Derron Smith | 5 | 7% | |
| Clayton Fejedelem | -- | -- | |
| Cornerback | Adam Jones | 75 | 100% |
| Dre Kirkpatrick | 74 | 99% | |
| Josh Shaw | 45 | 60% | |
| Chykie Brown | -- | -- | |
| Darqueze Dennard | 27 | 36% | |
| Keivarae Russell | INACTIVE | INACTIVE |