NFL Week 9: Bengals’ snap count distribution vs Jaguars shows limited chances for offense

In case you couldn’t stomach watching all of the game on Sunday, the Bengals lost to the Jaguars 23-7. It was a very poor outing for the Bengals where very few things actually went right.

The Bengals seemed to be afforded a bit of luck when Leonard Fournette was inactive for disciplinary reasons, but the Bengals still couldn’t manage to slow down the Jaguars for a lot of the game. The Bengals quickly had a frustrating inactive of their own as they made John Ross a healthy scratch.

About the only positive to come out of the game was that Andy Dalton didn’t get completely destroyed by the Jaguars pass rush that had routinely beaten up opposing quarterbacks.

It is obvious the Bengals have a lot of issues to fix, and some of those issues are obvious in where snaps were allocated.

Snap count takeaways:

• The most concerning takeaway from the Bengals game against the Jaguars has to be just how many snaps there were on offense. The Bengals had 39 total offensive snaps this week. This problem is shared with the offense and defense. The offense simply couldn’t get the ball moving Sunday. They had no answers for the Jaguars defense. The defense also couldn’t stop the Jaguars offense. The defense played 80 total snaps, and the Jaguars converted 12 of their 18 third downs. The Jaguars didn’t even have to punt until there was a bout a minute left in the third quarter. It is a huge issue this team has to find an answer for.

• A.J. Green’s (15) ejection opened up some opportunities for Josh Malone (31). Malone couldn’t capitalize on several down the field targets, but to be fair the Jaguars secondary is use to shutting receivers down. Ross was a healthy scratch in favor of Cody Core (2), because of his contribution on special teams. Core also missed a tackle on special teams that resulted in the punt return for a touchdown. Somehow Alex Erickson only got 13 snaps as well.
• Jeremy Hill was a late scratch, so Joe Mixon (28) started his first NFL game. He scored the Bengals’ lone touchdown on the game as well. Giovani Bernard (11) spelled Mixon, but was largely ineffective when the team tried to use him.
• Cedric Ogbuehi (39) played all the offensive snaps at tackle. The only position on the offensive line that saw a change was when the right tackle Jake Fisher (10) left the game with an Illness and Andre Smith (29).
• The Bengals continue to rotate corners. Dre Kirkpatrick (65) played the most followed by Adam Jones (48), Darqueze Dennard (42) and William Jackson (38). This rotating corners thing isn’t working if the way teams has been able to move the ball against the Bengals is any indication.
• Exhaustion set in on the defensive line, which is understandable considering the defense played 80 snaps in Jacksonville. Geno Atkins (56), Michael Johnson (56) and Carlos Dunlap (54) played most of the snaps. An injury to Pat Sims (6) allowed us to really see Andrew Billings (48) for more than a handful of snaps. Carl Lawson (17) was limited because the Jaguars were never in obvious passing situations. Ryan Glasgow (39), Chris Smith (26) and Jordan Willis (25) were rotated in regularly.