Bengals Week 2 snap count distribution: Tyler Eifert gets a huge bump in play time

The Bengals saw some young players get an increase in snaps after several big contributors went down during the game.

It was also nice to see those players make an impact with those snaps as well. Guys replacing Preston Brown and Michael Johnson really helped put the Bengals over the top. Shawn Williams return after being ejected last week also ended up being a huge difference as well.

Here are the snap count takeaways for Week 2:

• Michael Johnson (4) left the game early, which opened the gates for Sam Hubbard (49 defensive snaps and one offensive snap) to give Cincinnati fans a taste of why he was taken in the third round. He had 1.5 sacks on the night, and he was always around the ball when he was on the field.
• Shawn William (70) had quite the comeback game against Baltimore. He didn’t even get to 20 plays in Week 1 before he was ejected. In Week 2, he picked off Joe Flacco and then got a sack fumble deep in Ravens’ territory that helped seal the game for the Bengals. All in all, he really made up for missing Week 1.
• Overall, the Bengals still ran less plays than the Ravens. Cincinnati ran a total of 76 while Baltimore hit 85. The Bengals’ defense was better on third down, as Baltimore only converted seven of 16, but Cincinnati had their own issues, only converting five of 13. Not to mention the Bengals also forced three turnovers which helped close the gap.
• Joe Mixon (39) and Giovani Bernard (39) split the snaps right down the middle. That is a bit deceiving though as both running backs shared the field a couple of plays. The split was so close to 50/50 because Mixon dealt with a knee injury for most of the night. He missed several drives due to the issue. Both backs combined for over 100 yards rushing.
• Tyler Boyd (58) has cemented himself as the second receiver behind A.J. Green (69). He took advantage of his snaps by catching six of his nine targets for 91 yards and a touchdown. John Ross (45) was third in snaps for receivers, but he failed to make too much noise only catching one of his four targets for eight yards.
• Tight end continues to be run by committee. C.J. Uzomah (37) and Tyler Kroft (34) took a back seat to Tyler Eifert (49) this week after only receiving 22 snaps in Week 1. Eifert remained under his snap count limit of 50, and the other tight ends were benefited by the Bengals constantly going into two tight end sets. Uzomah was the most productive of the group though with three catches for 45 yards.
• Hardy Nickerson Jr. (84) only missed one snap while he was replacing Preston Brown, who couldn’t go due to injury. It was a pretty mixed bag for the young linebacker. He struggled a bit in coverage, but he was around for a few stops. Jordan Evans, who is playing in place of the suspended Vontaze Burfict, only played 22 of the snaps. Meanwhile, Vincent Rey failed to see the field on defense again in Week 2.
• Also for those keeping track, Cedric Ogbuehi and Christian Westerman were both still inactive again. Meanwhile, Alex Redmond (76) and Bobby Hart (76) both played the entire game.