Bengals snap count takeaways vs. Jaguars

The Bengals had a very rough game on Sunday. We saw an Andy Dalton meltdown that won’t go down in his top five, but it did drop Cincinnati to 0-7. There are still some interesting things to gleam from the snap counts as well as a personal apology from a take last week.

Here are the snap count takeaways:

• Cincinnati was out snapped by Jacksonville (surprise surprise) 72 offensive plays to 82. This really isn’t surprising at this point. The Bengals were about a drive behind the Jaguars, and both teams had an extended drive end in no points (Jaguars turnover on downs on the goal line and Bengals interception i Jaguars territory), so that evens that out. It was the interception (that wasn’t returned for a touchdown) and Tyler Boyd’s fumble that gave the Jaguars a more sizable advantage. We can at least say this week the defense did its job and the turnovers killed the snap battle. The Jaguars were only four of 16 on third downs and one of two on fourth downs. Jacksonville had 22 first downs compared to Cincinnati’s 21.
• Apologies to Cincinnati’s coaches and Alex Erickson. Last week I questioned why Erickson was playing more snaps than players like C.J. Uzomah, Tyler Eifert, Joe Mixon, Giovani Bernard and Drew Sample. Well he showed us why this week after playing 68 snaps. He topped 100 yards for the first time in his career, and he single handedly gave Cincinnati life in the first half setting up their first score. He also accounted for more than 90 percent of the Bengals first half yards.
• Mixon (39) has every right to be frustrated with this offense. The Bengals as a team haven’t topped 400 yards rushing as a team over the first seven games. He only has 254 yards rushing this season, and the past two games only has 12 rushing yards. It isn’t like we’ve been playing the top rushing defenses the past two weeks either. The game plan and usage for Mixon and this running game needs recreated from the ground up. You may argue that it would be hard to do that midseason, but at this point they have nothing to lose. People will blame Dalton all day every day for his poor performance, but we know who he is. He needs talent around him, and a running game to play action off of would help. When Cincinnati is better off just abandoning the run, changes have to be made. Also, get Bernard (34) on the field more as a jet sweep threat.
• Sam Hubbard (74) has been a mixed bag of mostly good this season. He has been the one constant at defensive end this season. Cincinnati has also started to experiment with allowing him to stand up, which is an interesting thing to keep track of. Andrew Brown (68) got his first start as the next man up who was healthy enough to play. Anthony Zettel got 31 snaps after being brought in this week as well, which tells you just how thin this team is at defensive end.
• Linebacker rotations saw an interesting change. Nick Vigil (82) played every defensive snap. It was Preston Brown (49) and Germaine Pratt (22) who shared time on the field. Each had their bright spots as Brown was a big part in the goal line stand, and Pratt ad several plays he helped shutdown by being able to run with a receiver. LaRoy Reynolds, who had previously been playing a handful to a dozen snaps only saw one play defensively.
• Brandon Wilson (14) saw some playing time, which was probably an extension of the team being so thin corner back without Dre Kirkpatrick and William Jackson. B.W. Webb (80), despite playing with a cast, played almost the entire game. Darqueze Dennard (70) had quite the welcome back by also playing most of the game. Tony McRae (57) had an up and down day. He had one play in the endzone where he was late to his spot, and another where he let the receiver step in front of him when he had an easy interception.