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Bengals offense still seeking chemistry with quarterback Ryan Finley after two starts.
The Bengals’ search for their first victory matches their daunting probe for offensive identity. One week it looks like first-year head coach Zac Taylor’s staff solves one problem but then gets challenged by another. On Monday in the wake of the 17-10 loss to the Raiders that slipped through their hands at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum when it was in their grasp, it was the passing game that came under scrutiny.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor spoke with the media to discuss a variety of topics about the team's offensive struggles.
“The whole unit was responsible for the (lack of third-down conversions). He had some plays he certainly would like to do over, but I think everybody felt that way about themselves. You’re right. It did come down to those third downs for us, on both sides of the ball. They converted some that put us in a bad spot, and we didn’t convert when we were across midfield. That’s ultimately what got us. You could really point to a number of things: protection, drops, missed throws. They all factored into it. It wasn’t just one main issue. They all were part of it.”
Quick Hits: Trainer Sparling's Big Play
Bengals head trainer Paul Sparling is one of the best there is and next season he’ll be doing this in his sixth different decade. So when Bengals wide receiver Auden Tate scrambled to get back on his feet after Sunday’s diving 20-yard catch with 6:43 left, Sparling sprinted on to the field as if he were running back Joe Mixon getting to the edge.
Joe Mixon's return to the Bay Area was highlighted by his first rushing touchdown of the season.
In the Bengals’ last game ever at the shambling Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, Mixon, son of Oakley, Calif., gave them the 7-0 lead in a 17-10 loss. Mixon scored the Bengals’ only touchdown on a spectacular three-yard run he improvised. Twice. By reversing field and then heading on a beeline to give his mother the ball.
The Bengals defense allowed their fewest points of the year in Week 11 against the Oakland Raiders.
That’s what the much-maligned Bengals defense did Sunday during their last appearance in The Black Hole. But as if to underscore this season of bone-chilling uncomplementary football, the Raiders escaped with a 17-10 victory that, by all rights, the Bengals should have locked away.
Bengals WR Auden Tate escapes serious injury in scary play
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Cincinnati Bengals receiver Auden Tate says he's OK after a scary sequence Sunday that ended with him being carted off the field at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in the fourth quarter of Cincinnati's 17-10 loss to the Oakland Raiders.
Tyler Boyd: Bengals missed opportunities to get him ball in loss
I feel like I'm the go-to guy with A.J. (Green) down. I felt like [my] targets were not where they should have been. Because I feel that I'm a game-changer and I could have utilized my talents in any way to move the chains, and nothing was coming my way. ... The pass game wasn't what any of us anticipated it to be. So we've got to pick that back up ASAP. ... A lot of times where I felt I was open, I felt I actually got the opportunity, especially in the second-to-last drive in the red zone, there were opportunities to get me the ball, and we missed them. ... This week was down for all of us, not just (Ryan Finley).
NFL draft 2020: First-round order if the season ended today
The draft order is determined by record, and using strength of schedule as the first tiebreaker (record and strength of schedule are official tiebreakers to determine the draft order).
Fan pledged to live on roof until Bengals win, has been there 6 weeks
Lanham, who owns the Hog Rock Cafe, made a bet with a bar patron before the Bengals’ Week 5 loss to the Cardinals. He said that if the Bengals lost to Arizona, he would live on the roof of his restaurant until the Bengals won a game.
Bengals news: Zac Taylor won’t put Andy Dalton in over Ryan Finley
The fourth-round rookie playing in place of Andy Dalton has a two-game sample on his resume now and given the results, it has been fair to wonder if the Bengals might go back to the veteran.
Around the league
Mahomes: Chiefs' defense 'won the game for us'
For a beleaguered group, that had been mashed in recent weeks -- giving up 29.7 points per game (T-27th in NFL), with 3.7 touchdowns per game, a 115.3 passer rating and just one takeaway from Weeks 8-10 -- it felt good to make game-changing play after game-changing play.
Redskins RT: Haskins wasn't blaming O-line in video
"It wasn't him coming to us saying, 'Hey you guys need to block better,'" Moses told Kareem Copeland of the Washington Post. "It was him trying to figure out, he knows we're a veteran group and we've seen a lot of things. The things that he can't see, maybe we can see. I explained to him, like: 'Hey, bro, we're in a five-man protection and they're bringing seven. There's nothing that we can do.' We blocked the five, [but] there's another two that's free wherever they're coming from. With that understanding, we have to have something in place to handle that."
Matt Nagy not planning to give up play-calling duties
"What I would say is this," Nagy said, via NBC Sports Chicago, acknowledging that if he felt he was the problem, "I'll be the first to tell you, then we need to be better or if there's a rhythm to something. I have zero ego and I have zero care of giving play-call duties to somebody else. I really do not care about that, and if that's what we feel like from going through it that that's what we need to do, then I would do that, I really would.
Tyreek Hill suffers hamstring strain in Chiefs' win
The Kansas City Chiefs receiver left Monday night's 24-17 win over the Los Angeles Chargers with a hamstring strain in the first quarter. The team said Hill was questionable to return but the wideout never returned to the game. He stayed on Kansas City's sideline for the duration of the contest in full uniform but with no helmet in sight.