Snap counts takeaways from Bengals’ win over Jets

We finally witnessed the Bengals first win of the season and Fans saw Zac Taylor’s team look like an improved unit for the first time all season. Some may try to diminish the win by saying the Jets aren’t a good team, and that is true. However, we’ve seen them make bad teams look like contenders during 2019 on multiple occasions, so we have to take a win when we can.

How did the win look like through the eyes of the snap counts?

Snap count takeaways from the Bengals first win:

• Despite winning, the Bengals were still out snapped by the Jets 66-74. This is a prime example of why this stat isn’t an end all be all. Cincinnati was able to consistently win the field position game by pinning New York deep in their own territory most of the game. That also kept the Bengals with a relatively short field to work with.
• The biggest change in the snap counts from last week was the insertion of Andy Dalton into the starting lineup for rookie quarterback Ryan Finley. The offense looked like a completely different machine with the veteran back out there. Dalton’s arm strength was clearly the difference as he was able to thread the needle on a few throws that Finley simply couldn’t make.
• Another big change was Michael Jordan (66) starting at left guard in place of Billy Price. Last week it appeared the team was ready to play Alex Redmond in the former-first round pick’s place, but Redmond suffered an injury during pregame. This seems like a pretty big sign as to where Price falls in the pecking order. Even Fred Johnson saw a snap as an extra lineman. Meanwhile, Price only saw snaps on special teams.
• Apparently, Cincinnati snuck B.W. Webb out there for three offensive plays at some point. He also 67 snaps on defense, where he fared much better than he did last week. Also, Darius Phillips (4) saw his first snaps since returning from injured reserve.
• Linebacker Germaine Pratt (35) played less than half of the snaps. It is hard to argue with the results though. It also seems like he is losing most of his snaps to Brandon Wilson (18) and Clayton Fejedelem (21) as Jessie Bates III and Shawn Williams played every defensive snap. Nick Vigil (66) also didn’t get caught in too many situations where he was chasing people in coverage. He has also noticeably improved on attacking running backs catching check downs, which was a major issue of his.
• Tyler Boyd (55) and Auden Tate (53) dominated the offensive snaps for receivers. We also saw plenty of undrafted rookie wide receiver Stanley Morgan (22) as well as Alex Erickson (42) and even Damion Willis (11). It seems like Cincinnati may be trying to figure out what they have in these undrafted receivers while both John Ross III and A.J. Green are out. With Ross set to return next week, Willis will probably be the odd man out considering Morgan’s special teams contributions.
• Another week goes by where we have to wonder why this team held onto Tyler Eifert at the trade deadline. He played 25 snaps with a single catch. Meanwhile, C.J. Uzomah played 47 snaps with five catches for 51 yards. It is worth noting that both dropped a touchdown catch as well.
• You can’t help but wonder when Sam Hubbard (54) will be given the linebacker designation. He has been dropping into coverage as much as he has been rushing the passer it seems. He hasn’t done a tremendous job, but when you consider this is the first year he has been asked to do it, he could be far worse. We also saw Carl Lawson (55) crack the top two defensive ends. Carlos Dunlap (64) led the pack with his three sacks as well. Andrew Brown (20) also forced a safety by being held in the end zone. This looks like a nice rotation going forward.
• Defensive tackle was strange this week. Of course Geno Atkins (59) saw plenty of play. However, Andrew Billings (24), Josh Tupou (13) and Renell Wren (13) all saw a relatively even split. It will be interesting to see how this plays out down the stretch.