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In 2021, the Cincinnati Bengals were able to sweep the Baltimore Ravens thanks to a historic effort from the passing game, which saw Joe Burrow throw for 941 yards and seven scores in the two matchups.
What we saw Sunday night was a far cry from that. The Bengals lost 19-17 as the offense failed to top 20 points for the third time this season. A big part of that has been Tee Higgins not being 100% for much of the early season thus far.
Now in his third NFL season, Higgins missed most of Week 1 vs. Pittsburgh due to a concussion. He now has an ankle injury that had him questionable to play in Week 5. Though Higgins was active Sunday, it was clear he wasn’t 100% as he logged limited snaps and didn’t even get a single target.
Another player who battled injury was left tackle Jonah Williams, who left the game briefly with a knee injury but still played most of the offensive snaps.
Despite the injury, Sunday’s loss to Baltimore was arguably Williams’ best performance of the season. He helped the Bengals’ enigmatic offensive line hold Baltimore to just two sacks while earning the highest Pro Football Focus score of any Bengal.
Despite battling an early knee injury, Jonah Williams was pretty impressive against the Ravens and had his best game of the 2022 season so far.
— Willie Lutz (@willie_lutz) October 10, 2022
81.4 PFF Pass Blocking
80.5 in True Pass Sets
66.2 PFF Run Blocking
0 sacks, 0 QB Hits, 0 Pressures#Bengals pic.twitter.com/yqsjfRcNSO
Highest graded Bengals in Week 5 vs the Ravens:
— PFF CIN Bengals (@PFF_Bengals) October 10, 2022
Jonah Williams - 74.1
Joe Mixon - 73.5
Mike Hilton - 73.1
4️⃣ Ja’Marr Chase - 71.2
5️⃣ Alex Cappa - 69.0 pic.twitter.com/JgDdFEntce
Will the Bengals have Williams and/or Higgins this week when they take on the New Orleans Saints?
During his Monday press conference, head coach Zac Taylor revealed that Higgins has a ‘complicated’ ankle injury that has him day-to-day.
As for Williams, his injury turned out to be an MCL sprain that will have him day-to-day as well this week. So for now, there’s a chance one or both players will be inactive when the Bengals travel to New Orleans this week.
Zac Taylor says Tee Higgins has an ankle sprain and those things are “complicated” and they’ll take it day-to-day.
— Kelsey Conway (@KelseyLConway) October 10, 2022
Jonah Williams sprained his MCL and will also be considered day-to-day
While you’d have to think both players will be capable of playing this week, is it worth risking their long-term availability?
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