Finally Bengals football is back. The bye week was nice, but watching our cats play is much more exciting than a week off and Cincy did not disappoint with solid win on the road. The game wasn’t a blow out; it wasn’t that ugly, it was a good old pig skin game between the San Diego Chargers and the Cincinnati Bengals.
It took until the second quarter for any team to score with the Bengals getting the first Touchdown of the game thanks to a BenJarvus Green-Ellis four yard rushing touchdown. The Chargers would tie the game only three minutes later thanks to a 30-yard touchdown from Ladarius Green. It was a pretty decent defensive battle, as the Bengals and the Chargers would only get 14 points combined in the first half. However, early in the second half AJ Green would receive a 21-yard touchdown pass from Andy Dalton to take the lead. The two teams would trade field goals in the fourth quarter and the Bengals would come out on top 17-10.
The Bengals are now 8-4 atop the AFC North while the Chargers, who are still in the hunt for the second wild card spot, took a step back with this loss, and are now 5-7. The Bengals winning on the road is a really big deal. Not only are they 3-4, but they have to play only one game out of their last four on the road. That road game is against the rival Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bengals are 5-0 at home and almost unstoppable. That said, they do have to face the Colts, Vikings and Ravens at home and to be honest none of these teams are an easy victory.
Back to this game the numbers weren’t awful offensively, Andy Dalton would go 14-23 with 190 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Phillip Rivers went 23/37 with 252 yards one touchdown and one interception. AJ Green, who had a terrible game against the Browns week 11, bounced back with five receptions, 83 yards and what would be the game winning touchdown. BenJarvus Green-Ellis would rush for 92 yards and get a touchdown on 20 attempt. Former Montreal Allouette Andrew Hawkins, who hasn’t played many games this year for the Bengals, had three receptions for 65 yards. On defense Vontaze Burfict had a great game with 11 tackles and Rey Maualuga who had missed the past four games due to injury came back with nine tackles and one sack.
All in all this was a pretty good game for the Bengals. It was quiet, with no a large amount of scoring, but it was defiantly a close one. A few more wins and the Bengals will have claimed a playoff berth and possibly the division. They could earn the division sooner than later depending on how the Steelers and the Ravens play out the next couple of weeks. The Ravens are starting to make any Bengals fan nervous with the hot play of late, but one bad game for the Ravens and the nerves could be all gone. With that being said and done, this season so far has been really fun and exciting for any Bengals fan. Lets hope they keep it up next week, as they host Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts.
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