The Cincinnati Bengals played the Green Bay Packers in what was an amazing football game. It wasn’t pretty by any stretch, but it was extremely exhilarating to watch; penalties, turnovers, a lot of scoring and a comeback that had everyone watching that game glued to their seats.
The Bengals opened the scoring with two touchdowns in 12 seconds. It started with a Giovani Bernard TD and during the ensuing kickoff, Jeremy Ross dropped the ball and Taylor Mays got it back for Cincy at the 2, leading to their second touchdown of the game for the Bengals.
The game looked like it could be a blow out with the momentum the team gained from those two scoring drives. The Bengals had possession of the ball in the first quarter for 10 minutes, but the thing about the NFL is it’s never over until it’s over. The Green Bay Packers scored 30 points in the second and third quarter taking a 30-14 leading over the hometown Bengals. During these 30 unanswered points the Bengals had four straight turnovers in four straight possessions, which is unbelievable seeing as they had none against the Pittsburgh Steelers a week ago.
The Packers were dominating the Bengals in the middle of the game, frustrations were running high and Sam Shields did a good job at making the Bengals star receiver AJ Green’s life miserable – he had an INT while defending Green.
The Bengals persevered.
With less than four minutes left in the third quarter, Cincy QB Andy Dalton was able to successfully hit AJ Green with a TD pass, closing the gap to 30-21. The Bengals held the Packers back and were able to score early in the fourth with a Marvin Jones 11-yard TD pass from Andy Dalton. To add to the drama of this game when Mike Nugent went to attempt the PAT on the Jones TD the Packers blocked it, and the score was then 30-27 still in favor of Green Bay.
With Green Bay in possession of the ball, the Packers marched down the field slowly killing the clock attempting to score one more touchdown to dash the Cincinnati Bengals and their fans’ hope. With 4:34 left in the game, the Packers QB Aaron Rodgers threw a routine pass to Randall Cobb for what looked like a first down, but Cincinnati head coach Marvin Lewis thought otherwise. The Bengals challenged the spot where Cobb was down and the ruling was reversed.
The Packers decided to go for it on 4th and inches with running back Johnathan Franklin, but was stopped by the Bengals D, the ball would be fumbled a few times and Terence Newman of Cincinnati would pick up the ball and run it in for the TD, completing the comeback and winning the game 34-30.
This is the game that had everything and more with a great comeback, well it was great for the Bengals fans not the Packers fans. Now the Bengals are 2-1 and the Packers are shockingly 1-2 after three games. This was a weird game where Cincy’s offense could have lost the game for the Bengals with all the early turnovers, but they calmed down and warmed up at the right time.
Yes, the Bengals had 30 points scored against them, but the defense over the majority of the game was solid and stopped the Packers on key moments. Both teams combined for 10 turnovers during the game. More good news for Bengals fans is that the team only took 5 penalties in the game, which is the lowest so far this season.
The Bengals will now face the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland. Many people have written off the Browns, but when it comes to the battle of Ohio, anything can happen.
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