Game Recap: Bengals Defeat Raiders 26-19

It’s been a new day in Cincinnati for a while, but the Bengals’ accomplishment Saturday night emblemizes that fact more than any of their other victories this season to date. For the first time since January 6, 1991, the Bengals have won a game in the NFL postseason, ending one of the longest stretches between such wins in NFL history.

Joe Burrow led the offense well, completing 24 of 34 passes for 244 yards, a pair of touchdowns and zero picks, despite the offense overall finding difficulty with holding momentum. Ja’Marr Chase hauled in 9 of 12 targets for 116 of those yards, while C.J. Uzomah hauled in all 6 of his targets for 64 yards and a touchdown. On the ground, conversely, the team struggled to find yards – Joe Mixon ran the ball 17 times but was held to 2.8 yards per carry.

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Conversely, the Raiders moved the ball consistently well against a Bengals’ front that depleted further and further as the game progressed. Trey Hendrickson and Larry Ogunjobi both left the game with injuries as the Raiders racked up 6.4 yards per carry from Josh Jacobs. Darren Waller, Zay Jones, and Hunter Renfrow each accounted for more than 50 of quarterback Derek Carr‘s 310 passing yards. While the Bengals jumped out to a 20-6 lead early on the back of several Raiders’ errors, the game grew progressively closer as the the officiating crew drew more criticism with their performance than either team. Until the penultimate play of the game, the offensive units accounted for one combined turnover.

That turnover, of course, was the deciding play in the game. On 4th-and-goal from the 9-yard line, Carr landed a pass in the hands of linebacker Germaine Pratt. Thus was the Bengals’ season extended until, at least, the divisional round.

Notes

First Quarter

• The Bengals’ opening defensive drive featured a lot of soft zone and off-man coverage, letting the Raiders move the ball into field goal range with relative ease. The third-down play that saw the defense off the field was an impressive pass breakup from Mike Hilton against Renfrow.
• Of the Bengals’ first six plays on offense, two started in empty sets and four ended in throws to Chase. He caught three of them and gained 37 yards (mostly at the expense of cornerback Brandon Facyson). Four more plays went to Mixon, gaining 31 yards between them. The drive lasted 10 plays overall and displayed a clear strategy that worked – move the ball to the Bengals’ best playmakers, quickly, and don’t allow defensive end Maxx Crosby an opportunity to cause disruption. The Raiders’ second-team All Pro had a tackle in pursuit on the drive, but couldn’t stop any plays from working as designed.
• The Raiders ended their next two drives with brutal, unforced errors. On the first, the Raiders kept extra blockers in on 3rd-and-long yet still managed to leave tight end Foster Moreau isolated against Hendrickson on Carr’s left side. Hendrickson (predictably enough) quickly got around him and separated Carr from the football, giving the Bengals possession 15 yards away from the goal line. The Bengals couldn’t fully capitalize, but still extended their lead with a 31-yard field goal.

Second Quarter

• The second error consisted of the Raiders’ Peyton Barber, on the following kickoff, attempting to down the ball out of bounds and give the offense possession at their own 40. Unfortunately for him, Barber stepped out too late and took the ball out of bounds at the Raiders’ 2-yard line. The offense struggled to move the ball, took a sack from Sam Hubbard on third down, and punted a yard further back from where they started. It’s a credit to the Raiders’ defense that the Bengals only extended their lead by another field goal on the next drive.
• The next three drives each ended in scoring plays – a Raiders field goal, a Bengals touchdown, and a Raiders touchdown. None will be talked about more than the Bengals’ play – a pass to Tyler Boyd in the end zone. Somewhat controversially, the play was counted despite a referee blowing the whistle (marginally) before Boyd completed the catch, thinking that Burrow had stepped out of bounds. He hadn’t, and it’s unclear whether the whistle affected the defense, but the play shouldn’t have counted by the letter of the rule. It’s a question of whether two wrongs by referees can make a right, and there’s valid arguments either way.
• The Raiders started the last drive of the half with 1:33 on the clock and finished with a touchdown. Most of the yards came on big plays, including a 19-yard pass to Bryan Edwards and a 20-yard scramble by Carr on 3rd and 10. The Bengals made the interesting decision to match Darren Waller in coverage with Tre Flowers, with mixed results. Waller only accounted for 11 yards on the drive, but appeared to get the better of Flowers on more plays than not.

Third Quarter

• The Bengals opened the third quarter with a string of positive plays and another dubious case of officiating. After gaining 36 yards on 5 plays (and an illegal formation penalty), the Bengals ran a play while the Raiders had 12 defensive players on the field. A full play and long conversation by the officials later, the play was nullified on the basis that the Raiders called a timeout ahead of it. Was it as egregious of an error as the earlier, premature whistle? No, but it compounded the bad optics that the officiating crew had already put on themselves. It also preceded a pair of underwhelming plays that led to the Bengals capping the drive with a 43-yard field goal.
• A lot of what worked for the Bengals in the first quarter dried up as the game progressed. The Bengals’ next drive started with two moderate gains by  Boyd that were more than negated by an illegal block penalty by Jonah Williams. Tee Higgins, on second down, failed to bring in his first catch on his third target of the game. On 3rd-and-12, Crosby looped inside on a stunt and took Burrow down for an 11-yard loss (this came after Crosby opened up a sack for Quinton Jefferson on a stunt in the second quarter).
• Defensively, this is when Hendrickson and Ogunjobi each left the game with injuries. Both were marked as questionable to return; Hendrickson was evaluated for a concussion while Ogunjobi left on a cart with a right foot injury. Hilton briefly went down late in the quarter as well, compounding the strain on the Bengals’ defensive depth. The Raiders were able to extend a drive into the fourth quarter that lasted 13 plays and kick a field goal despite committing three 10-yard holding penalties.

Fourth Quarter

• The Bengals found some momentum on their next drive in the fourth quarter. Chase caught consecutive passes for 30 yards total, and Higgins hauled in his first pass of the game for 10 yards. Half the quarter ran off the clock before the team kicked a field goal to go up 26-16. The Raiders moved down the field on the following drive quickly on the following drive, covering 67 yards in 3 minutes, but only scored a field goal themselves. By the start of their next drive, the Bengals had depleted the Raiders’ timeouts and run the clock to inside the 2-minute warning.
• Hilton returned in the fourth quarter and covered Renfrow well, but the Bengals’ defense still had to play through the Raiders’ 2-minute drive without Hendrickson or Ogunjobi. B.J. Hill contributed a sack on the second play of the drive, while Germaine Pratt made the interception on 4th-and-goal to seal the Bengals’ victory.
• Objectively, this wasn’t a performance that’ll win the Bengals many more games. The offense was outscored badly after jumping out to a 20-6 lead that the Raiders did more to give them than they did. Higgins didn’t get on the board nearly soon enough, the offensive line lost too many battles to Crosby, and the defense had some rough moments even before the injuries piled up. All that aside, it’s the playoffs – a win buys them the opportunity to perform better next week, and they’re here because they’ve performed better this season. We’ll see soon enough how much the injuries loom as a long-term concern.

– Andy Hammel is the Managing Editor for the Bengals at Full Press Coverage. Follow @Andy_Hammel