Good evening, everyone. On Sunday afternoon, the Green Bay Packers took on the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. This was a chance for Green Bay to get their first win in Cincinnati for the first time since 1998. It took a crazy 4th quarter and overtime to do it, but the Packers got the win by a score of 25-22. I am here to give you my thoughts on what happened in this game. Let’s get started.
The first drive for the Packers offense started well. They got a couple of first downs on their way to Cincinnati territory. Unfortunately, the drive came up short at the Cincinnati 42 after two straight incomplete passes by Aaron Rodgers. Corey Bojorquez was called upon for his first punt, which went inside the Bengals 10. The Packers defense got a three and out stop on their first drive after Kenny Clark stuffed Joe Burrow on a QB sneak attempt on third and 1 from the Cincinnati 17. The Bengals did not risk going for it on fourth and 1 and punted back to Green Bay. From their own 38, the Packers started their next drive. The drive ended after only 2 plays. The first play was a 15-yard pass completion from Aaron Rodgers to Randall Cobb. On the second play, Rodgers rolled to his right and tried to force a throw to Davante Adams. The pass was picked off by Chidobe Awuzie, who returned the interception all the way to the Green Bay 42. Thankfully, the Packers defense made sure that the pick wasn’t followed up by any points. On second and 10, Krys Barnes made a great play by not falling for the play fake and getting a sack of Burrow. The drive for Cincinnati ended one play later and they were forced to punt again. The ball landed in the end zone for a touchback, giving Green Bay the ball at their own 20. From there, the Packers did pretty much nothing. A run for 0 yards by Aaron Jones and 2 straight incomplete passes forced Corey Bojorquez to punt again. Unfortunately, the punt only went 31 yards to the Cincinnati 49 yard line. From there, the Bengals offense went on their first scoring drive. During the drive, they were able to convert a fourth and 3 with a five yard pass completion from Joe Burrow to RB Samaje Perine. Later in the drive, Perine caught two additional passes, including the 4 yard touchdown that was too easy. The touchdown, plus the PAT kick by Evan McPherson, gave the Bengals a 7-0 lead with 1:15 left in the first quarter. The Packers offense responded with a touchdown of their own on their next possession. During the drive, the Packers faced a 3rd and 12 from their own 40. Rodgers found Adams for a 34-yard catch and run that went to the Cincinnati 26. On the next play, Rodgers connected with Marcedes Lewis for a 14-yard pass play. After that play, AJ Dillon caught his first ever TD pass as a professional player from 12 yards out. Weirdly, Mason Crosby missed the extra point after his kick hit the left upright. As a result of that, the Packers still trailed by one point. The Packers defense forced the Bengals to go three and out on their next drive. On third and 4 from the Cincinnati 31, Joe Burrow was sacked for a loss of 7 yards by Preston Smith. That sack forced the Bengals to punt back to Green Bay. The Packers offense took over at their own 38. The drive started well with two straight pass completions that got Green Bay to the Cincinnati 25. After those plays, however, the drive stalled and they were forced to settle for a field goal by Mason Crosby. The kick was good from 44 yards away, giving Green Bay a 9-7 lead with 7:24 left in the second quarter. Once again, the Packers defense was able to force the Bengals to go three and out. On first and 10 from the Cincinnati 40, Burrow was sacked for a loss of 2 yards by a combination of Dean Lowry and TJ Slaton. 2 plays later, Burrow scrambled for 9 yards before suffering a big hit from Darnell Savage. I am glad that Burrow was able to come back into the game after that hit. The Packers took over at their own 19 after an 8-yard punt return by Amari Rodgers. From there, the Packers offense went down the field for another touchdown. Rodgers and Adams connected on three pass plays during the drive, including the 5-yard touchdown pass in which Adams made a great leaping catch in bounds. He did lose the ball, but not until after he maintained possession in the end zone. The extra point kick was made by Crosby, increasing the lead to 16-7. That lead was quickly cut to 2 points after a lucky 70-yard touchdown pass from Joe Burrow to Ja’Marr Chase. During the play, there was next to no pass rush at all. Burrow rolled to his right and threw up a prayer of a pass. The ball barely got under the hands of Darnell Savage and into the hands of Chase. After that touchdown, the score was 16-14 at halftime.
The first drive by Cincinnati only lasted 3 plays before the Bengals turned the ball over. On first and 10 from the Green Bay 45, Joe Burrow was forced to run away from Kenny Clark. During his run to the right, he forced a pass to Auden Tate. That pass was picked off by Adrian Amos at the Green Bay 18, where the Packers offense took over. The offense then went on a 12-play drive that nearly took 8 minutes off the clock. During this possession, the Packers were able to convert a couple of manageable third downs. They were on their way to score a touchdown until the drive stalled at the Cincinnati 28. On third and 9, Aaron Rodgers connected with Davante Adams, who was immediately tackled by Jessie Bates. During the replay on TV, I saw that Allen Lazard was open for a touchdown. Rodgers did not see that and he only got 2 yards out of that pass. As a result, Mason Crosby was called upon for a 44-yard field goal, which he made to give Green Bay a 19-14 lead with 5:45 left in the third quarter. On the Bengals’ next drive, they were able to get to the Green Bay 30 yard line. After that, though, they were not able to get anything. Joe Burrow did scramble to convert a fourth down, which he was able to do earlier in the game. Unfortunately for him, there was an offensive holding penalty against Cincinnati that nullified the scramble. With that penalty, the Bengals opted to punt back to Green Bay. The Packers offense took over from their own 15 yard line after the punt. They quickly got into scoring range after a deep pass play. On first and 10 from the Green Bay 35, Rodgers connected with Adams for a 59-yard pass completion that gave the Packers first and goal at the Cincinnati 6. The next three plays were terrible. Two runs that did not gain much, and a designed roll-out to the left by Rodgers that resulted in an incomplete pass intended for Randall Cobb (the pass was deflected at the line of scrimmage). It stunk that the deep pass ultimately resulted in just 3 points for Green Bay. The 22-14 lead would not last past the next Bengals drive. The Packers defense was unable to stop the Bengals from gaining yards on every play and allowing third and fourth down conversions. The drive ended with an 8-yard touchdown run by Joe Mixon (plus a successful two-point conversion pass from Burrow to Tee Higgins). With the score tied at 22-22, the Packers offense took over after the kickoff. RB Aaron Jones almost got to the end zone on the first play. During the 57-yard run, Jones was able to stiff arm a defender. Unfortunately after the run, the drive stalled with a run to nowhere and 2 straight incomplete passes. In between the incomplete passes, the Packers had to call timeout to avoid a delay of game, which I don’t like at all. The 36-yard field goal attempt by Mason Crosby ended up going wide left, giving the Bengals a chance to win the game themselves. Luckily, the 57-yard field goal attempt by Evan McPherson ended with the ball hitting the right upright with 21 seconds left in the 4th quarter. One pass completion from Rodgers to Adams and a spike later, the Packers were in position to win the game in similar fashion to Week 3 against the 49ers. The field goal try was 51 yards away, just like in that game. Unlike Week 3, Mason Crosby missed the field goal just to the left of the upright, forcing overtime in Cincinnati.
In overtime, the Bengals offense took the field first. On the first play, however, Joe Burrow got nervous and threw the ball straight to the hands of De’Vondre Campbell for an interception. Campbell returned the pick to the Cincinnati 17, where the offense did absolutely nothing afterwards. All they did was set Mason Crosby up for a straightaway field goal try from 40 yards out. Maddeningly, he missed it to the left, giving the Bengals the ball at their own 30. Cincinnati’s offense then went down the field to try to win the game. During the drive, Ja’Marr Chase made a great catch while staying inbounds. They made it all the way to the Green Bay 32 before bringing McPherson out for a 49-yard field goal try. This field goal ended up being wide left while hitting the flag in the process. What was funny was that McPherson thought that he made it only to realize later that it was no good. With 4:14 left in overtime, the Packers took over at their own 39. On the second play of the drive, TE Marcedes Lewis took a screen pass 21 yards to the Cincinnati 41. During the play, Lewis refused to go down and even trucked a defender. Three plays later, the Packers faced a third and 16 from the 47 yard line. Aaron Rodgers threw a prayer of a pass that was caught by Randall Cobb for a gain of 15 yards. After the pass (and a replay review), I thought that AJ Dillon was going to get yard on fourth down. Instead, the offense ran the clock down to the 2 minute warning and brought Mason Crosby out for another field goal try. Thankfully, Crosby made it from 49 yards away, giving the Packers a 25-22 win over the Bengals.
With the wild victory, the Packers improved their record to 4-1 on the season. Overall, the Packers out-gained the Bengals 466 to 367 yards. Offensively, they were not able to produce touchdowns on a few of their drives, especially when they got in the red zone. What irked me was that the offense wasted two big chunk plays. The 59-yard bomb from Aaron Rodgers (who finished with 344 yards, two TDs and a pick) to Davante Adams (who had 206 yards on 11 catches) was wasted because they only came away with a field goal. The 57-yard run by Aaron Jones (who finished with 103 yards on 14 carries) was wasted because the Packers did not score any points out of it (the first of three straight missed field goals by Mason Crosby). Another thing that irked me was that after the pick by De’Vondre Campbell in OT, the offense didn’t bother to move the ball at all. Thank goodness the Packers were able to get to field goal range to end the extra period. I have to give major kudos to Marcedes Lewis and Randall Cobb on their plays in that last drive. I also have to give credit to the offensive line for their performance des not having Josh Myers at center. No matter who is on the line, Adam Stenavich gets them ready each week. Hopefully the offense gets things straightened out in preparation for next week.
Defensively, the Packers played well at some points. They were able to force the Bengals to go three and out on a few possessions. They were also able to sack and intercept Joe Burrow three and two times, respectively. There were also times when the defense was unable to stop the Bengals from scoring points, including allowing a 70-yard touchdown pass right before halftime. The defense also has some problems with the red zone. On both possessions that got inside the 20, the Packers defense was unable to keep the Bengals from getting into the end zone. Even though there were some rough patches on defense, I still have to highlight a couple of players. Once again, De’Vondre Campbell played well for Green Bay with 8 tackles and the overtime pick of Joe Burrow. Krys Barnes made a great play on his sack of Burrow by not falling for the run fake. Kenny Clark pressured Joe Burrow to the first of his two interceptions on the day. Kevin King also played well up until he got injured in the game. I am sure that Joe Barry will get the defense ready for whatever happens next.
It was a wild game on Special Teams, at least on the field goal front. Mason Crosby was able to redeem himself after missing three straight field goals in the 4th quarter/OT. That miss streak ended his streak of 27 made field goals in a row. In addition to the missed field goals, he also missed an extra point after AJ Dillon’s TD catch. I was glad that Crosby was able to make the game-winner from 49 yards away. Corey Bojorquez only punted twice, including once inside the Cincinnati 10 yard line. I am also thankful that there were no blocked kicks or punts. On the other end, there were a couple of instances where a punt was almost blocked by Green Bay. The return game wasn’t anything special, but at least the Packers did not allow a return that went past midfield. I have some hope that Special Teams won’t be as crazy as on Sunday from here on out.
Overall, it was a win that I am glad the Packers were able to pull out of their helmets. It was so stressful to watch that 4th quarter and overtime, especially with the amount of missed field goals by both teams (5 missed kicks combined in that period). I have confidence that the next game will be more normal than this one. The Packers will be taking on the Chicago Bears in Week 6. I will talk more about that game later. In the meantime, I hope you all have a good night. Go Pack Go!
(Here are the highlights of this wild game, provided by the NFL’s YouTube page.)
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