Cincinnati Bengals Report Card From Season-Saving Win Against the New York Giants

The Cincinnati Bengals saved their season Sunday night at MetLife Stadium, beating the New York Giants 17-7 to avoid falling in a suffocating 1-5 hole.

Their reward?

The right to fight for another season-saving win Sunday in Cleveland, where they haven’t won since 2017.

“I don’t want to say we would have been out of it if we had lost, but we’d be scratching and clawing for the rest of the year,” Burrow said. “We still really are.”

For the first time this season, Lou Anarumo’s maligned defense deserved the credit for winning the game, while one of the league’s top offenses was left searching for answers in the film room.

Here are the grades from the Bengals’ second win of the season:

Rush Offense

The 6.1 yards per attempt the Bengals averaged against the Giants was tied for their sixth highest in the Zac Taylor era, but nearly half of their designed runs went for 1 yard or fewer.

Joe Burrow’s 47-yard touchdown run on the opening drive of the game, and Chase Brown’s 30-yard score on the final drive made the stat sheet look a lot more impressive than things really were.

Thirteen of 16 designed runs came on first or second and 10 or longer.

The first two times the Bengals ran in short yardage situations resulted in tackles for loss – Zack Moss lost 4 yards on third and 3 in the first quarter (although asking tight end Mike Gesicki to block defensive end Brian Burns wasn’t a great play design); and Brown lost 2 yards on second and 3 in the second quarter.

And we haven’t even gotten to the most damning part of the night – Moss lost a fumble in scoring territory and Brown was lucky his fumble didn’t result in a turnover.

Grade: D+

Pass Offense

After scoring four consecutive touchdown drives in back-to-back weeks for the first time since 1985, the inconsistency in the passing game Sunday night was a big reason why the Bengals ended the first half with five consecutive drives that ended with punts.

Facing the team that leads the NFL sacks due to an elite defensive line, the Cincinnati offensive line had its worst performance of the year.

The Giants sacked Burrow four times and knocked him to the turf on three other instances, one of which landed him in the blue medical tent to be evaluated for a concussion.

Burow also took an intentional grounding penalty, which was more damaging than any sack, costing the offense 14 yards to put them in second and 24.

And Ja’Marr Chase had a rare drop on third and 5 late in the first half that would have moved the Bengals into scoring position.

But Tee Higgins was outstanding, catching all seven of his targets for 77 yards while taking numerous big hits. Four of Higgins’ seven catches produced first downs.

And Andrei Iosivas made one of the most clutch plays of the game, breaking off his route early when he recognized Burrow was in trouble and going into scramble-drill mode for a 29-yard gain on third and 12 just before the two-minute warning.

Conversations could be a whole different today if the Giants got the ball back down three with two minutes and two timeouts remaining.

Burrow finished 19 of 28 for 208 yards with no touchdowns or interceptions.

It was just the second start of his career that he won without throwing a touchdown pass (Week 3 last year vs. the Los Angeles Rams).

Grade: C-

Rush Defense

The Bengals have allowed at least 100 rushing yards in every game this season and 10 in a row going back to 2023.

That’s the second longest active streak behind the Washington Commanders (12).

That said, quarterback Daniel Jones led the Giants with 56 rushing yards, many of which came on scrambles and therefore should be count against the pass defense’s grade.

The Bengals held New York running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. to 50 yards on 17 carries. That 2.9-yard average was a vast improvement from what they allowed against other backs they’ve faced this season (Derrick Henry, 6.1; Chuba Hubbard, 5.8; Rhamondre Stevenson, 4.8; and Isiah Pacheco, 4.8).

The Bengals held Tracy to 2 yards or fewer on 10 of his 17 carries.

Grade: B+

Pass Defense

Seven different defensive players combined to record 16 pressures against Jones, with Trey Hendrickson recording both of the Bengals’ sacks.

B.J. Hill’s first of two pressures resulted in a hit on Jones that left his pass fluttering into the arms of linebacker Germaine Pratt for the defense’s only turnover of the night.

The Bengals had eight pass breakups, which was tied for their most since the 2022 season finale.

Two of those PBUs came in huge spots, with Mike Hilton getting a hand in the way of a fourth-and-2 play to stop New York’s opening drive of the second half, and DJ Turner II knocking down a fourth-and-2 throw 3:01 remaining and the Giants on the edge of game-tying field goal range.

It was a redemptive play for Turner, whose pass interference penalty put the Giants at the 1-yard line with 5:52 left in the third quarter, setting up their only score of the game.

The defense allowed Jones some easy completions to wide open receivers, but none went for more than 15 yards.

Grade: A-

Special Teams

The Ryan Rehkow show continued as the rookie had three punts of at least 55 yards and, more importantly, he successfully managed all three long snaps on two extra points and one field goal after last week’s humbling miscue that cost the Bengals the game.

Rehkow had a couple of field goals from the plus side of the field that ended up shorter than desired, failing to reach the 10-yard line, but that’s nit-picking.

Tycen Anderson continues to be a force as a gunner, sprinting down the field to limit the Giants to no return a Rehkow 55-yard punt before limiting Ihmir Smith-Marsette to a 1-yard return on another 55-yard Rehkow bomb.

The Cincinnati punt coverage unit ranks fourth in average return yards (5.7).

Charlie Jones had a 31-yard kickoff return and a 14-yard punt return, but his other two punt returns went for a combined minus-1 yard.

Grade: A-

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