Bengals Comeback to Beat Jaguars on Thursday Night Football
3 things are guaranteed in life:
Death
Taxes
Bengals winning while giving us a massive scare
The Bengals beat the Jaguars 24-21 on Thursday Night Football thanks to a comeback in the seconds half.
The 1st half was disastrous for the Bengals, on all sides of the ball. The game started off strong. Jaguars punted, and then the Bengals were driving. It just took 2 plays for that great start to come to a stop. Ja’Marr Chase was called for an offensive pass interference, and then Evan McPherson had his first career missed field goal. After that, it was the Jaguars’ half. In the Jaguars next 3 drives, they scored 2 touchdowns. After the first drive, the Bengals didn’t have a drive that went over 4 plays. Yikes. Zac Taylor was calling very conservative plays, which contributed to the Jaguars success on offense. The Bengals defense was getting very little rest that first half, and that showed on the field.
The Jaguars were threatening to go ahead by 3 possessions at halftime, but the Bengals made a huge stop, courtesy of Logan Wilson:
That incredible play by Logan Wilson changed the game.
Also, have to mention, Bengals got lucky with bad coaching from Urban Meyer on that 4th down call. The Jaguars should have kicked the field goal to go up 3 possessions. While the idea itself to go for it on 4th down makes sense, considering they were a yard away from the end zone, being up by 3 possessions at half makes it nearly impossible to come back from. Going for it on that 4th down was not a great choice. But hey, considering some of Zac Taylors questionable decisions this week, no one should be complaining.
The 2nd half was an extremely different story for the Bengals On the 2nd play of the second half, Joe Burrow threw a perfect 44-yard deep pass to Ja’Marr Chase. And just like that, the Bengals offense was in full gear.
The offense outscored the Jaguars 24-7 in the 2nd half, mostly thanks to Joe Burrow and CJ Uzomah. For the Bengals first touchdown of the game, Burrow found a wide open CJ Uzomah on a play-action play for a 22-yard touchdown. On the next drive, the Bengals had a 12 play, 86 yard drive that ended in a Joe Mixon touchdown that took 6:29 minutes off the clock. The Jaguars proceeded to scored a touchdown on their next offensive drive to go ahead 21-14, but that didn’t stop the Bengals offensive momentum. Joe Burrow found CJ Uzomah for another touchdown to make it 21-21, and it was an amazing play by both Joe Burrow and CJ Uzomah:
With the Bengals tied at 21 with the Jaguars, the defense needed to step up, and they did. Jaguars punted the ball, and the Bengals got the ball with 5:33 minutes left.
Despite some of Taylor’s VERY questionable decisions as a head coach, he deserves a lot of credit for the final drive. He was calling plays perfectly. He was killing clock while calling successful plays to set up a game winning field goal with no time left for the Jaguars. Burrow was also incredible that final drive. He was reading the Jaguars’ defense like it was a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book. Remember this screen play that set up the McPherson game winning field goal?
That screen play was an audible by Joe Burrow.
That then set up the game winning 35-yard field goal by Evan McPherson.
This was far from a perfect game from the Bengals game. They started off slow and was losing to arguably the worst team in the NFL. However, the Bengals didn’t let adversity keep them down. They adjusted, came back, and won the game. Joe Burrow stepped up, proving he is that guy. While it wasn’t perfect, the Bengals won a prime time game in an exciting fashion.
