The two perceived strengths that should be carrying the Bengals through the early part of the season, their offensive line and the defense, have to be put into the dreaded underachieving category after they fell to 2-3 in the face of a 28-14 loss to the Cowboys that Bengals cornerback Adam Jones called “embarrassing.”
For the second time in two weeks a first-year starting quarterback torched them for 50 percent on third down as Dak Prescott rung up a 117. 9 passer rating while generating 12 plays of at least 10 yards in the first half. He duplicated the triple-digit passer rating of Denver quarterback Trevor Siemian making his first NFL road start two weeks ago with four touchdown passes.
The tone was set on the first drive, when the Bengals didn’t adjust to a new wrinkle in the Cowboys running game and rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott racked up 42 yards on his first four carries in a drive that never reached third down.
When Prescott had to throw his only pass in the drive, wide receiver Terrance Williams took advantage of a rare missed tackle by Bengals cornerback Adam Jones that resulted in a first down. Leave it to Jones to blame himself and then challenge his mates and coaches to get it right by literally going back to the drawing board.
“I am an honest person. And I will start with myself. I will look at the film and I will be the first one to stand up and say I could have done this better,” Jones said. “I know I missed the tackle early; I have to make the tackle. I think as a group, we need to set down with the coaches and put it up on the board. That is the only way we are get back to how it has normally been. I don’t want to say too much. I am going to start with myself. We will meet; we will look at the film and see how we can get better.”
Then with the Cowboys giving the Bengals some running room in a deep zone Cover Two that took away Pro Bowl wide receiver A.J. Green on four catches for 50 yards, their most effective runner was quarterback Andy Dalton running for his life against a nondescript Dallas front that looked like the Fearsome Foursome. The Cowboys came in with six sacks, but got four on Sunday by dropping seven into coverage and then confounding the Bengals’ interior line that looked to be simple twists among the front four.
“We’ve got to execute better in a lot of different ways and then come up with some of those miraculous plays you see every year that just make a difference in a game,” said left tackle Andrew Whitworth. “We just don’t quite have it yet. But the bottom line is in this game, at this level of play, the only way you get it is to put your head down and just keep banging. Hopefully, our resolve on this team will be to come back next week and play the best football game we can play since this was our worst this season.”
They just haven’t looked the way they were supposed to look at any point this season, even the heady 10 days of 2-2 when they were last in NFL red-zone offense, near last with 3.1 yards per rush, and among the league-leaders giving up five passes of at least 40 yards. But on Sunday it was the big run, a devastating 60-yarder by Elliott on Dallas’ first snap of the second half that made it 28-0 and has them wondering just who these Bengals are.
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