Bengals Mental Mistakes Forces Loss

The Cincinnati Bengals have been picked by many to win the Super Bowl this year. Well, today against the Chicago Bears, they sure didn’t look like a Super Bowl caliber team, as they lost 24-21.

It’s only week one, and this game sure doesn’t spoil the Bengals’ season, but it was a tough loss.

The Bears scored first, thanks to an eight yard touchdown pass from Jay Cutler to Martellus Bennett, it was 7-0 early in the first quarter.

The Bengals would answer back with two and a half minutes left in the first when Andy Dalton connected with AJ Green for a two yard score, the game was tied.

With 2:53 left in the first half, the Bengals would take the lead when Andy Dalton threw a deep pass to AJ Green. Green would find the endzone for a 45 yard score, and it was 14-7.

With only 11 seconds left before half time, the Bears would get three points off of Robbie Gould’s toe, it was 14-10 heading into the locker rooms.

BenJarvus Green-Ellis would get the Bengals’ first rushing touchdown of the season, when he scored from five yards out, it was 21-10 Cincinnati. At the moment, it seemed like the Bengals were about to run away with the ballgame.

That feeling wouldn’t last long, because Jay Cutler and the Bears were able to march down the field and set up a one yard touchdown run for Matt Forte, the game was now close, 21-17, and that would remain the score heading into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth, the Bears dominated the Bengals on both sides of the ball. The big play of the quarter was a 19 yard touchdown pass from Jay Cutler to Brandon Marshall. That score gave Da Bears the lead, 24-21.

The Bengals made a lot of mental mistakes in the final few minutes. They called a timeout while on defense because they only had 10 players on the field. Two plays later, they burned their final timeout because they had 12 men on field. Since the Bengals were out of timeouts, the Bears tried to run clock out.

The Bengals were able to stop the Bears on a 3rd down, and they would have gotten the ball back after a punt, but thanks to Rey Maualuga, that didn’t happen. After the 3rd down play, Maualuga shoved an offensive linemen to the ground, causing a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty for an automatic first down for Chicago. The Bears were then able to take a knee a couple of times, sending the Bengals back home unhappy.

Despite the loss, some players still looked really good today. AJ Green was superb, he had nine catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns. Andy Dalton completed 26 of 33 passes, good for 282 yards and two touchdowns, but he did throw two interceptions.

The Bengals’ running game was pretty much nonexistent, the leading rusher was Green-Ellis, and he only ran for 25 yards on 14 carries.

The good news for the Bengals is that every other AFC North team lost their season opener, so they are still tied for first place in the division.

Next week, the Bengals will play host to the Pittsburgh Steelers. That will be a Monday Night Football Game, 8:30 PM ET on ESPN.