Bengals @ Jaguars First-Half Recap
By Jason Marcum
September 23, 2012; Landover, MD, USA; Cincinnati Bengals running back
BenJarvus Green-Ellis(42) runs with the ball against the Washington Redskins during the third quarter at FedEx Field. The Bengals defeated the Redskins 38-31. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-US PRESSWIRE
After winning the opening coin-toss and opting to play defense, Domata Peko sacked Blaine Gabbert on the games’ first play and helped force a three-and-out. The Bengals first offensive possession was quite an eventful one, as Andy Dalton threw an interception to Kyle Bosworth, who fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Andre Smith to keep the possession alive. Rookie WR Marvin Jones would make his first NFL catch as he caught one on the sidelines for 5 yards as the Bengals used short passes and runs to eat up nearly 8 minutes of game clock. Dalton finished the drive 5/9 for 36 yards, while BenJarvus Green-Ellis had 5 carries for 26 yards, but the drive stalled and ended with a Mike Nugent 35-yard field goal, and the Bengals took an early 3-0 lead.
On the next drive, a 23-yard pass play to Mercedes Lewis would kickstart the Jags’ offense as Gabbert began picking apart the Bengals’ depleted secondary, and the first-quarter ended with the Jags at the CIN-7. Gabbert would later hit Lewis with a 2-yard TD strike to give the Jags a 7-3 lead. The drive was 13 plays for 77 yards and took 7:37. Gabbert was 5 /5 for 51 yards and it now looks as though they fully plan on exploiting the gaping holes in the Bengals’ secondary.
The Bengals offense would go three-and-out on the next two drives, but a fake punt on 4th-and-1 led to a Cedric Peerman 48-yard run to the JAC-18, and a pass-interference on the Jags put the ball at the 1-yard line, where Dalton would roll-out on a play-action fake and hit Chris Pressley for the score to put the Bengals up 10-7. Pressley became the sixth player to catch a TD for the Bengals this season.
On the next drive, Carlos Dunlap would sack Gabbert and fore the fumble which was recovered by the Bengals at the JAC-5, but he had grasped the facemask, and instead got a 15-yard penalty. The Bengals would get eventually get the stop after a nice 3rd-down tackle by Vontaze Burfict forced a punt to the CIN-40.
After two first-down runs by Green-Ellis, Dalton would hit A..J. Green for a 42-yard gain to the JAC-1, where Dalton would sneak it in to put Cincy up 17-7, which would be the score as the first-half ended.
Dalton is 10/17 with one TD and one INT
Green-Ellis has 12 carries for 48 yards, while Cedric Peerman has 1 carry for 48 yards(on the fake punt)
Green has one reception for 42 yards. All other Bengals receivers have 9 catches for 65 yards combined.
Rookie weakside linebacker Vontaze Burfict leads the team in tackles with 6
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