2 winners (and 3 losers) for Bengals in Week 3 loss to Vikings

No one can be blamed for having doubt in the Cincinnati Bengals entering their Week 3 clash with the Vikings in Minnesota, especially with Joe Burrow on the sidelines.

Unfortunately for Who Dey Nation, those skeptics were proven right as the Jake Browning-led Bengals were handed their first loss of the 2025 season in a 48-10 defeat.

Not all is lost just yet in Cincinnati despite Sunday's disaster show. It's easier to not dwell on this loss as much as in years past, because the Bengals aren't playing catch-up for once thanks to their first 2-0 start under head coach Zac Taylor. That said, the schedule doesn't get easier, and a trip to Denver for Monday Night Football is on the horizon.

Here are the most noteworthy winners and losers from Sunday's action on Cincinnati's side of things.

Winner: Kris Jenkins Jr.

Start positive here. You know, it's actually kind of nice to see some return on investment from a second-round pick in his second NFL season. Kris Jenkins Jr. managed not one, but 1.5 sacks of Carson Wentz in Week 3. He even proudly flexed a deuce at the opposing fans after the last one.

To be somewhat fair to Jenkins, he was banged-up throughout his rookie campaign. Wearing a club on his hand and so forth just so he could play. My thing is, Al Golden was hyping him up as a premier defender in training camp, only for Jenkins to make a negligible impact in the first two weeks.

Congrats to Kris Jenkins Jr., who can hopefully become the franchise cornerstone the Bengals envisioned him to be when they drafted him 49th overall at a position of dire need. I'll take some interior pass rush juice any way we can get it!

Loser: Zac Taylor

Obviously, the blame is going to fall on the head coach when an outcome is this lopsided. But the degree to which Zac Taylor continues to refuse diversifying the Bengals' rushing attack is baffling to me and I'm sure to many other Bengals fans.

Chase Brown just can't get anything going. Full transparency: I'm prewriting this piece, and Brown currently has nine carries for six yards. Some of that is on the offensive line. Some of that is on the lack of variety in Cincinnati's run game.

Maybe Taylor figures the Bengals don't have the personnel in the trenches to execute anything other than inside zone runs and the occasional wrinkle off that. I'm trying to shield my eyes from the monstrosity that this game is, but I doubt I'd spot nary a single pulling guard or tackle in any of Taylor's rushing play designs.

It's disappointing. And it only makes Jake Browning's job to fill in for Joe Burrow that much harder.

Loser: Jake Browning

What a rough day for Jakey Spin Rate. Not that the running game did him any favors, but come on dude, against the team you raged against for cutting you three times, you should've played better.

Browning's pick-six early on set the tone for how Sunday afternoon would go. And things didn't get much better from there. You'd hope he could at least salvage a decent stat line via garbage time. Alas, that wasn't to be the case.

By the end of the third quarter, Browning was 14-of-22 passing for 94 yards, zero TDs and two INTs. Good for a 35.0 passer rating. Just a reminder for those who aren't in the weeds on passer rating: Incomplete passes in perpetuity score you a 39.6 mark.

Jake would've been better off literally spiking the ball into the ground on every pass attempt, if not for intentional grounding, through three quarters. You can't not be a loser in that context.

Loser: Noah Fant

Sorry but this Bengals tight end group that was meant to be a genuine strength of the team is looking like a nothing burger. Cincinnati shelled out a decent chunk of change to retain Mike Gesicki. Is he even on the active roster?

Then we have one of several late additions to the roster in Noah Fant. The former first-round pick basically swung this entire game. His fumble led to Isaiah Rodgers' scoop and score.

And look. we can be honest about this: Vikings cornerback Isaiah Rodgers had a historic, unprecedented performance nobody could've seen coming. Two forced fumbles, a pick-six, a fumble recovery, and two defensive touchdowns?

That doesn't detract from how Fant basically gave this game to Minnesota on a silver platter. Credit where it's due with Rodgers, but wow. With the Bengals getting the ball back in the second half, had they scored a touchdown on that late first-half drive, Week 3 might've played out way differently.

Winner: Samaje Perine

I tell ya, it's hard to find any winners among this Bengals lot in Week 3. The silver lining to the run game is the fact that Perine ripped off a run of 12 yards at some point. Yes, that's how dire things are in the wake of this humiliating blowout.

The Bengals either refuse to throw to Chase Brown, or they want Perine in exclusively as a third-down back or...you know what? What are we even doing here? Perine lost a fumble. One of three Bengals players to do so. The fact that he's a winner tells anyone all they need to know about how brutal this afternoon was for Cincinnati.

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