Bengals Lead It 12-3 At Halftime

Nov 2, 2014; Cincinnati, OH, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles (5) carries the ball and is tackled by Cincinnati Bengals outside linebacker Emmanuel Lamur (59) and defensive end Wallace Gilberry (95) during the first quarter at Paul Brown Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

Andy Dalton found his stride on the third possession of the game as he connected with 3 different players, AJ Green, Cedric Peerman, and Mohammed Sanu on a scoring drive. The Bengals offense plays anything you can do, I can do better with Blake Bortles and Jacksonville’s offense that went down the field and settled for three points just a series before. After a number of mistakes though on the next possession by AJ Green, they had to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown.

The Bengals defense has been pretty solid in the second level, making tackles and deflecting passes. Even after the initial defensive line misses the tackles up front. The Bengals only marks against them are a dropped interception and missed sacks and tackles for loss, which would concern me on a day against a stronger team, but this team has seemed to overcome the early obstacles against a lesser Jaguars team.

The special teams play has been very good with two great punts, a field goal, and two blocked punt. The first blocked punt came from Rex Burkhead who broke through and got his hands on it to give the Bengals solid field position but only got a field goal on the perusing drive. The second blocked punt came from Taylor Mays and resulted in a safety. Kevin Huber has pinned Jacksonville to the 20 or inside on both punts, which has made for long fields on Bortles and the Jaguars offense.

This has been a much stronger show from the Bengals on defense and special teams than we have seen in the past 4 weeks. The offense has struggled against a much improved Jaguars defense, but they find themselves up by 9 points at half. Jacksonville will kick off from their 20 yard line after a personal foul penalty to end the half. We will see if they can keep up their defensive dominance in the second half.