Bengals Thrash Ravens: AJ Green Leads the Way to Victory

The Bengals turned heads by taking down the Ravens in dramatic fashion, notching their second straight double-digit win behind AJ Green’s stellar game.

The Bengals made a statement by going out in primetime and taking down the Ravens in dominant fashion, 34-23. After a tie between the Steelers and the Browns, this game was for the
early lead in the AFC North. The Bengals seized the opportunity by building a massive early lead and never letting up. Now sitting at 2-0, they are primed to make a run for the AFC North title.

The game could not have started better for the Bengals, leaping out to a quick 7-0 lead. After trading punts, Jessie Bates picked up his first interception by picking Flacco and setting the Bengals up in the red zone. A few plays later, AJ Green caught his first touchdown of the game.

The defense locked up the Ravens early on, forcing them into punts throughout the first quarter. The offense pieced together impressive drive after drive as well, stringing together four consecutive touchdown drives to go up 28-7. The running game picked up, but no piece was more important than AJ Green, who caught each of the first three touchdowns.

Coming out of the half up 28-14, the Bengals clearly cooled off. Andy Dalton, who had thrown four touchdowns in the first half, led five consecutive drives ending in punts to start the second half. Credit the Ravens’ D, who tightened up in the second half. The Ravens’ offense also perked up, putting up a field goal and then a touchdown to get to 28-23 (after a missed 2-point
conversion).

The offense was able to rebound after Baltimore got it to one score, but only managed a field goal. However, Baltimore could not get another score, and the Bengals sealed it up with a late field goal to win 34-23 for the second straight week.

As noted, Dalton passed for 4 touchdowns in addition to going 24/42 for 265 yards. Green was the star of the receiving corps, catching 5 passes for 69 yards and 3(!) touchdowns, although Tyler Boyd blew up for 6 catches and 91 yards for a touchdown, too. The tight ends combined for 7 catches for 79 yards as well. The running game was slowed a bit, but Joe Mixon put up 84 yards on 21 carries, and Giovani Bernard tacked on 27 yards on 6 carries.

On defense, the young guys really paved the way. Jessie Bates and Shawn Williams both came down with a pick and combined for 11 tackles. Sam Hubbard collected his first career sack, too, combining with Geno Atkins for 3 sacks of Flacco. Darqueze Dennard and Nick Vigil lead the team with 9 tackles each. Carlos Dunlap, although his tackle stats aren’t as impressive, was majorly disruptive, racking up 3 deflected passes.

All in all, this was a massive win for the Bengals. They notched a victory over a divisional rival and started out the season hot at 2-0. Now, they just need to keep the momentum up.