Bengals: What we learned in Week 5 overtime loss to Packers

The overtime loss to the Packers is going to be one that hurts Bengals fans for quite some time. Maybe it’s because this team had a victory in their grasp but when push came to shove, they couldn’t get over the top and hold onto the win.

With the loss, Cincy drops to 3-2 and lost their momentum in the gauntlet that is the AFC North. They have some easier games coming up, as they’ll face the Lions and Jets in two of their next three games but man — It’d have been nice to enter this next part of their schedule with a 4-1 record and to have silenced some doubters with a win.

Anyway, the loss is in the record books so let’s move on. Here’s what we learned about the Bengals this week.

Evan McPherson is capable of making mistakes

Everyone’s been raving about Evan McPherson through the first four games of the season and why wouldn’t they be? The rookie kicker won two games for Cincinnati and while he missed his first field goal of the season last week, he made the one that counted in the final seconds against Jacksonville.

This week, however, was a different story for McPherson. He knocked through both extra-point attempts but missed both field goals he was asked to attempt. Either field goal would have won the game for Cincinnati so it was pretty demoralizing to see him miss both of them.

With that being said, McPherson is a rookie and he’s going to make mistakes. No kicker makes every single field goal attempt (not even Justin Tucker) so this is something fans need to keep in mind. Plus, one of the field goals McPherson was asked to make was from 57 yards out. That’s a tall task even for a kicker who’s shown as much poise as McPherson.