Bengals: 3 quick takeaways from Week 8 loss to Jets

The Cincinnati Bengals clearly read their press clippings this week and it resulted in an embarrassing loss to a Jets team that had a backup quarterback starting. The Bengals were 12-point favorites entering this team and they lost.

Not only that, but they deserved to lose.

This team marched into Baltimore last week and spanked the Ravens. The Jets should be easy peasy, right?

Nope.

The defense had no answer for Mike White and the Jets offense and that’s not a sentence any of us expected to say.

The offense got hot in the second half but Joe Burrow’s deflected interception was seemingly the dagger for this team. Absolutely embarrassing.

Here are some quick takeaways.

Who is this defense?

After holding Lamar Jackson and the Ravens offense to 17 points last week, the Bengals defense shouldn’t have had any problem containing Mike White and an atrocious Jets offense… yet they did.

It didn’t matter what the Bengals dialed up defensively, White and the Jets’ offense carved them up to the tune of over 500 yards. Trey Hendrickson had a rough day at the office and the Bengals’ defense couldn’t tackle the opposition if their lives depended on it. It was beyond frustrating to watch.

What’s even sadder is that this unit forced three turnovers in the first half. Typically when you win the turnover battle, you win the game, but not this time. Nope.

Other receivers finally got involved

It’s been the Ja’Marr Chase show for the first seven games of the season and for good reason. This week, however, the Bengals offense was able to get both Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd involved more in the game plan, something that wasn’t the case in recent weeks.

Higgins finished with 97 yards off of four catches while Boyd had five catches for 69 yards and a touchdown. Boyd also threw a pass to Joe Mixon that went for 46 yards.

While Chase was carving defenses up and doing his thing, these other two targets were mostly ignored. This game didn’t go the way Bengals fans had hoped but at least Boyd and Higgins were able to get more involved.

This team isn’t ready to be No. 1 yet

Last week’s win over the Ravens was fun but this team and the fans (myself included) definitely jumped the gun. The NFL isn’t based on what one team does in one regular-season game, but rather, 17 regular-season games. The Bengals read their press clippings and didn’t play to the level they’re capable of.

I certainly didn’t think a loss to the Jets was possible, even for the Bengals who are notorious for pulling this kind of crap, but it’s what happens when teams get too far ahead of themselves.

We know now that the Bengals aren’t ready to be considered the best team in the league and this loss proved just that.

Up next is the Browns, who are 4-4 on the year. At least the Bengals will finally get to play in front of the home crowd.