3 winners (and 2 losers) for Bengals in Week 1 win over Browns

Not everyone can go home happy in Week 1, but the Cincinnati Bengals can hold their heads high for finally winning a season opener for the first time since 2021. They did just enough on the road to get a gritty 17-16 win over the division rival Cleveland Browns on Sunday.

It wasn't pretty at all. A missed extra point and 36-yard field goal by the Browns' Andre Szmyt did a lot of heavy lifting to swing the outcome in Cincinnati's favor.

Who cares? The scoreboard is all that matters. Honestly, while a close loss would've been frustrating beyond what words can express, the Bengals showed encouraging signs of life. A sense of urgency lacking early in recent years was there.

Let's walk through some of the biggest winners and losers from the Bengals' side of Sunday's latest Battle of Ohio, which to be fair, did feature its fair share of adversity.

Winner: Jordan Battle

What a freaking Game Dey for the Bengals' new full-time starting safety. On a day where two third-round picks from 2024 were healthy scratches, Battle, a 2023 third-rounder, stepped up in a massive way, leading the team with 12 total tackles, including a critical open-field stop on 3rd down in the fourth quarter.

The clear highlight of Battle's afternoon was his tremendous concentration to make an interception off Joe Flacco's errant pass. It hit off of Browns receiver Jerry Jeudy, but Battle somehow corralled the ball before it touched the turf.

Nasty ball skills and supreme instincts right there. Take a bow, Jordan Battle!!

Loser: Fantasy owners of Bengals' biggest stars

Anyone who was leaning on the likes of Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase, or Tee Higgins to carry their Week 1 fantasy squad walked away from Sunday very disappointed.

For all the preseason hype generated by Burrow's healthy training camp and all the resultant reps he got with his two go-to targets, that trademark season kickoff rust was still there. It didn't help that Burrow was under siege from Myles Garrett and Cleveland's defensive front, but that's always part of the deal when you play the Browns.

Burrow managing only 4.9 yards per pass attempt and 113 yards through the air is not good enough. The fact that the Bengals still won in spite of that bodes extremely well for the rest of the year. Higgins had only three catches for 33 yards on four targets; Chase was limited to two grabs for 26 yards on five targets.

Rough stuff. I'm actually so fired up to see how the fellas rally from this disappointment. Zero concern going forward.

Winner: Demetrius Knight Jr.

How about the rookie second-round pick!? Eight tackles in your opening half of regular-season action in the NFL? That'll do! Just a little historical context on the type of company Knight is keeping:

Given that Knight looked pretty suspect in the preseason, I was surprised he remained atop the depth chart over ex-Eagle Oren Burks. A lot of reports out of camp on Knight were positive, yet I was struggling to see it in game situations, albeit with a far more limited playbook.

A quieter second half of Week 1 resulted in Knight finishing with 10 tackles. Still, I was very pleased with what I saw. Remember that whole thing about two third-round draftees being healthy scratches? Immediate production from any draft pick is encouraging.

The general thought I had about Knight throughout camp, once news broke that he was an unquestioned starter, was that he had better hit the ground running as a 25-year-old rookie. He certainly did on Sunday.

Loser: Bengals pass-rushers not named Trey Hendrickson

Trey Hendrickson registered a sack of Joe Flacco, but the rest of the defensive end rotation didn't account for much at all.

Myles Murphy continues to disappoint. Rookie first-rounder Shemar Stewart had a debut to forget — did he even play? With zero tackles, people are asking! — and it's quite simply a whole lotta "mid" all over the place.

The data wasn't pretty until Joseph Ossai, at long last, lined up on the inside and got to Flacco to force that interception to Battle.

I'm so sick of these dudes. Not gonna lie. It's just Sunday after Sunday of anticlimactic inability to get after the opposing quarterback. It is, in essence, all on Trey Hendrickson when it comes to the pass rush. Even when Ossai pushed the pocket to lead to the takeaway, Flacco was holding the ball for quite a long time before he let it go, and a fluky bounce helped the cause.

Not to be a total pessimist about the awesome result of that play. It's just that the Bengals' pass rush wins are too few and far between to be good enough come playoff time. The good news? Plenty of time to address it from Week 1 on.

Winner: Zac Taylor

For a man who's gone 1-11 during his head coaching tenure across Weeks 1 and 2, what a monkey off the back of Zac Taylor to pick up a victory like this — especially on the road.

I'm happy for the guy. It's easy to scapegoat the coach when there's a consistent trend of failing to set the tone out of the gates. Almost to the point of being uncanny, and a metaphysical curse beyond Taylor's control. I don't actually believe that, don't worry.

Yes, it was a bad offensive performance. Whatever the new-look rushing attack spearheaded by Chase Brown was supposed to be limited him to 43 yards on 21 carries. That said, Taylor and Dan Pitcher dialed up enough good plays early to get the Bengals in the end zone twice in the first half. From there, the Bengals managed to hang on for dear life just well enough to get the dub.

I almost built this section around new defensive coordinator Al Golden. Since Cincinnati's defensive highlights and victory had far more to do with the Browns' sloppy execution than anything else, I couldn't help but roll with Taylor for simply getting the job done. Yay, Zac! 1-0!! WHO DEY!!!

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