6 winners, 3 losers in Bengals' much-needed win in Week 3 vs. Rams

It took until Week 3 but the Cincinnati Bengals got into the win column for the first time in the 2023 regular season. They took down the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 19-16 and it was nice to finally see the team look more like the 2021 and 2022 teams we knew and loved.

The offense took awhile to get going but did enough to win the game. The defense was the real MVP, picking off Matthew Stafford twice and sacking him five times. It was a dominant effort from the defensive side of the ball.

With the Bengals winning this game, we'll start with the losers from this week's game.

All stats courtesy of ESPN

Losers

Tee Higgins

It's been a rollercoaster of a season for Tee Higgins so far with him recording zero catches in Week 1 and then putting together a nice bounce back performance in Week 2. This week, however, he was back to being ineffective, finishing the night with just two catches off of eight targets for 21 yards. It was a frustrating night for the former second-round pick.

Offensive play calling

The Bengals won the game but the play calling was confusing. It didn't make sense on a night where Joe Burrow was clearly dinged up to have him throw the ball nearly 50 times, especially once the Bengals took the lead. Fortunately, the offense was able to score enough points to win the game but the play calling needs to be better moving forward.

Cordell Volson

Considering the Bengals were going up against the terrifying Aaron Donald, the offensive line did okay. Cordell Volson struggled, however. The Bengals had an opportunity to upgrade the left guard position in free agency and the draft but opted to stick with the North Dakota State product. He had a rough go of it against Donald.