Only 1 sack on Cooper Rush
One of the storylines entering this game was how banged up/inexperienced the Cowboys offensive line was. With Cooper Rush taking the snaps, it felt like a game where the Bengals defense could devour the opposition but that did not happen.
Cincinnati finished the game with just one sack on Rush, which was accomplished by Sam Hubbard. B.J. Hill had the team's lone sack last week, giving the team just two measly sacks on the year through two games. Two years ago, the Bengals were last in the league in sacks so it was a huge surprise when their defense feasted on quarterbacks last year. Are we seeing the 2020 version of this pass rush again?
With Hill, Hubbard, and Trey Hendrickson, two sacks through two games shouldn't be what we're looking at. This unit needs to get better if the Bengals want to start winning games.
No INTs for defense
While the defense did recover a lost fumble, they failed for the second week to grab an interception. Last week the team was facing Mitch Trubisky and this week it was Cooper Rush, who was starting his second game in the NFL. It felt like turnovers would be easy to come by in this game but nope -- The Bengals put up a goose egg in the interception department.
It's hard to win games when the team can't force takeaways and while they did win the turnover battle this week, they still managed to lose the game. The secondary needs to get back that ballhawking ability they established last year or else we're going to see the same results as the season continues.