Winners and losers from Bengals' Week 18 win vs Ravens
The Cincinnati Bengals' 2022 regular season has come to an end with a 27-16 victory over the Baltimore Ravens. We'll see this exact same matchup at the exact same location in less than a week, as the Bengals and Ravens will go toe-to-toe in the Wild Card round to determine who wins the rivalry this season.
With the game in the books, let's check out the winners and losers from the 11-point victory. Let's start with the losers.
Losers
Offensive Line
Things are not trending well for the Bengals offensive line. In Week 16, they lost La'el Collins to IR and in the season finale, Alex Cappa was injured and we have no idea if he'll be able to play again this season. Zac Taylor didn't have an update on him during his post-game press conference but he was spotted on a scooter during the locker room celebration.
If Cappa can't play in the postseason, that means the entire right side of the o-line would be backups. Max Scharping filled in for Cappa at right guard and Hakeem Adeniji has been the replacement for Collins at right tackle.
Max Scharping was a cutdown day waiver wire pickup who has been the first guard off the bench essentially all season. He'll enter the game and possibly be the starter for much longer than that.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) January 8, 2023
Cappa and Volson have started every game.
The injuries are problematic enough but the offensive line did not look great on Sunday. Sure, Joe Burrow was only sacked twice during the game, but he was hit six times total and one of those caused him to lose a fumble (though the officiating goofed up on that entire ordeal).
The offensive line has to play better in the postseason but it'll be tricky with the right side potentially being comprised of backups.
Run Game
Bengals fans should be worried about the state of the run game right now. In Week 18, the offense managed just 55 yards on the ground and that was in a game where they led by double-digits throughout.
If the Bengals can't run the ball in the postseason, it's not going to end well for them.
Winners
Drue Chrisman
Punting has been suspect this season but Chrisman crushed his job on Sunday. The biggest moment for him came when he punted an absolute beauty down into the corner to pin the Ravens deep. He got even more applause for this when shortly after, Trey Hendrickson and Joseph Ossai stripped Anthony Brown and recovered the football in the end zone for a defensive touchdown.
All of that was made possible because of Chrisman's punt.
Drue Chrisman with one of his best punts in a key moment of this game. 56 yards and pinning the Ravens at their 5 with :47 left in first half.
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 8, 2023
Ja'Marr Chase
On a day when Joe Burrow didn't look super sharp, Chase continued to make plays. He finished the day with eight catches for 86 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown was very impressive and was labeled by Next Gen Stats as the most improbable touchdown of his career. That shows how crazy good Chase is!
Chase also got over the 1,000-yard mark for the second straight year. He did this in 12 starts too, which is certainly noteworthy.
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Pass-Rush
Granted, the Ravens were starting their third-string quarterback but the Bengals pass-rush made him uncomfortable. They sacked Anthony Brown four times and forced him into bad throws. He threw two bad interceptions and honestly could have had at least one more pass picked off.
It was good to see the pass-rush fired up and hopefully that fire only grows as we now work our way into the playoffs.