If you have the Cincinnati Bengals’ AJ Green on your fantasy team, we hope you started him. The Bengals are certainly glad they did.
Green caught 10 passes for 173 yards and a TD as Cincy pasted the Miami Dolphins 22-7 on Thursday night. He ran (and caught) wild against a Miami secondary that wasn’t at full strength after benching cornerback Byron Maxwell. But it’s unlikely that even Maxwell’s presence would’ve had a huge impact – Green was money last night.
That’s just one of our observations from the game. Here are the rest:
The Rest (Here They Are)
1. Scoring struggles. The Cincinnati Bengals had trouble putting the ball into the end zone (1 TD in 4 Red Zone trips) and were only 3 for 15 on 3rd downs. Kicker Mike Nugent booted 5 field goals to provide the margin of victory, and there’s good and bad that comes with that. The good is that the Bengals have a productive kicker. The bad? Cincy isn’t finishing drives. Some of those 3s need to be 7s if the Cincinnati Bengals hope to reach the playoffs.
2. The (Non) Running Man. Stop us if you’ve heard this one – the Bengals ground game didn’t work. The team only had 77 yards rushing. Fortunately they have QB Andy Dalton, who threw for 296 yards and a score. He, like Green, shouldered the load. But they shouldn’t have to.
3. Dominating on the D-line. Anybody wearing orange and black stripes had to be happy with the Cincinnati Bengals defensive line last night. They produced 5 sacks, and in many cases, didn’t even need to rush that many players (4) to make it happen. The pressure was constant on Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill, who threw for only 160 yards. Carlos Dunlap was the defensive player of the night – 2 sacks, 5 tackles, 2 passes defended and a forced fumble.
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