Cincinnati Bengals / New York Giants – Week 10 Recap

The Cincinnati Bengals missed a golden opportunity on Monday night. What could have been a huge, momentum-building victory to start the second half of the season turned into a deflating 21-20 loss to the New York Giants. What went right, and what went wrong? Bengals blog boys Nathan and Chris give their post game thoughts.

Chris: I was so excited about Tyler Eifert’s potential impact on the game. And when he caught the 71-yard pass on the first drive, I thought New York would have trouble containing the Bengals’ passing game all night. But the offense petered out after that, along with my confidence.

Dalton only went for 204 yards – paltry by his standards. No receiver broke 100 yards, and that was the key to the Giants’ win. They took away the strength of the Bengals’ offense. The rushing attack, while improved, hasn’t emerged as enough of a consistent threat to pick up the slack.

Nate: Watching this game was rather frustrating. The Bengals showed flashes of being a good team but mostly looked like a disinterest and unprepared group as the Giants gave them every opportunity to come out victorious. 

The flashes: 1). Daltons 71 yard hookup with Tyler Eifert on the Bengals opening drive which ended in a 13 yard A.J. Green TD reception. 2). Dre Kirkpatrick made a nice INT that gave the Bengals great field position inside the Giants 10 yard line, they came away with only 3 points. And 3). Alex Erickson started the 2nd half with an 84 yard kickoff return which lead to Jeremy Hill running one in for TD which gave the Bengals a 17-14 lead early in the 3rd quarter.

The rest of the game was filled with things like the team going 2 for 11 on 3rd downs, terrible clock management with over a minute to go and a time out remaining, poor pass protection for Dalton, and allowing the leagues worst rushing attack to go for 122 yards on 27 attempts (4.5 ypa), not what Bengals fans hoped to see coming off a bye week.