For one half on Sunday, the Bengals looked stuck in neutral. For the next, they looked unstoppable.
Cincinnati erased a miserable opening 30 minutes and rolled past Baltimore 35-13, moving to 4-2 and finally picking up its first division win. The turnaround was dramatic enough on its own, but the full game had plenty of layers: Joe Burrow catching fire, Tee Higgins making his impact felt late, and a defense that closed the door after halftime.
Burrow was the center of it all. After the break, he completed 16 of 18 passes for 249 yards and four touchdowns, good for a perfect 158.3 passer rating.
Cincinnati scored on five straight possessions in the second half and piled up 298 yards and 19 first downs after intermission alone. Burrow finished 22 of 30 for 292 yards and four scores, giving him 15 touchdown passes through six games, his most ever at this point in a season.
Higgins made his usual big-game case in the second half. He didn’t touch the ball before halftime, then came out and caught six passes for 148 yards, including a 44-yarder and a 13-yard go-ahead touchdown. That gave him his 17th career 100-yard game, and he also crossed 6,000 career receiving yards.
Ja’Marr Chase added the final punctuation mark. Burrow said Chase helped spark the group at halftime, and Chase answered with a 2-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter, his 10th career score against Baltimore.
The defense did its part once the Bengals finally seized control. Baltimore didn’t score after halftime, managed just five first downs on six second-half drives, and turned it over on downs at the Bengals’ 12 on a fourth-and-2 while trailing by a point.
Cincinnati scored on the next possession. The Ravens also saw quarterback Tyler Huntley sacked four times, with Boye Mafe, Dexter Lawrence II and rookie Cashius Howell getting to him; Howell’s was the first sack of his career.
Demetrius Knight Jr. added an interception.
The Bengals also controlled the matchup with Derrick Henry. He carried 17 times for 45 yards, a 2.6 average, and Baltimore finished at 3.1 yards per carry as a team. When a defense keeps Henry under 50 yards, it has done some serious work up front.
There were other bright spots, too. Mike Gesicki caught a 6-yard touchdown for his fourth straight game with a score, Drew Sample added a 16-yard touchdown, and Ryan Rehkow placed all four of his punts inside the 20.
But the victory didn’t erase the rough edges.
The running game never really got going. Chase Brown had 11 carries for 39 yards, and Cincinnati’s backs totaled 61 yards on 18 attempts.
Samaje Perine did score, but the offense leaned heavily on Burrow and the passing game. That can win on a day like this, but it’s not a formula the Bengals can expect to live on every week.
Baltimore also helped Cincinnati out in more than one way. Huntley, starting again with Lamar Jackson out for a third straight game, threw for a career-high 298 yards.
Zay Flowers caught eight passes for 137 yards and a 48-yard screen touchdown on Baltimore’s opening drive. The Ravens also committed 10 penalties for 57 yards.
Even so, they left points on the field with two first-half red-zone trips that ended in field goals, and they passed up a chip-shot field goal early in the fourth quarter and failed on fourth down.
And then there was the first half, which was as bad as the second half was good.
At the break, Burrow was 6 of 12 for 43 yards. Cincinnati had two first downs, crossed midfield only once, and was being outgained 258-59.
Baltimore ran 39 plays to the Bengals’ 19 and held the ball for 22:20. The Ravens converted 8 of 11 third downs in the first half, their most in a half since 2018.
Higgins had no catches. FOX19’s Jeremy Rauch called it “arguably the most incompetent half in the Joe Burrow era,” and that’s hard to push back on.
The Bengals survived this one because the second half was a complete flip of the script. They won’t want to keep asking for that kind of rescue job. Not with Buffalo, Kansas City, or any other January opponent in mind.
In Other News...
Bengals Trade Deadline Debate Just Got Much Bigger Than Running Back
The trade deadline conversation around the Bengals has started to widen beyond the obvious running back chatter, even with marquee names like Jonathan Taylor and Saquon Barkley floating around the market. Cincinnatis interest in upgrading the backfield is understandable given Chase Browns uneven production, but the bigger question is whether a splashy move at that spot fits the way this front office usually operates.
For a team that has tended to lean draft-heavy in building its roster, the more practical fix may be elsewhere on the roster. The Bengals could use help in several spots, and the argument is growing that reinforcements on defense or up front might do more for the stretch run than chasing a high-profile runner. [Read more 🡒]
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What makes this possibility appealing is the combination of production and price. Compared with the bigger-name backs who tend to dominate deadline chatter, this is the kind of move that fits a team looking for help without overcommitting long term, especially with an expiring deal in play. Nothing is confirmed yet, but the buzz is clearly pointing toward a more realistic type of upgrade if Cincinnati decides to act. [Read more 🡒]
Jessie Bates Just Reopened A Painful Bengals What-If
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Bryan Cook was brought in to help stabilize that spot, but the larger issue remains the same: the Bengals have not found a clean replacement for what Bates brought. And while the move made sense in the moment from a cap-management standpoint, it has only sharpened the sense that this was one of those franchise crossroads that can be revisited for years. [Read more 🡒]