Pro Football Focus wasn’t exactly handing out gold stars for the Bengals’ 31-24 win over the Dolphins on Sunday afternoon, but a few names still jumped off the page.
Cincinnati’s team grade landed at 72.7, its third-lowest mark of the season, and only 11 players cleared the 70-point threshold. That fits the mood around the game, too, after Joe Burrow and Zac Taylor both sounded less than satisfied with how it went.
On offense, the biggest pop came from a surprise source. Tight end Tanner Hudson made his call-up count, posting a team-best 89.9 PFF grade while playing 19 snaps. Dalton Risner was right behind him in the team rankings with an 84.6, followed by Burrow at 76.3, Ja’Marr Chase at 75, and Samaje Perine at 70.7.
Risner’s season-long work has quietly become one of the Bengals’ better stories. He’s now carrying a career-high 81.7 offensive grade and a personal-best 80.7 pass-blocking grade, and that has him sitting as the sixth-highest graded guard in the NFL among players with at least 190 snaps.
Not everyone held up well, though. The lower end of the offensive grades included Drew Sample at 46.1, Chase Brown at 47.3, Mike Gesicki at 55.3, Tee Higgins at 56.5, and Mitch Tinsley at 58.8.
Brown and Perine were nearly even in usage, with Brown logging 38 snaps and Perine 33, something worth watching as the season moves into its final two-thirds.
On the other side of the ball, Boye Mafe delivered what was arguably the strongest Bengals defensive performance of the day. He scored an 88 grade on 49 snaps, a number that keeps reinforcing the team’s offseason move to pivot toward him instead of staying with the Trey Hendrickson train.
Five other defenders finished with 70-plus grades: Demetrius Knight Jr. at 79.2, Jordan Battle at 79.2, Shemar Stewart at 71 on only eight snaps, B.J. Hill at 70.9, and DJ Turner II at 70.3.
Oren Burks wasn’t far off that group either. In a fill-in role, he put up a 69.5 grade on nine snaps, one of his better outings since joining the Bengals.
At the other end of the defensive chart, Cashius Howell came in lowest at 45.4, with Bryan Cook at 45.9, Cedric Johnson at 47.5, Barrett Carter at 52.4, and DJ Ivey at 54.1. Cook also was responsible for one of Cincinnati’s six missed tackles in the game.
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