The Cincinnati Bengals had their chance to steal one from the Jacksonville Jaguars, and they got all the way to the doorstep. They just couldn’t kick the door in.
A 22-17 loss at Paycor Stadium left Cincinnati one yard short on its final drive, but the bigger damage came earlier. Joe Burrow put up massive numbers - 39 completions on 54 attempts for 428 yards, one passing touchdown and another score on the ground - yet his two interceptions were the plays that most shaped the outcome.
That’s the hard truth of this one. Burrow kept the Bengals alive after Ja’Marr Chase left in the second quarter with a concussion and Tee Higgins later went down with an abductor injury.
Higgins still finished with 11 catches for 157 yards before exiting. Even with the injuries, Cincinnati had enough offense to stay in the fight.
But Burrow’s turnovers kept handing the Jaguars breathing room the Bengals could not afford to give away.
The first one came late in the second quarter with Cincinnati trailing 6-3 and moving into Jacksonville territory. Jourdan Lewis took the interception back 45 yards to the Bengals’ 18, and Trevor Lawrence cashed it in four plays later with a touchdown pass to Brian Thomas Jr. Instead of heading into halftime tied or still within one score, Cincinnati walked off the field down 13-3.
The second pick was even more costly. Early in the fourth quarter, the Bengals had trimmed the gap to 16-10 and reached the Jaguars’ 10-yard line.
Under pressure, Burrow tried to get rid of the ball and never saw Foyesade Oluokun, who stepped in front of it and ended a golden scoring chance. Burrow owned it afterward, saying it was a bad play and the turnover he wanted back most.
Joe Burrow’s 2nd interception of the game.
— The Sports Geek (@TheSports_Geek) October 4, 2026
A costly one with Cincinnati in the red zone pic.twitter.com/rSC6AyuNvJ
That one hurt because the margin was already tight. A touchdown would have given Cincinnati the lead, and even a field goal would have pulled it within three. In a game decided by five points, those are the snaps that change everything.
But Burrow was hardly working with a full deck. The Bengals’ ground game never showed up, and that put the entire offense on his shoulders.
Cincinnati ran for just 23 yards on 15 carries, a meager 1.5 yards per attempt. Chase Brown had 10 yards on nine rushes, Samaje Perine added seven on three carries, and the team never produced a run longer than six yards.
The Bengals also managed only two rushing first downs.
That kind of non-existent balance is why Burrow threw it 54 times. Jacksonville didn’t need to smother every play; it only needed to keep forcing Cincinnati into obvious passing situations and wait for the mistake. The Jaguars got exactly that when the red-zone interception arrived.
The Bengals still piled up 437 total yards and 26 first downs, but the offense became too easy to read once the run game offered nothing. Jacksonville finished with 111 rushing yards and a 4.1-yard average, while Cincinnati had to chase the game through the air nearly every snap.
The coaching staff deserves its share of the blame, too. Cincinnati reached the red zone four times and turned only two of those trips into touchdowns. The Bengals also piled up 11 penalties for 108 yards in a game that featured 24 combined flags.
Then there was the last stand. With 1:44 left, Cincinnati took over at its own 17 and quickly pushed into Jaguars territory.
Three straight incompletions brought up fourth-and-10 from the Jacksonville 21. Burrow dumped the ball to Brown, who had room to work, but Rayuan Lane III brought him down at the 12 - one yard shy of the marker.
Burrow said he liked the one-on-one matchup and trusted Brown to make a play. Brown knew where the line to gain was and fought for extra yards, but the Jaguars made the stop. The bigger issue was that the drive had to become a fourth-and-10 in the first place.
The Bengals did show some fight after falling behind 22-10 with 6:35 remaining. Burrow answered with a nine-play touchdown drive, the defense got a punt, and Cincinnati drove back into the red zone again even without Chase or Higgins. But the comeback still ran out of room.
In the end, this wasn’t about Brown being stopped one yard short. It was about Burrow’s two interceptions creating a potential 14-point swing, a run game that gave Cincinnati almost nothing and an offense that too often left points on the table. Burrow kept the Bengals in striking distance, but his turnovers were the biggest reason the rally never got to the finish line.
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