Bengals get 1st victory under new regime

by pepperny | 9 years ago | 0 Comments

(AP) Cincinatti, OH - The Bengal fans were in shock when their former coach walked out on the team to take the head coaching position of the Minnesota Vikings leaving a coaching vacancy for the 1-0 Bengals as they were set to host the divison rival Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals were able to lure Rob Mass out of retirement to bring his 4-3 defensive philosophy back but how rusty would the team be with their coach needing to knock off some rust.

The Bengals came in with a good gameplan as they kept it simple. The plan? Go to AJ Green early and often. The Ravens had no answer for AJ as he hauled in 5 receptions for 138 yards and 2 TD's to jumpstart the bengals as they jumped out to a 14-3 lead. The Ravens would respond however to keep things close thanks to a hard hit on Jeremy Hill forcing a fumble and scoring 10 straight points to cut into the lead at 14-10. The Ravens did however make a few big mistakes on special teams as they elected to go for 2 60+ yard FG's missing both of them and giving the Bengals great field position.

AJ McCarron would capitalize this time spreading the ball around to 6 different recievers which would end in scoring drives to both Jeremy Hill and Giovani bernard to go up 28-10 in the 4th with only 4 minutes reaming. A scary scene happened moments later as the Bengals defense would put a big hit on James Lucas knocking him out for the game and for the forseeable future. However Kellen Moore would come in and lead the Ravens to a late scoring drive to close out the game as the Bengals hold on for a 28-17 Victory to move to 2-0 on the season.

"It always feels great to get that first win as a new coach, The guys fought hard and really wanted this one" said Coach Mass.

 

Key stat of the game: Bengals hold Ravens to just 25 yards rushing on 16 carries