Jake Browning and the Cincinnati offense marched right down the field with relative ease for a field goal on the opening drive on Monday night.
They would not run a play on the other side of midfield again.
A smothering defense led by Nik Bonitto and Pat Surtain helped the Denver Broncos to a 28-3 win over the Bengals. Cincinnati had four first downs on the first possession and just five the rest of the game.
Photo: AP
“We make it hard on the opposing offense,” said Surtain, whose defense limited the Bengals to 102 total yards after the first drive went for 57. “That’s the standard that we’ve got to keep on upholding ourselves to in order to win those big-time games.”
For Browning and the Bengals (2-2), it is another aggravating loss. They were dominated in a 48-10 shellacking at Minnesota the week before, but in that game, they turned the ball over five times.
This time, the Bengals hung onto the football.
“Yeah, we played clean,” Browning said. “But we didn’t move the ball, so who cares?”
The Bengals also committed 11 penalties for 65 yards. Browning, who was filling in for the injured Joe Burrow, was sacked three times for a second straight game.
“It is frustration. It’s disappointment,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “It’s just about creating momentum.”
They almost caught a spark in the second quarter when Browning completed a long pass to Tee Higgins that went for 37 yards and had the ball down to the Denver 14, but it was called back due to an illegal formation.
Cincinnati did not have a completion that went for more than 22 yards or a run longer than 6 yards.
After converting two third-down plays on the opening drive, the Bengals would not convert another the rest of the way. They had eight straight punts, not including the kneel-down to run out the first half.
Surtain kept close tabs on Bengals standout receiver Ja’Marr Chase all night. Chase was targeted eight times, catching five passes for 23 yards.
“I know Joe was out, but we always pride in ourselves to make sure that we eliminate explosives,” Surtain said.
The Bengals even won the turnover margin with Demetrius Knight’s interception of a Bo Nix pass in the end zone late in the first half.
Taylor was hoping it would provide the lift they needed.
It did not.
The Bengals had the ball for 49 seconds before punting it back to Denver. The Broncos (2-2) scored on Nix’s 20-yard TD pass to Courtland Sutton with eight seconds left before halftime to make it 21-3.
“The last two weeks just feels like we never really had momentum, haven’t really been explosive,” Browning said. “You’re fighting a hard battle with one arm behind your back when you end up in longer situations — second-and-long, first-and-long, leading to third-and-long. Good offenses don’t do that, so we need to clean it up.”
It is back to the drawing board for the Bengals, who host Detroit on Sunday.
“When you play that poorly on offense for this two-game stretch, everybody’s playing a role in it,” Browning said. “Everybody’s got to play a role in the solution.”
The Broncos had the football for more than 15 minutes longer than the Bengals as they amassed 512 yards and converted 8 of 14 third-down plays. It let Surtain, Bonitto and the defense get some valuable rest.
“I was sitting there watching like a fan, watching the offense go to work,” Surtain said. “We keep on doing that week in and week out, we’re going to be a dangerous team.”
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