ANALYSIS: 5 takeaways from Bengals’ loss to Jets

The Bengals (5-3), who were looking for their third straight road win, fell to the struggling Jets, 34-31, on Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Here are five takeaways from the loss…

1. Offense self imploded

Cincinnati took a 31-20 lead with 7:29 left, but self-imploded down the stretch, giving up two touchdowns with a Joe Burrow interception in between. The offense, when needed most, simply fell flat the rest of the way, while the defense continued to struggle as it had all game.

After the Jets scored to cut the deficit down to five, defensive lineman Shaq Lawson tipped a Burrow pass to himself on the next play from scrimmage and picked it off to put New York at the Cincinnati 14-yard line. Two plays later, Matt White connected with former Bengals tight end Tyler Kroft, then caught the trick-play two-point conversion pass by Jamison Crowder to put the Jets up 34-31 with 3:45 left.

The Bengals managed one first down but Burrow was sacked on third-and-11, and they placed their hope in the defense making a stop with the two-minute warning approaching. New York was able to get two first downs and kneel out to preserve the win.

2. Penalty prevented one last chance

The Bengals could have possibly gotten the ball back in Burrow’s hands for a game-winning or tying drive just after the two-minute warning. However, when Mike Hilton made the stop on third-and-11, tackling Ty Johnson well short of a first down, the officials called him for unnecessary roughness on a helmet-to-helmet in which they said he lowered his head into Johnson.

Trent Green on the CBS broadcast questioned that call because it appeared Johnson had lowered his and initiated the contact.

A pool reporter interview with referee Craig Wrolstad revealed the officials discussed the penalty briefly but did not bring up the possibility the player on offense had initiated the contact.

“Normally in that situation, there are only a couple of officials looking at it,” Wrolstad said, according to the pool report response. “We’re not all looking at that. I don’t think there was any discussion about the offense. The call was on the defense.”

3. Defense struggled against backup QB

The Bengals defense had trouble figuring out the Jets’ backup quarterback, as White completed 37 of 45 passes for 405 yards and three touchdowns in his first NFL start, replacing injured rookie No. 2 draft pick Zach Wilson. None of his passes traveled for more than 15 yards, as White kept things simple to pick apart the Bengals’ zone-based defense.

Jessie Bates and Germaine Pratt got a pair of easy interceptions off deflections on the second and third possessions, but White rebounded and led the Jets’ comeback with a nearly flawless second half. White completed 14 of 16 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. Going into Sunday, the Jets were 0-38 over the past five seasons when trailing by 11 points or more in the fourth quarter.

New York converted 6 of 11 third-down plays (54.5 percent) and finished with 511 yards of offense – the most yardage the Bengals have allowed all season. White’s 37 pass completions were the most ever by an NFL quarterback in his first start.

4. Takeaways not enough

The Bengals had a season-best three takeaways and still couldn’t get a win. Bates ran back the first interception 65 yards to the Jets’ 1-yard line and the Bengals failed to get points out of it. Joe Mixon ran twice to lose yards, Ja’Marr Chase had his second drop of the day and Burrow was sacked on fourth down.

Two plays later, Pratt ended up with an interception to put the ball back in Burrow’s hand at the 15-yard line, and this time Mixon did get the touchdown from the 1-yard line after nearly scoring on the previous pass play.

With a 14-7 lead in the second quarter, Vonn Bell stripped the ball from Crowder at the end of a 26-yard reception, but the Bengals settled for a field goal after getting to the 3-yard line. The Jets went down and scored on an eight-play drive with four of the first five plays going for first downs to reach the redzone. White’s 8-yard touchdown pass with 19 seconds left brought the Jets back within three going into halftime.

Burrow finished with 259 yards passing and three touchdowns with one interception and three sacks. Chase had his first quiet game, other than the noticeable drops, as he finished with just three catches on nine targets for 32 yards and one touchdown. Tee Higgins had the best day of the receivers with four catches for 97 yards, and Tyler Boyd had five catches for 69 yards and a touchdown.

5. Trap game

Cincinnati had all the momentum going into this game, coming off dominant wins at Baltimore and Detroit, but the Bengals haven’t won three road games in a row since 2015 and it wasn’t in the cards Sunday.

While the game was disappointing, there’s no cause for concern. The loss falls between two big AFC North games, and the Bengals now refocus for Sunday’s home game against the Browns (4-4). Baltimore (5-2), which had a bye this week, now sits atop the division based on win percentage.

Burrow said in his postgame press conference that he didn’t think there was any “hangover effect” from last week’s big win. The team had a good week of practice but just didn’t get the job done Sunday.

“You can learn a lot from every loss,” he said. “We will go back and watch the film and show where we weren’t good enough. You don’t play well enough in this league you are going to get beat by anyone.”