Brady, the 42-year-old future Hall of Famer, only passed for 128 yards but had two touchdowns and enough help from his defense to get the win. Here are five takeaways from the game:
1. Tide turns with turnovers
The Bengals’ defense forced a punt to give the offense a chance to regain a lead with less than two minutes before halftime and the game tied at 10; however, the game changed with Alex Erickson’s muffed punt. The Patriots recovered and got a 46-yard field goal out of Nick Folk before halftime, and their defense took over in the second half.
Dalton threw interceptions on two consecutive drives to start the second half, both picked off by Stephon Gilmore and one in which he returned 64 yards for a touchdown. The Patriots got 17 straight points off those turnovers, and then continued deflating Cincinnati’s offense with two more interceptions. New England leads the league with a plus-24 turnover differential.
“When you turn the ball over fives times against a great football team, that’s exactly what’s going to happen,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “… All of a sudden it’s a 21-point game in the fourth quarter, and that’s unacceptable.”
It was the fourth four-interception game of Dalton’s career. Two of them were on passes thrown behind Tyler Boyd.
“It felt like, for me, I was trying to give my guys a chance, and their guys ended up making the plays,” Dalton said. “They were great plays by them, so that’s what it came down to.”
2. Missed opportunity
Perhaps the momentum had already changed before the turnover trouble began, though.
The Bengals had a 10-7 lead in the second quarter and all the momentum until Joe Mixon was stopped for a turnover on downs in a fourth-and-inches situation at the New England 30-yard line. The Patriots drove down and tied the game on a 40-yard field goal, and Cincinnati would never lead again.
Few who have watched the Bengals this season would have been surprised by the turnover on downs. Cincinnati lined up in a shotgun formation, which has been a familiarly unsuccessful situation all season. Dalton said the formation gives the offense a chance to throw or run, and the defense doesn’t know which to expect, but Mixon credited the Patriots for making the play.
“Coach called the play, and we’ve got to execute the play,” Mixon said. “They get paid on the other side too, and they made the play. We’ve got to fire off on the ball with the O-line. For me, I’ve got to go get the first down and I didn’t do it. I put that on me. We’ve got to be better, and I’ve got to put that upon me to put my team in the best position to win. I’ve got to make a harder cut or get up in the hole a little faster or have more patience and wait it out. I put that on me.”
Mixon had success early on, as the Bengals opened with eight straight runs and he amassed 72 yards on 10 carries in the first quarter alone. He finished with 136 yards rushing and needs just 75 more to hit 1,000 for the season.
3. Pressuring Brady worked early
The Bengals were doing well getting pressure on Brady in the first half, and that resulted in two sacks and some off-target passes. He finished the game completing just 15 of 29 passes for his lowest passing total of the season.
“Every team that you watch that beats the Patriots, it comes down to getting Tom Brady off the spot and affecting him,” defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “We did a good job in the first half but didn’t sustain it. We just have to continue to be more disruptive and get the ball out. It was four-man rushes. We were just coming after him hard, winning one-on-one matches. Carl and everyone did a good job rushing. I think they just controlled the ball more (in the second half) with those turnovers, running the ball. We had them on their heels in the first half.”
Hubbard and Carlos Dunlap each had one sack and one quarterback hurry, Andrew Billings had a quarterback pressure and Carl Lawson had three hurries.
“I’m not going to lie, it felt good,” Hubbard said. “It was a special moment. It was definitely a bucket list thing to get a sack on probably the greatest quarterback to ever play the game, but not coming out with the win really hurts.”
4. Still among the best
Even while not playing well, Brady proved why he is one of the best. He doesn’t get flustered, Hubbard said. He still managed to throw two touchdowns, including one on the Patriots’ first drive of the second half when he had four pass rushers coming at him and still managed 5.71 seconds to find N’Keal Harry for a 7-yard touchdown and a 20-10 lead.
“That was one of those situations where we were trying to rush the pocket and keep him in there and we’ve got to win our one-on-ones and get there,” Hubbard said. “That’s one play all four of us on the line would like to have back because we gave him too much time.”
That second touchdown pass moved Brady into second on the NFL’s all-time touchdown pass list at 538, leap-frogging past Drew Brees, who is at 537, and putting him one behind Peyton Manning for the lead.
5. Videtaping scandal not to blame
The Bengals say they didn’t play any differently because of what happened last week when the Patriots were caught filming their sideline during their game at Cleveland. The NFL is investigating, and New England reportedly suspended the videographer, but Taylor said his players handled the distraction well. He continued to decline comment any further on the topic, and Mixon said it didn’t change the way the Bengals felt about the game or the opponent.
SUNDAY’S GAME
Bengals at Dolphins, 1 p.m., WHIO-TV Ch. 7, Ch. 12; 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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