Bengals back to 500 as Tagovailoa hurt

The Cincinnati Bengals hauled themselves back to 500 as they continue the process of shaking off their post-Super Bowl funk with a 27-15 win over the previously undefeated Miami Dolphins.

In a game overshadowed by a horrendous looking injury to Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa, the Bengals opened the scoring on a 75-yard opening drive and trailed for a total of just 5:40.

The Bengals much-maligned OL that allowed 13 sacks in the first two games continued their improvement against the Jets where they only allowed two, by allowing just one against the Dolphins.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Bengals and HC Zac Taylor, who had to resort to a trick play in the third-quarter as the offense began to stall after the Dolphins led for the first and only time 15-14.

On 3rd & 11 from their own 24 Joe Burrow lateraled to Tyler Boyd who uncorked a 23-yard dime to Ja’Marr Chase to keep the drive alive. The Bengals would score the go-ahead FG seven plays later and never looked back.

The game could have been very different though, with the Dolphins RB Chase Edmonds dropping an easy touchdown catch on Miami’s first drive. The Dolphins settled for a field goal which became their theme for the night scoring three field goals and only one TD.

Tua Tagovailoa suffers bad concussion

Trailing 7-6 in the second quarter, Tua Tagovailoa was sacked by Tupou with his head hitting the ground and it was immediately apparent something was wrong with the third-year QB.

On the field for 10 minutes before being stretchered off and into a waiting ambulance, Tagovailoa was later discharged and flew home with the team after suffering a bad concussion.

With Tua having briefly left Sundays game against the Bills after hitting his head and staggering to his knees, there are bound to be questions about the NFL’s concussion protocol, and whether the Dolphins could have done more, with the NFLPA carrying out an investigation into the incident.

Bengals offense still developing

It was clear for most of the night that the Bengals are still working to develop cohesion along an offensive line returning only one starter from last seasons Super Bowl run.

With QB Joe Burrow mostly occupying himself with short, quicker routes it wasn’t until the second half that things opened up more for the Bengals as the Dolphins inexperienced secondary began to be more regularly exposed.

It will be a major boost to the unit though that they largely with stood the pressure of a Dolphins defence renowned for it’s exotic blitz packages to only give up one sack after what had been a horrendous start to the season.

In week 5 the Dolphins travel to New Jersey to play the Jets, while the Bengals visit the Ravens.

BENGALS 27-15 DOLPHINS GAME STATS

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