The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Chicago Bears by a final score of 27-3 on a rainy day in the Windy City on Saturday. They now enter the third and final week of the preseason with an 0-2 record.
The Bears started the game with their regular players on both sides of the ball. Aside from DJ Turner, the Bengals had no regulars on the field and backup quarterback Jake Browning also missed the game because he was dealing with a rib injury.
Early in the game, the Bears’ first line of offense just couldn’t move the ball against the Bengals’ second line of defense. In fact, DJ Turner and Dax Hill were the only starters on the field for the Bengals’ defense, and they only played two series, both of which the Bears finished with three wins and out.
Then, on their third drive, Josh Newton made a beautiful pass breakup to DJ Moore (the Bears’ starters were still in the game) to force a third punt before the Bears moved the sticks for the first time.
On offense, the Bengals’ backups, led by third-string quarterback Logan Woodside (first-string backup Jake Browning was out with a rib injury), faced off against the Bears’ starters in the first half. While they outscored the Bears’ starting offense drive for drive early in the game, they fell behind in the second quarter.
The first goals for both teams came nine minutes before the end of the first half. Woodside failed to catch a lightning corner and was hit mid-throw, which Amen Ogbongbemiga intercepted.
The Bears took the lead and Williams led the Bears down the field, thanks in large part to a bad 43-yard pass interference call against Newton. The Bears were at the 15-yard line, but thanks to a penalty and then a sack by rookie defensive tackle Kris Jenkins, they had to settle for a 37-yard field goal.
After a five-play drive by the Bengals offense, they were forced to punt the ball back to the Bears, giving them the first touchdown of the game. The Bears’ starting offense finally looked like starters. There was a 21-yard run by Khalil Herbert, and Williams found Rome Odunze on a broken play for 45 yards deep.
Once in the red zone, Williams scored his first NFL touchdown with his legs on another broken play after the pocket collapsed on him.
In response, Woodside led the Bengals’ backup offense down the field with little time to spare, allowing Evan McPherson to attempt a 54-yard attempt that would have been good from 65 yards.
With a halftime score of 10:3 in favor of the Bears, the two teams went into the locker room.
The Bengals started the second half with the ball, but were only able to gain 12 yards on six plays before Woodside threw his second interception, this time to Terell Smith, who intercepted a long throw intended for Cole Burgess.
The Bears offense, now led by Tyson Bagent, stormed the field and scored the game’s second touchdown with a pass to Dante Pettis, giving them a 17-3 lead.
The Bengals got the ball back at the 25-yard line, but a holding penalty on the kickoff sent them back to the 15. A negative-yardage run, an incomplete pass and a 12-yard sack later, Ryan Rehkow punted the ball out of the back of the end zone.
The Bears took over at the Bengals’ 48-yard line after Rehkow’s 50-yard punt and stormed down the field before scoring again. The third quarter could be summed up with this sentence: Bagent to Pettis.
Bagent found Pettis on their next drive with two passes, one for 24 yards up the middle and a 25-yard touchdown catch over Lance Robinson at the right pylon. They took a 24-3 lead and scored their second unanswered score of the second half.
Rocky Lombardi, perhaps the biggest name in competitive sports history, took over as quarterback in the final moments of the third quarter. After a 12-man penalty, it looked like the combination of Lombardi and running back Noah Cain would lead the Bengals to their first touchdown.
However, after a nine-yard catch-and-run by rookie tight end Tanner McLachlan, Lombardi was stripped of the ball after keeping it on a read option and it was recovered by the Bears at the 50-yard line.
When the rain started again, the Bears offense didn’t have to run far to set up a 51-yard field goal by Cairo Santos. The Bears managed just nine yards before Santos was able to extend the Bears’ lead to 27-3 over the Bengals.
The Bengals offense took the lead, again led by Lombardi. It should be noted that Jackson Carman also made his debut with 10 minutes left in the game. I wish I could tell you that the Bengals offense stormed down the field and scored their first touchdown of the afternoon, but they didn’t. A penalty here and a missed opportunity there, and Rehkow was punting again.
The Bears offense came out, stalled and punted. Then the Bengals offense came out, stalled and punted.
With just minutes left in the game, the Bears offense stormed down the field. Although they were in range to score another touchdown or at least kick a field goal, the Bears offense came out and simply dropped the ball to their knees to let the clock expire after the two-minute warning.
Overall, the Bears dominated the Bengals in all three aspects of the game on Saturday afternoon. What we should take away from this game, however, was the ability of the Bengals defense to contain first-round pick Caleb Williams and the Bears offense.
While the Bengals offense never really got going, the Bears offense had a few players that made the practice squad rather than the final 53-man roster. The backups on Lou Anarumo’s defense, who will hopefully play in a strong rotation with the starters, gave the Bengals team some good shots as the preseason is now more than halfway over.
On Thursday night, the Bengals will face the Colts at home at Paycor Stadium in their third and final preseason game before continuing with the regular season.
