Hard to believe this game was tied with three minutes left in the second quarter. The Bengals got the ball and drove through the Raiders defense about as easy as any team could.
In just over two minutes, they went on a seven-play drive that had just ONE second down. That second down saw Maxx Crosby jump the snap and hit Joe Burrow hard, leading to an offsides penalty AND a roughing the passer penalty.
That drive gave the Bengals a 17-10 lead. The Raiders looked like they might respond, but after driving into Cincinnati territory, just a few yards from field goal range woth :17 seconds left in the quarter, Antonio Pierce opted to punt on fourth down instead of trying to score.
That decision showed how little faith he has in both his offense and his defense. They took that lack of faith into the third quarter.
The Bengals opened the third quarter with another hot-knife-through-butter drive for a touchdown.
The Raiders response was a fumbled handoff to DJ Turner recovered by the Bengals at the Vegas 21, leading to another quick touchdown to TE Mike Gesicki. And just over ten minutes of game time, it went from a 10-10 tie to a 31-10 Bengals lead.
Gardner Minshew was taken out and replaced by Desmond Ridder, who didn’t have any more success. Minshew went 10 of 17 for 124 yards with no TDs and no INT.
There was still over 20 minutes left in the game, but the Raiders were showing no signs of life on either side of the ball. They had just one first down in the third quarter and they were losing the overall first down battle 22-10.
Things got a bit interesting midway through the fourth quarter when Jack Jones stepped in front of a Burrow pass into the right flat, returning it for a touchdown to make it a 31-17 game.
Jones broke up a pass on third down on the next drive to give the Raiders the ball back.
At that point, Ridder seemed to get things going. He completed six passes, moving the Raiders deep into Cincinnati territory. But by this point, only touchdowns were going to get the Raiders back in this game. The Bengals dialed up pressure and sacked Ridder twice on three plays. And on fourth down, they came after him again, leading to an incompletion and a turnover on downs.
On the ensuing drive, the Bengals put the exclamation on it with Burrow finding Mike Gesicki for another touchdown, putting the lad back to three scores at 38-17.
Surely making things more difficult for the Raiders were injuries.
The lost two left tackles with both Kolton Miller and Andrus Peat leaving with injuries. On the other side of the ball, they saw top cornerback Nate Hobbs carted off with an ankle injury.
Munford in particular struggled at left tackle. Trey Hendrickson beat him several times, allowing three of Hendrickson’s career-high four sacks in the game. Peat allowed the other one.
The final sack was the strip variety with the Bengals recovering at the Vegas 13-yard-line. They would add a field goal to make it 41-17.
A garbage time TD from Ridder to Brock Bowers gave us the final score of 41-24.
Joe Burrow finished the game 27 of 39 for 251 yards, 5 TD’s and 1 INT.
The Raiders head into their bye at 2-7. The Bengals improve to 4-5 on the season.