Burrow leads comeback. Joe Burrow showed tons of poise in leading a come-from-behind win. He didn’t play badly within the half, yet the Bengals had a zero on the scoreboard entering the break because of a missed field goal and tons of possession time for the Jacksonville offense. But Burrow came out ablaze within the last half and led a scoring drive on all four of Cincinnati’s second-half possessions. He had rock-solid pass protection for the second week during a row; consistent with Next Gen Stats, his average time to throw (2.73 seconds) was a quarter-second longer than it had been in Weeks 1-3. The result: 17 completions on 20 second-half attempts.
Big strides for Lawrence. This was far and away Trevor Lawrence’s best game for Jacksonville. apart from curing the turnover bug that spoiled his first three outings, he frustrated the Bengals defense through the air and on the bottom. He took less difficult completions underneath coverage, was an ideal 7-for-7 on play-action throws, and threw the ball away when needed. He ran the ball more effectively than the box score will credit him with (36 yards), moving the chains with option keepers to stay drives alive. He also was operating without one among his top targets in WR D.J. Chark, who exited on the opening drive with an injury.
Uzomah comes up huge. Bengals end C.J. Uzomah. the previous fifth-round pick didn’t catch a ball before halftime but proved to be Jacksonville’s undoing with five catches for a career-high 95 yards and two touchdowns thereafter. Burrow hurt Jacksonville on play-action rollouts, including on Uzomah’s first touchdown, and therefore the end did many damages on the game-winning drive, as well: a first-down catch to the Jaguars 43, and a 25-yard reception on a 2nd-and-14 play that put the Bengals in field-goal range.
Seismic momentum shift. There’s no overstating what proportion momentum the Bengals were ready to seize in only a couple of minutes on all sides of halftime. Were it not for his or her fourth-down stop on their 1-yard line before the half, the Jaguars’ would-be 21-0 lead might’ve led to a special outcome. Instead, Cincinnati took a way more manageable 14-0 deficit into the room, then emerged for a fast TD drive to open the last half, followed by a three-and-out defensive series. By then, the house crowd had been rejuvenated, and therefore the game slowly slipped far away from Jacksonville, because the Bengals snapped a 20-game streak when trailing by 14 or more points, per NFL Research.
Here’s to you, Mr. Robinson. The Jaguar’s coaching staff has gotten Jaguars back James Robinson progressively more carries each game this season — just five in Week 1, then 11, 15, and eventually 18 on Thursday night. It’s no accident that the Jacksonville offense has, in turn, gotten progressively more efficient. Forcing Cincinnati to respect Robinson on Thursday night is that the reason the option-keeper was open for Lawrence, to not mention some nice play-action passes. Robinson finished 18 for 78 on the bottom with two touchdowns; he’ll get to be central to whatever progress the Jaguars make offensively going forward.
