Missing several key starters, including star rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers, the New York Giants got a valiant effort from their defense on Sunday night, holding Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals to a single touchdown up until the final two minutes of their Week 6 matchup. It wasn’t enough to give Big Blue the victory, however, as Brian Daboll’s own offense sputtered when it mattered most, resulting in a 17-7 Bengals win and dropping the Giants’ prime-time record to an NFL-worst 1-10 since 2018.
Burrow wasn’t invincible at MetLife Stadium, where he required a brief fourth-quarter medical evaluation due to a hard hit from Dexter Lawrence and struggled to hit any deep throws to his talented wideouts. His improbable 47-yard touchdown scramble early in the contest put Cincinnati up first, however, and the Bengals never looked back. That’s mostly because the Giants proved incapable of sustaining drives of their own, wasting a scrappy night from fill-in running back Tyrone Tracy Jr. (93 total yards, one touchdown) and another pocket-collapsing effort from Lawrence and Brian Burns with an erratic aerial performance from Daniel Jones, who was intercepted early.
The Bengals improve to 2-4 with the much-needed victory, while the Giants fall to 2-4.
Here are some overarching takeaways from Sunday’s contest:
Play of the game
Joe Burrow is best known for his airborne strikes, but his legs got the Bengals on the board first with this unusually wide-open scamper for almost 50 yards:
Jones can’t escape his prime-time reputation
Kirk Cousins is a prime example of a quarterback who’s quickly but surely rewritten the narrative of his late-game poise. Daniel Jones isn’t quite there. While he didn’t have a fully healthy supporting cast against Cincinnati, he got respectable production from the backfield, with Tyrone Tracy Jr. converting a few short-yardage spots and showing up as a pass catcher, and had Darius Slayton repeatedly open downfield against a vulnerable Bengals secondary. Still, his accuracy was scattershot, and he never overcame an early pick that was at least partially due to a delayed delivery in a folding pocket. He left it all on the line as a runner, that’s for sure, but the Giants are paying him decent money to be a winning quarterback.
The Bengals are still in murky territory
Joe Burrow had a nice night — much better than his passing marks indicate, considering how well he protected the ball and kept his top two targets involved despite a relentless push from the Giants’ front. That said, holding just a three-point lead on New York up until the final two minutes of Sunday’s contest is a clear indication Zac Taylor’s squad remains a work in progress. The O-line was iffier than usual. The deep shots were hard to come by. And had the ball bounced a different way on Chase Brown’s late fumble, or Greg Joseph connected on just one of his two makeable field goal tries, we might’ve seen this one go to overtime. A win is a win, but the Bengals are very much scratching and clawing.
New York at least has some building blocks
Quarterback remains an obvious concern, but there were still some positives in an otherwise frustrating and winnable night: Tyrone Tracy Jr. looks primed to at least split carries even when Devin Singletary returns, Brian Daboll’s fourth-down aggression at least kept the G-Men competitive until late in the game, and Shane Bowen’s entire defense — from the Lawrence-led front to the Tyler Nubin-led back end — kept some of the game’s top perimeter playmakers in check.
What’s next
The Bengals (2-4) will continue their road trip with a divisional showdown, visiting the Cleveland Browns (1-5), who lost a close one to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. The Giants (2-4), meanwhile, will play host to those same Eagles (3-2), looking to stay alive in an NFC East led by the Washington Commanders.
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