ANALYSIS: 5 takeaways from Bengals’ loss to Eagles

It was the team’s worst loss of the season, the only one by more than six points. Here are five takeaways from the game.

1. Digging a deeper hole

Joe Burrow believes the Bengals can still achieve the 10 wins likely needed to make the playoffs, though that would mean going 7-2 the rest of the way.

The loss Sunday means the Bengals will be below .500 when they cross the midpoint of the season’s 17-game schedule next week, and there is very little room for error moving forward.

“We’ve done it before,” Burrow said. “I know the players we’ve got in there. You’ve just got to treat it week by week. Any game is winnable. You’ve just got to go out and do it.”

Cincinnati’s three wins were against teams with a combined record of 4-17 going into this weekend. The Bengals have yet to beat anyone that has a winning record at this stage in the season, and four of their five losses were against teams sitting with five wins or more, including the Eagles, who are now 5-2. The Bengals also have a loss to the Patriots, who are 2-6.

2. Turnovers down the stretch

The Eagles gained the upper hand when they scored touchdowns at the final minute of the first half and first drive of the second half, but a turnover on downs, an interception and a fumble kept the Bengals from being able to come back.

Cincinnati was in a second-and-2 situation before the turnover on downs and trailing by just seven points at the time, late in the third quarter. Zack Moss was stuffed on third-and-1, and a swing pass to Ja’Marr Chase ended up going for a loss on fourth down. Chase told reporters after the game that was one call he wished the Bengals could have “taken back and changed to something else.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Taylor said that is “100 percent” on him.

“I felt like we needed to be aggressive there,” Taylor said. “It didn’t work out so that’s frustrating. ... I put that on myself situation where I felt like we needed to be aggressive and go score in that possession given we were down seven. And anytime it doesn’t go well, obviously you’re going to think long and hard about that decision.”

The Eagles got a field goal out of the ensuing drive, and then the Bengals had an unfortunate tipped pick as Burrow tried to go deep to Chase down the sideline the next series. Philadelphia drove 85 yards on 12 plays to extend the lead to 34-17, and Mike Gesicki fumbled the first play from scrimmage after that with 4:31 left.

3. Struggles stopping the run

The wins the two previous weeks perhaps gave the Bengals a false comfort in what their defense is capable of, after they did well to stop the run in recent weeks.

Saquon Barkley entered Sunday as the league’s second-leading rusher with 109.8 rushing yards per game, and both he and quarterback Jalen Hurts caused a lot of problems on the ground. Barkley rushed for 108 yards on 22 carries, and Hurts added three rushing touchdowns.

Philadelphia used up almost eight minutes on the drive after the interception when Cincinnati needed to get stops to get the ball back in Burrow’s hands.

“Tackling wise, it was a step backward,” cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt said. “Last week we had to tackle (Cleveland Browns running back Nick) Chubb and (he and Barkley) are great running backs, we’ve just got to put 11 hats on the ball.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

4. Giving up explosives

The Bengals have been better eliminating explosive plays on defense this season, but Philadelphia managed nine of them, including a long of 45 yards on a pass to DeVonta Smith in the third quarter when Jordan Battle didn’t turn his head to see the ball was coming. Hurts had a ton of time to make the throw, too. He wasn’t sacked once Sunday.

A.J. Brown also had catches of 29, 23 and 17 yards, and Barkley had long runs of 19 and 17 yards, and Hurts recorded one for 12 yards.

The Eagles converted 6 of 11 third downs, but three of those were third-and-long situations and a fourth attempt put them in a fourth-and-1 that was converted.

“Just find ways to get off the field,” Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton said. “Third-and-16, we’ve got to get off the field some way, somehow. It should not be a conversion on a third-and-10-plus. We’re better than that, and we’ve got to be better than that for us to have any shot. We just didn’t play well today.”

5. Lack of running game hurt

Tee Higgins’ absence because of a quad injury that surfaced Friday was concerning for an offense that has leaned heavily on him and Chase for most of the receiving yards the past few weeks, but tight end Mike Gesicki stepped up in five of the team’s first seven third-down situations and he converted every one.

The bigger concern Sunday might have been the lack of a running game to offset what was missing in the passing game. The Bengals finished with 58 yards rushing on 20 carries, averaging just 2.9 yards per carry.

“They have a good front, so when you’re struggling running like that, then their pass rushers start to tee off a little bit,” Burrow said. “We knew that going in. We knew their front was good, they were going to be disruptive. We knew we were going to have to score points and we didn’t score enough points today.”

Cincinnati used up 10 minutes on a balanced opening touchdown drive and had just three possessions in the first half but could have gotten more out of them, as the teams went into halftime tied at 10. Both Burrow and Taylor felt like a more efficient running game would have helped.

Jermaine Burton dropped a third-down pass in the endzone, leading the Bengals to settle for a field goal on their second drive, and Evan McPherson missed a 54-yard field goal after that. From there, turnovers were the biggest issue, but it was clear in the fourth-and-1 situation, the Bengals didn’t trust that they could pick up the yard needed on the ground.

SUNDAY’S GAME

Raiders at Bengals, 1 p.m. FOX, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7