Lions (3-1) at Bengals (2-2) Sunday, Oct. 5 at Paycor Stadium (Field Turf CORE), 4:25 p.m. ET, TV: FOX-WXIX-TV Ch. 19 (Cincinnati) Kevin Kugler, Daryl Johnston, Allison Williams. Radio: Dan Hoard, Dave Lapham. 700 WLW AM, WEBN-FM (102.7 FM), ESPN1530. National: Compass Radio Networks Chris Carrino (PBP) and Brian Baldinger (analyst).
CINCINNATI — The Bengals have gone off the rails badly in their last two games. And the prospects for getting back on track this week aren’t good, to say the least.
They are taking on one of the teams capable of dethroning the Philadelphia Eagles as the top team in the NFC with an offense that can’t run or throw effectively. The Bengals have scored 13 points in their last two games and have given up 76. They have gained fewer than 200 yards in three of their four games. They have 21 first downs total in their last two games. They are 5-for-22 on third down. Because they’re not playing complementary football, their defense is shot at the end of games, like it was Monday night in Denver. They have been outgained 864-330 in total net yards.
Now they take on a Detroit team that has won their last three games by scores of 52-21, 38-30 and 34-10. The Bengals have won 10-of-13 all-time meetings with the Lions, including seven straight. The prospects to make it eight ain’t great.
If the Bengals are to get back on track, it starts with Jake Browning playing significantly better and the offensive line dramatically improving their play so that the run game can be taken seriously. With Browning under constant duress and no threat of Chase Brown reaching the second level of the defense, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have been non-factors.
“I think the biggest takeaway for me is just a couple deep balls. No deep balls ever been completed that a receiver couldn’t get to,” Browning said. “And so especially with a guy like Tee, I felt like I had two, really two that stood out as not giving him a chance and I can see what I was trying to do, but I need to adjust how I’m throwing some of my 50-50 balls to him just to give him a shot at it. And so I would say that was the main takeaway. A couple of little things here and there that I want to clean up one throw that I want back, but then outside of that, I think you can only have so many takeaways from any game, whether it was good or bad, and trying to focus on those.”
The Lions appear to be back on track as one of the powerhouses in the NFC while the Bengals have dropped their two games since losing their star quarterback.
Since falling in their season opener in Green Bay, the Lions (3-1) have won three straight, including last Sunday’s 34-10 win at home over Cleveland, a game they trailed early, 7-0.
“(I saw) what I expect from them, and that’s our resiliency,” Campbell said. “We don’t get caught up in things that don’t relate to us or have any bearing on what we control. Our guys stay locked in on what it takes to win a game, and/or why you didn’t play well, and it really is as simple as that. That’s not an easy thing to do, I don’t think, in today’s age. I think that’s hard. Our guys are constantly – you can’t escape it. The social media, the critics, the fans, all of it.”
Lions quarterback Jared Goff was just 16-of-27 for 168 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
Amon-Ra St. Brown caught both touchdowns from Goff and Jahmyr Gibbs ran for 91 yards on 15 carries against the Browns defense. The Bengals have allowed back-to-back 100-yard games by opposing rushers, including Denver’s J.K. Dobbins going for 101 yards on 16 carries Monday night in Cincinnati’s 28-3 loss.
This is the second meeting between Campbell and Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. In 2021, in Campbell’s first season in Detroit, the Bengals beat the Lions handily, 34-11 at Ford Field on their way to an AFC championship and a trip to Super Bowl LVI.
“I have tremendous memories with Dan,” said Taylor, who worked on the Miami Dolphins coaching staff together in from 2012-15. “I’ve got a of respect for him. He’s done an unbelievable job. I do reflect back on 2021 and his first year there.
“Knowing what they were building you could tell – they played with a lot of undrafted free agents on defense – but you could just tell they had the identity of their coaching staff, the head coach, the way that they played. We got the best of them that day, but you could see something that was building in the future, whether people believed it at the time or not it was very clear. So now you’re here in 2025 and the success they’ve had over the years, and the success they’ve had this year winning three in a row, it’s a really good football team.”
Now the roles have been reversed a bit, with the Lions coming off a 15-2 regular season in 2024 and the Bengals coming off back-to-back 9-8 seasons and having lost star quarterback Joe Burrow indefinitely with turf toe that led to surgery two weeks ago.
The Bengals have lost their last two games by a combined 76-13 score on the road and are returning home to face a Detroit team that’s won three straight after dropping their season opener. Jake Browning has struggled in his two starts since Joe Burrow went down, putting only 13 points on the board while throwing five interceptions.
“I love personally playing these types of games,” Taylor said. “These are my favorite games to play. This is why do it. Our backs are against the ball a little bit going into this game off two losses. That’s perfect. I like to see how everybody responds. Who lives in fear? Who thrives in adversity? It’s a great opportunity for a coach to really assess what guys are made of, myself included. It’s a tremendous opportunity we are not running from, we are running directly into.”
The Bengals have a chance to change the narrative from a team that is racing towards oblivion without Joe Burrow to one of hope and hanging in until Burrow returns in December.
Here’s what to look for:
- When the Bengals have the ball:
Since driving the Bengals 92 yards in 15 plays at the end of the Jacksonville game, Jake Browning hasn’t shown the ability to lead this offense. Most of it is due to an ineffective defensive line. The prospects for that improving against Aidan Hutchinson, DJ Reader and Tyleik Williams aren’t great. At some point, the Bengals have to decide to use Chase Brown. Will this be the game? Also, Detroit’s secondary is nicked up with DJ Reed landing on IR with a hamstring injury, the Bengals may have more opportunities against the backend of the Detroit defense. Again, this implies Browning will have time to throw. If the Bengals can’t block, then none of the scheming will matter, as was the case in Minnesota and Denver. The Bengals offense gets a break with its first home game in three weeks and so that should help some, if the Bengals can finish a drive with a touchdown and not a field goal.
- When the Lions have the ball:
This, quite simply, looks like a matchup the Bengals have little chance of controlling, let alone winning. Jared Goff has a wealth of options and an offensive line committed to winning at the point of attack. Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Sam LaPorta, Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery have all been integrated into the offense and the loss of Ben Johnson as OC has been replaced by John Morton who helped design the offense of the last three years in Detroit. The Bengals have allowed 116 yards to a rusher in Week 3 in Minnesota and 101 yards to J.K. Dobbins last Monday in Denver. Gibbs and Montgomery could run wild if the Bengals offense doesn’t give the defense a blow.
- Bottom Line:
The Bengals face their stiffest challenge of the season so far, and likely the toughest one until Buffalo on the road when they play the Lions before a national audience late Sunday afternoon. The Bengals could change the perception locally and nationally with a competitive effort or an unlikely win. They could change the feeling in the locker room. They could change the negative vibes that have circled around this franchise for four decades with a win. But there’s an old expression in football: “You are what you’ve put on film.” And what the Bengals have put on the film the last two weeks has been atrocious to say the least, starting with an offensive line that can run or pass block. They have put up less than 200 yards in each of the last two games. Hope is not a strategy, and against a team that is on the shortlist of viable Super Bowl contenders, it is not likely to shine brightly on the Bengals Sunday.
Lions 34, Bengals 14
