Cincinnati Bengals come up short against Arizona Cardinals

Kicker Mike Nugent connected on a game-tying 43-yard field goal to tie the score with 1:08 remaining, set up by a 58-yard kick return by Brandon Tate.

“Who knows, they get the phantom call there at the end”. Just behind the Bengals are the Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings, each at 8-2 ATS for the year.

-PASS DEFENSE: B. Andy Dalton passed for two touchdowns, but the Cardinals sacked him four times. He finished 22 of 39 for 315 yards. Quarterback Carson Palmer, playing against his old team, completed three quick passes in the final minute to get the home team within field goal range. As long as Palmer and his receivers can make connections downfield, the team can overcome poor starts like Sunday night’s. And that future Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald (8 catches for 90 yards) wasn’t 100 percent as far as health for this game.

The Bengals are a tough team and they showed it, but their injuries also started to manifest at the worst times.

It took all this time, but it appears he finally managed to settle the score. That pass to A.J. Green, which was luckily incomplete, was a big opportunity for a game sealing pick, but it wasn’t to be.

If things stand put, this will be only the second time since 2010 that fewer than three quarterbacks failed to hit the 300-mark, according to the Football Database.

Here’s a little bit of significant history for Bengals football fans.

Palmer has 27 touchdowns for the season, putting him ahead of the New England Patriots’ Tom Brady (24) for the most in the NFL. Hill has earned 19 more carries than Bernard so far this season, but with an average of just 3.3 yards per carry, Hill has produced a whopping 161 less yards.

Overall, Palmer threw four touchdown passes. The most glaring breakdown was when safety George Iloka jumped a short route leaving J.J. Nelson all alone for a 64-yard TD from Palmer.

In the last two games (at Seattle; vs. Cincinnati) the Cardinals have scored 73 points while going up against the NFL’s #2-ranked scoring defense (Seattle entering Week 10, 17.5 ppg) and #1-ranked scoring defense (Cincinnati entering Week 11, 16.9 ppg).

As the Cardinals lined up at the Cincinnati 30-yard line to run a spike play and stop the clock, the officials threw a flag on the Bengals defense. Doing that in just your third career game? “I have an odd feeling for Carson Palmer”, Brown said candidly. PAC-Man Jones was then left in single coverage along the sideline and into the end-zone. But the Bengals converted the turnovers into only a Tyler Eifert touchdown – his first of two – and managed just a 14-7 lead at halftime. Defensively, the Bengals yield 236.3 yard sin passing and 102.4 yards in rushing. Dalton only completed 12 passes for 81 yards to his tight ends and running backs. With 1:26 left in the third quarter the Cards took a commanding 28-14 lead.

Bernard’s importance to the Bengals is evident, and his ability to use his agility to make defenders miss in the open field has been huge.

The penalty moved the Cardinals up 14 yards and made it a 32-yard field goal for Chandler Catanzaro.

The Bengals, badly needing a win to compensate for last week’s shocking loss to the Texans, had plenty of motivation heading into Sunday’s game. Had there been a false start, the kick would have been pushed back instead and the game could have wound up in overtime.

Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton bounced back from a subpar performance the previous week against Houston to lead the Bengals back after Arizona took leads of 28-14 and 31-21 in the second half. Dalton didn’t throw an interception but did lose a fumble leading to a crucial field goal in the fourth quarter.