CINCINNATI — The Cincinnati Bengals will look to make it back to the .500 mark while the visiting New York Jets will aim for their first win of 2025 when the teams meet on Sunday.
The Bengals (3-4) are well-rested and coming off their best win of the season, a 33-31 last-second victory over the AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 16. The win rekindled visions of Cincinnati competing for the division title, with games against the Jets and the Chicago Bears coming to finish a three-game homestand.
“It’s a huge win. We needed this,” said Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor, whose team ended a four-game losing skid in Week 7. “It had been too long since we won. When you’re fighting for all these things that we fight for and these guys just keep coming — as a coach, you’re (telling them), ‘Keep sticking with it.’
“I see it coming. You need the results, and so we got the results. There were no non-believers in that locker room.”
The Bengals could have the services of Trey Hendrickson again on Sunday after the star pass rusher missed the Steelers game with a hip injury. Hendrickson returned to practice on Wednesday in limited activity.
The Jets (0-7), the NFL’s only winless team, face much more uncertainty as coach Aaron Glenn was not prepared to announce a starting quarterback when he first met with the media on Wednesday. Justin Fields was benched for the second half of the 13-6 home loss to the Carolina Panthers last weekend after completing just 6 of 12 passes for 46 yards.
It got so bad that Jets owner Woody Johnson publicly criticized the team’s offense (and Fields in particular) this week at NFL owners’ meetings in New York.
“If we can just complete a pass, it would look good,” Johnson told reporters. “The offense is just not clicking, and you can’t run the ball if you can’t pass the ball. That’s football 101.”
As for Fields, Johnson said the quarterback’s ability isn’t matching his output.
“It’s hard when you have a quarterback with a rating that he’s got. I mean, he has ability, but something just is not jiving,” Johnson added. “You have to play consistently at that position, and that’s what we’re going to try to do for the remainder of the season.”
Fields responded to Johnson’s comments, telling the media, “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion. That’s just what it is, but you just have a choice or not whether those opinions affect you or not.”
His replacement couldn’t find the end zone either as Tyrod Taylor connected on 10 of 22 passes for 126 yards with two interceptions. Adding to the team’s misery, Tyrod Taylor sustained a knee injury, leaving his availability for Sunday up in the air.
The Jets also could be without star cornerback Sauce Gardner, who entered concussion protocol after getting hurt in the second half against Carolina. Receiver Garrett Wilson missed last week’s game with a knee injury, and his availability for Sunday also was in doubt.
If Gardner could get on the field, it would mark his return to Cincinnati for the first time since playing for the 2021 Cincinnati Bearcats who lost in a College Football Playoff national semifinal.
Quarterback Joe Flacco, who made his first Bengals start in Week 6 at Green Bay and then prepared for Pittsburgh on a shortened week, threw for 342 yards and three touchdowns against the Steelers.
Flacco did most of his damage last week throwing to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins.
Chase set a Bengals single-game record with 16 receptions, surpassing the team mark he established in 2023. He finished with 161 yards and a touchdown, and he was awarded AFC offensive player of the week for the fifth time in his career.
Higgins also caught a TD pass and finished with 96 yards on six receptions, including a 28-yarder late in the fourth quarter that put the Bengals in range for the game-winning kick.
–Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media
