Bengals vs. Jets: Score and Twitter Reaction from 2016 Regular Season

The New York Jets pounded Andy Dalton in the pocket, bringing him down time and again for hard hits and sacks. They (mostly) avoided big turnovers and got a couple of good plays from the special teams.

It just wasn't enough.

Mike Nugent kicked a 46-yard field goal with 54 seconds remaining, allowing the Cincinnati Bengals to earn a 23-22 win over the Jets on Sunday. It's the third straight year in which the Bengals have opened their season with a road win.

Nugent's kick came as part of a nine-play, 55-yard drive that gave the game its sixth and final lead change. Dalton completed all four of his passes on the drive, and Jets safety Marcus Gilchrist committed a critical facemask to give Cincy better field position. 

Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a game-ending interception on the Jets' subsequent drive. 

Despite their trepidation, Bengals fans can finally stop hyperventilating: 

Dalton overcame perhaps the worst offensive line performance of his career to throw for 366 yards and one touchdown against an interception. 

Returning for the first time since suffering a season-ending injury in Week 14 last year, Dalton did not miss a step. He completed 23 of his 30 passes, including 12 to star A.J. Green. The pair connected on a 54-yard touchdown in the second quarter that served as the team's only time touching paydirt until just over three minutes remaining in the third.

ESPN's Lindsay Patterson put Dalton's day in career perspective:

Green's 12 grabs went for 180 yards, making Revis Island look more like a Bahamas vacation. Barstool Sports offered its thoughts:

That said, it was anything but an easy win. 

The Jets brought Dalton down for seven sacks, including five in the first half. That was the most Dalton had ever been sacked in a first half and the most for the Jets franchise since a 2003 game against the Philadelphia Eagles, per ESPN Stats & Info. He was sacked seven times total in the first half of 2015 games.

Josina Anderson of ESPN put it thusly:

Yet Dalton showed no signs of backing down in the pocket and thrashed the Jets defense for big plays. He made three completions of 40 yards or more and did not seem in the least bit affected by the loss of receivers Mohamed Sanu or Marvin Jones.

Brandon LaFell turned in a four-catch, 94-yard game in his first outing with the Bengals. C.J. Uzomah, taking reps in place of an injured Tyler Eifert, added 54 yards receiving.

The Jets offense seemed mostly unchanged and in some spots better than its 2015 counterpart. Matt Forte had a big first day in New York, rushing for 96 yards and hauling in a team-high 59 through the air. His 27 touches should satiate anyone who was worried about his workload.

Mike Clay of ESPN was impressed:

The real issues came with finding big plays. No Jets offensive play went for longer than 24 yards, and they were mostly limited to dinks and dunks. Forte and underneath receiver Quincy Enunwa (seven receptions, 54 yards) had more than double the receptions of Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker combined. The two stars combined for just five grabs on their 15 targets.

Fitzpatrick, who held out deep into July, had just 189 yards on 35 pass attempts. The Jets quarterback averaged 5.4 yards an attempt, with the Bengals doing a nice job of bending but never breaking.

With a road tilt coming Thursday against the Buffalo Bills, the Jets could be in real danger of going 0-2 after entering with playoff hopes. The Bengals, meanwhile, travel to Pittsburgh for a matchup with the division rival Steelers.

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Postgame Reaction

Marshall was not pleased with the Jets' red-zone effort, per Darryl Sutter of NJ.com: "We were just sloppy down there. Poor execution. It's something we pride ourselves in, and we didn't get it done. That's just not good enough. We pride ourselves on the red zone. That was the poorest execution I've ever seen on our side in the red zone since I've been here." 

Forte also pointed to the struggles inside the 20: "We expect to score in places like when we're on the 1-inch line. We're supposed to score a touchdown on that. When you let teams hang around and you don't capitalize on stuff like that in the red zone, then you lose a game by a field goal or something like that." 

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis complimented Green's outing: "I keep saying, “Good players play good.” The other guys did a great job today. As we keep saying, those other guys are going to be fine. They’re just going to keep playing and playing better and better and better. So it was big today. And we needed them. (I’m) just pleased. We had some penalties and some things on defense there that kept some drives alive in the first half. We’ve just got to go back, look at the film and get better after this game."

Lewis also assessed Dalton's performance: "He had the one throw he probably shouldn’t have let go. But I thought he played a good football game today. He was accurate in his throws and everything that way, and that’s what we need. And he gets us in and out of the right plays all the time. He did a great job directing the drives. He had a drive, literally at the end of both halves, and that’s awesome."

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.