Blame Raiders, Not Bengals, For Sunday's Upset

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It’s easy to look at the Raiders’ stunning 20-17 upset of the Bengals Sunday and say Cincinnati choked. It was a trap game, and the Bengals fell into it hard.

After all, go the arguments, they lost three fumbles. They missed a field goal. They gave up three sacks. They only scored 17 points on a two-win team. They had an emotional let-down after a big win in Pittsburgh.

But before anyone starts crying, “Same old Bengals that can’t handle success,” it might be worth noting that the Raiders played a pretty good game.

Maybe that statement is as shocking as the score yesterday, but Oakland deserves credit for executing a sharp game plan.

Consider: The Bengals had the second-best run defense in the league and had been putting a lot of pressure on opposing quarterbacks. They sacked Ben Roethlisberger four times last week.

So the Raiders, starting a backup quarterback, put together a max-protection scheme and had Bruce Gradkowski throwing it quickly. That neutralized the Bengals’ pass rush.

With Cincinnati running back Cedric Benson out, the Raiders loaded eight men in the box to stop the run and blitzed the daylights out of Carson Palmer, so he wouldn’t have time to find an open receiver.

Rookie running back Bernard Scott may have had 119 yards rushing, but 61 of it came on a single play. Otherwise, he averaged 2.8 yards per rush.

This wasn’t Cincinnati playing down to the level of its opponents. The Bengals just plain got beaten.

Yes, they lost three fumbles, two in the red zone. But those were all great plays by the Raiders. Yes, they dropped a few passes, but not many. Palmer may have been sacked, but it wasn’t due to breakdowns on the line. The Raiders rushed more guys than the Bengals could stop.

The Raiders may not be a good football team, but they played a stellar game against Cincinnati and pulled it out. If the Bengals need to learn anything from this loss, it’s how to counter the game plan they faced on Sunday.

So it may be tempting to sling mud at the Bengals for losing a game that, at least on paper, they should have won. But if you’re looking to point fingers at someone for Sunday’s disappointing loss, you should start with the guys in the black and silver uniforms.

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