Cincinnati Bengals Week 11 Stock Report

The globe seemed to await the stock plummet of the Cincinnati Bengals once the team lost its first game of the season.

It turns out said first loss came at the hands of the Houston Texans on Monday Night Football in 10-6 fashion, a clunker in which Andy Dalton failed his weapons with overthrows, then the inverse with drops to ruin a solid effort by the defense.

So it goes when a team wins its first eight games of the season.

These Bengals are fine sitting at 8-1 and still holding the AFC North in a vice grip, so long as the hiccup doesn't birth a trend before the team's Week 11 game against old friend Carson Palmer and the Arizona Cardinals.

Within, let's take a look at a few stock fluctuations for the Bengals before they get back to work.

Stock Up: Cincinnati Secondary

Gary Landers/Associated Press

The Cincinnati secondary stepped up big Monday night.

One of the major themes surrounding the Bengals before the Week 11 loss was the secondary's inability to prevent the big play.

As the first season in which the Bengals handed over the reins to a young player instead of bringing on a veteran as it had in past years, there were bound to be a few issues. Dre Kirkpatrick and others struggled at times, with miscommunications and blown coverages allowing chunk plays.

Not anymore. Sunday night, other than a freak touchdown allowed by Adam Jones against DeAndre Hopkins, the secondary looked great against a capable quarterback in Brian Hoyer.

In fact, Kirkpatrick broke up several passes, and Darqueze Dennard made his impact felt with a breakup in the end zone.

With the continued upward trend of the secondary, the Bengals look to be back to their old defensive-dominant ways.

Stock Down: Hue Jackson

Frank Victores/Associated Press

Hue Jackson's schemes didn't adapt after halftime.

Offensive coordinator Hue Jackson continues to headline league chatter when it comes to future head-coaching chances, but he might have done more harm than good for himself and the team Monday night.

It was fun to watch some of the wacky formations Jackson rolled out. He had the right idea, too, designing quick-hitting plays to completely take J.J. Watt out of the game.

The flaw, though, was ignoring the ground game. CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora put it best: "Really surprised Bengals didn't just attack Texans on ground, set up play action. Hue Jackson might be auditioning a [little] too much tonight."

Houston entered the game as one of the worst teams in the league against the run, yet Cincinnati backs only carried the ball 15 times. Despite the obvious writing on the wall, Cincinnati didn't make anything notable in the way of halftime adjustments, either.

Stock Up: Pat Sims

Frank Victores/Associated Press

Pat Sims came up big for the Bengals on a rotational basis.

Somebody has to give the big man in the middle credit.

Most of the attention will go to the secondary for a great game, but don't overlook defensive tackle Pat Sims, who seemed disruptive on most of his snaps Monday night as he alternated with Domata Peko and others.

In fact, Sims posted his best game of the season at Pro Football Focus with an especially strong mark in run defense and one of the team's highest grades in the pass-rush category.

Defensive line depth has never been a problem for the Bengals, but the team hasn't had a reliable third rotation player inside for most of the season. That might have changed beginning with Monday's contest.

Stock Down: Cincinnati Weapons

John Minchillo/Associated Press

Tyler Eifert and others committed key mistakes in the loss.

Many will be quick to fling blame at Dalton for his 22-of-38 mark for 197 yards and an interception. As a quarterback, that's the unfortunate nature of the beast for Dalton after the loss. 

Yet the attention going Dalton's way glosses over the fact tight end Tyler Eifert dropped three critical passes that hit him in the hands, and somewhat overlooks A.J. Green's game-changing fumble late.

Without those drops, Cincinnati might have pulled ahead. Without the ill-timed fumble, this might be an entirely different conversation with the Bengals sitting at 9-0.

While the play-calling was a major issue Monday, the players still have to go out and execute. Dalton looked rough in the first half, but he turned it around only to watch as reliable options faltered underneath the spotlight.

Stock Up: Resilience

Cheesy? 

Maybe, but observers can relax with the notion the Bengals might let a prime-time gaffe snowball into a torrid losing streak. After the loss, it never sounded like the Bengals were concerned, as ESPN.com's Coley Harvey captured: "Nope. Bengals were definitely upset, but they are a lot calmer and confident in a turnaround than many on here."

"Nobody's down in here," cornerback Adam Jones said, according to Geoff Hobson of Bengals.com. "It's just a steppingstone we're trying to get to. We're still working to the same thing."

It's not a doom-and-gloom scenario for the Bengals, no matter how often folks try to shove the prime-time narrative down the globe's collective throat. The Bengals played a bad game, know exactly what went wrong, how and why, and continue to act like it in the aftermath.

Call it a breath of fresh air surrounding the mature Bengals, who look much, much different than what one Carson Palmer knows, something he'll find out in a few days.

Stats courtesy of NFL.com and are accurate as of November 17. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.