Cincy Jungle
The biggest thing that stands out about the snap count this week is how low the defense snaps are. It felt like a game where the snaps and the time of possession were going to be all out of whack, but they were not. The Bengals had the ball for 29 minutes and four seconds, running 56 plays. The Vikings had the ball for 30 minutes and 56 seconds, running 60 plays.
The Bengals turned the ball over five times and had seven drives where they failed to pick up a single first down. Yet, after all that, the Vikings only had the ball for four more plays and 52 more seconds.
Believe it or not, the Bengals defense actually had five three-and-outs of their own, and no, they were not all in “garbage time.” Three came in the first half. But no one is presenting Al Golden and company with a beautiful bouquet of roses. The defense also gave up touchdowns on four of five red zone appearances and failed to create any turnovers of their own.
Let’s get into the players.
Rookie linebacker Barrett Carter saw his highest career snap count (18) as the team looked to spell Logan Wilson (43 snaps) throughout the game.
Running back Tahj Brooks saw the first offensive action of his rookie year, too, but that was likely a result of Samaje Perine’s injury and Chase Brown’s insulting play.
The void left by the injured Shemar Stewart at defensive end was filled by two players. Myles Murphy played 43 percent of defensive snaps, and Cam Sample played 33 percent of defensive snaps.
At defensive tackle, the snaps became very balanced, with B.J. Hill playing 30 snaps, T.J. Slaton playing 27, Kris Jenkins playing 26, and Mike Pennel playing his standard 22 snaps. Rookie Howard Cross added nine of his own, his first action as a pro.
It’s always interesting to see how the tight ends are deployed, and this week they went big. Cam Grandy was active for the first time and played 21 percent of snaps with fellow blocking extraordinaire Drew Sample leading the group at 68 percent. The versatile Noah Fant was also up, taking 32 percent of snaps. Conversely, Mike Gesicki dropped off to 30 percent of snaps, and slot wide receiver Andrei Iosivas (who generally comes off the field in two tight end sets) was down to 62 percent after playing 84 percent of snaps a week ago.
