Cincy Jungle
The Cincinnati Bengals took the field on Thursday night to open their 2025 preseason in Philadelphia against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles. As promised by Zac Taylor, Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, and the first team offense started the game and played the majority of the first quarter. When on the field, Burrow and his elite weapons looked like they hadn’t skipped a beat. In his only two drives, the Bengals’ offense drove down the field and scored two touchdowns. It almost looked too easy.
Unfortunately for the Bengals, that’s about all that went right.
Once Burrow and the rest of the starting offense left the field, turning things over to Jake Browning, the team’s offense was absolutely anemic. When they weren’t shooting themselves in the foot, they were losing ground, or doing what they could to give the Eagles the ball back.
The Bengals’ defense kept their high-scoring offense out of the playoffs last year, and as a result, the team fired Lou Anarumo and hired Al Golden to lead the franchise’s defense. His defensive starters, minus a couple of cornerbacks and, of course, Trey Hendrickson, had a chance to come out and show everyone 2025 would be different.
While it is the preseason, and it’s not necessarily indicative of anything they’ll do in the regular season, or even in their next preseason game, the defense didn’t inspire any confidence, especially considering they were playing against backups. It didn’t help that the defensive struggles persisted throughout the game.
When the final seconds ticked off the clock in the fourth quarter, the Eagles were on top by a score of 34-27.
Here’s a roundup of some of the highlights on X throughout the game.
We’ll end on a high note.
What were your thoughts on the team’s first game action of the 2025 season?
