- The entire first half
The Jaguars killed their 1st 2 drives with holding penalties. Their 3rd drive got some traction with Denard Robinson's 39 yard run and the subsequent horse collar penalty on Bengals DT Geno Atkins when tackling Blake Bortles. But the drive stalled on 1st & 10 at the 14 yard line and the Jaguars settled for a FG vs. the high scoring Bengals. Mix in four 3 plays and out series and a pair of blocked punts that led to 5 Cincinnati points and the Jags trailed 12-3 at the half. It became a complete disaster on the final play of the half when rookie linebacker Telvin Smith was flagged for roughing the punt return man which was assessed on the Opening Kickoff of the 3rd quarter.
2. Denard's fumble overturned…next play 40 yard touchdown pass.
That penalty on Smith on the final play of the 1st half set up a short field touchdown for the Bengals that pushed their lead to 19-3. The Jaguars first drive of the 3rd started with a 20 yard strike to Cecil Shorts which put them 1st and 10 at the Bengals 44 yard line. The very next play Robinson ran for 4 yards but lost the ball when his arm struck the field. The officials overturned the call after a quick review and on the very next play Bortles rolled right and threw up a ball for Allen Hurns to go get…and he did to make the score 19-10 and make a game of it.
3. Jags backed up in the 4th Q…31 yard punt return set up 18 yard touchdown pass to #18
The Jaguars were pinned deep with less than a minute to play in the 3rd and early in the 4th quarter completed another 3 and out series. Bryan Anger's short 42 yard punt was made even shorter when Pac Man Jones returned it up the Bengals sideline to the Jaguars 23. Two plays later Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton rifled the ball to AJ Green to make it 26-10.
4. Mid-way through 4th Q sequence with Hurns 2nd Td JT Thomas INT and Denard TD
A 5 minute time span from 13:48 to 8:18 to play made a game of it when Bortles drove the Jags from their 25 to the Bengals 18 in 8 plays. The 9th play of the drive was Allen Hurn's 2nd touchdown catch of the game and a missed two point conversion made it a 10 point game. The Bengals erred three plays later when on 3rd & 8 from their 25 Dalton lost control of a short screen pass which JT Thomas was only too quick to corral and return to their 7. Two plays later Robinson took it in from 5 yards out and we had a ball game at 26-23 with half the fourth quarter to play.
5. Seconds later…..
That was the high point for the Jaguars. The ensuing kickoff went out of bounds which gave Cincinnati the ball at their own 40…still the way the defense was playing there was a chance down 3. Until they handed the ball to Jeremy Hill on 1st down and he went 60 yards for a touchdown to push it back to a 10 point lead. Bortles rallied the Jags driving them down the field to a 1st down at the Bengals 18 with 4:06 to play. But the QB who was so patient in the pocket wasn't patient enough to live to fight another play and tried to force the ball into coverage and was instead intercepted.
