Bengals notes: LaFell finds end zone; O-line struggles

ARLINGTON, Texas – The Cincinnati Bengals came into Sunday’s game struggling mightily in the red zone, ranking last in the league in scoring touchdowns just over 30 percent of the time. On Sunday, the lone bit of silver lining in a 28-14 loss to Dallas at AT&T Stadium was a 2-for-2 showing inside the 20.

Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton found Brandon LaFell twice, with scoring receptions from seven and five yards out.

“We just connected this week,” said LaFell, who caught a game-high eight passes for 68 yards.

“A lot of times in the past we’d get back down there, we’d get penalties or we’ll move the ball back or we’d get a defensive pass interference and we just couldn’t get it in in the crunch. We just connected today. That’s the only thing that changed. We connected today and that was one of the things we said we needed to improve on was our red zone offense. And we improved on it. But we didn’t improve on everything else in our game.”

LaFell’s eight catches doubled his previous game-high for the Bengals, and his 11 targets were also a season high.

“He’s doing everything we ask him to do and he showed it today,” said Dalton. “When we can spread the ball to a bunch of different guys, that’s big, and he’s definitely a big part of it.”

Analysis: Why Cowboys beat Bengals

Cowboys make big plays on third down

The Dallas Cowboys only faced eight third downs the entire game, but they converted four of them – and none bigger than three in the decisive first half.

Already up 7-0, a Kevin Huber punt had pinned the Cowboys inside their own 20-yard line. On 3rd-and-4, rookie quarterback Dak Prescott hit Terrance Williams for a 17-yard gain, beating nickel corner Josh Shaw. Nine plays later, at the Bengals’ 10-yard line, Cincinnati linebacker Vinny Rey was flagged for illegal contact on Jason Witten. The penalty gave Dallas a first down, and Prescott ran in untouched for a touchdown, pushing the lead to 14-0.

On the Cowboys’ third scoring drive, on 3rd-and-3 from the Cincinnati 45, Prescott hit Witten for 31 yards. Witten had beaten Shaw over the middle and then ran over Derron Smith to the Bengals’ 14. One play later, Prescott found Ezekiel Elliott for a touchdown and decisive 21-0 margin.

Dallas went 2-for-5 on third down in the second half, but one was a big 3rd-and-7 conversion at the Cincinnati 43 when Prescott found Williams again for an 11-yard following an onside kick.

“We are veteran team so we know what we need to fix,” Bengals defensive end Carlos Dunlap said. “We made it during the game, we just ran out of time. We have to start off how we finished today. We can’t do that.”

Doc: Bengals' loss in Dallas could be problematic

Offensive line searches for answers

In his first regular-season action in his home state of Texas, former Texas A&M tackle Cedric Ogbuehi found himself looking back at Andy Dalton as his man either sacked the quarterback or pushed him out of the pocket.

“I mean, it wasn’t my best game so I’ve got to keep getting better,” the second-year right tackle said. “It wasn’t my best game out of my first five. I’ve got to fix it.”

The Bengals ran for 96 yards on 19 carries (5.1 average), but 34 of those yards came from Dalton having to scramble on a few of those carries. He was also sacked four times late as Dallas was able to pin its ears back with a big lead.

Of the Bengals’ six penalties, three were on the offensive line.

“I don’t know what exactly the deal is,” center Russell Bodine said. “We can’t dwell on it. You just gotta keep trying to get better and pick out things that we know, a little thing here, a little thing there, that’s holding us back and correct them and keep going in the right direction.”

“We expect to go out and play well. It does make it a little tougher when you get behind pretty early. That’s not a place any offensive line likes to be. But it doesn’t really matter. You can’t really make excuses for it. We’ve got to go out and handle our business and skating by is not the way to do it.”

Run defense fails Bengals in Dallas

Cowboys throw wet blanket on fire drills

Andy Dalton was pushed off his spot quite often on Sunday by the Dallas defense, forcing the quarterback to improvise on many occasions. It disrupted the timing of the passing offense, but the Bengals were unable to turn those extended plays into big gains.

“Once we see him scramble, it might be a little tougher because of the zone they’re in,” said Tyler Boyd, who caught three passes for 33 yards. “They’re going to wall us if we try to run with the quarterback. Sometime that might mess up a patter a little bit. We just gotta do what we gotta do to get open and fight and allow Andy to see us while he’s leaving the pocket.”

The Bengals' receivers said the Cowboys played a lot of Cover 2 and remained in zone coverages most of the time, cutting down Dalton’s sightlines as he evaded pressure. ‘

“They had a heck of a game plan,” A.J. Green said. “It’s tough. They’re just sitting back in the zone and you just gotta find spots and then he can’t just throw the ball across the field. It’s zone. They’ll undercut it.”

Offense still searching for consistency

A quick look at the raw numbers of the final team statistics from the Cowboys’ victory over the Bengals offers little hint to the dominance the Cowboys played with Sunday afternoon.

Cincinnati was averaging 371 yards a game of total offense and checked in just under that with 345. They managed 27 first downs, six more than the Cowboys. They possessed the ball for nearly five minutes longer. They had one fewer penalty. They rushed for a season high 5.1 yards per carry.

Yet…

Giovani Bernard was left nearly speechless in the locker room as he looped his navy blue tie.

“Yeah, it just didn’t work man,” he said. “I don’t really know what to say. It just didn’t work.”

Prior to scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns, the Bengals couldn’t find a rhythm offensively. They didn’t turn the ball over and put together five drives of at least six plays, a number that typically led them at least into field-goal range.

“I’m  surprised because with the weapons we have on this team and the offense we run, I know we can be way better,” said LaFell, who caught the first two touchdowns of his Bengals' career late in the game. “We just gotta be more consistent. At the end of the day you can’t play this good, then this low. You gotta be consistent.”

Added A.J. Green: “We practiced well. It’s just the little things that we’re not clicking on. A delay here, a block here, a missed assignment here. We just gotta keep grinding. It’s not going to be easy. We’ve got to stick together. When stuff like this happens we have to stay as the family we are and keep pushing.”