Titans at Bengals final score: Cincinnati beats Tennessee 33-7
Following a Week 1 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, there was a ton of optimism floating around for Tennessee Titans quarterback Jake Locker. After three pedestrian seasons, he showed a poise fans had been looking for since the day he was drafted.
Fast forward two weeks later and that optimism has flown out the window.
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To be fair to the Titans, the Bengals, at this moment, are in a league of their own. There hasn’t been a team more consistent than them on both sides of the ball through the first three weeks of the seasons, and Tennessee became another victim of their elite play.
Against an undefeated Bengals team, Tennessee struggled from beginning to end. Outside of the running game (Sankey, Locker, Greene combined for 144 rushing yards), the Titans weren’t able to sustain anything.
In the air, Locker failed to put the team on his back, throwing 17-of-34 passes for 2 interceptions.
On defense, the Titans couldn’t stop the running game or passing game — as a team, Cincy rushed for 116 yards and 3 touchdowns (Bernard – 2, Hill -1) and through the air, they gained 184 receiving yards, 102 belonging to wide receiver A.J. Green.
In fact, the Bengals lone receiving touchdown came from none other than Andy Dalton who, thanks to Hue Jackson’s trickery, caught a pass from Mohamed Sanu, beating the defense to the end zone.
From this play on, the Bengals would go 23-0 scoring run before the Titans put their first points — a rushing touchdown from Shonn Grenne late in the fourth quarter — on the board.
A great win allows the Bengals to head into their Bye Week with a clear head. At 3-0, they currently lead the AFC North and could tie for the best record in the conference depending on how the Denver Broncos fare against the Seattle Seahawks.
For the Titans, their fortune may not increase any time soon. It’s simple fixing: if Jake Locker improves, the Titans improve, but for 3 and 1/4 of a season, the laws of averages tell us this improvement may not exist, or at least consistently it won’t.
Next week they take on the Indianapolis Colts.