The just made a Statement...

They just made a statement. The Bengals' big time additions on defense have already paid off, and we are 1-0 to start the season for a second straight year. Let's dive into Cincinnati's thrilling victory over Tampa Bay. Hello everyone, welcome into Bengals Digest and happy Victory Monday. I'm Michael Macon, thanks so much for being with us here today, as we're gonna talk about the Bengals' big win, 33-27 over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And so we'll get into all of it, performances on the offensive and defensive side of the ball as well as special teams, and yeah, we'll talk about every aspect of it because it was a great game and the Bengals are 1-0 and everyone should be happy about that. But before we do all that, I'd like to shout out our subscribers, and those of you who are always tuned into Bengals Digest wherever you're watching and listening to us. But if you're a part of the 75 plus percent watching this right now who are not yet subscribed, well go ahead, hit that button and ring that notification bell because it's completely free to do so and you don't wanna miss a thing Adam and I have got coming your way and you can help be a part of us reaching our goal of 6,000 subscribers. All right folks, well, the Bengals are now looking ahead to the Texans game in Houston where the Bengals are underdogs right now. You take a look at the odds there and you see Houston favored 59% to the Bengals, 41%. And well, if you take a look on Calshi here and you're trading directly against other users, not the house like traditional sports books. You're buying yes or no contracts on the outcome of events across sports, politics, or the weather. For example, this Bengals-Houston-Texans game coming up on Sunday and if you trade $25, well you've got a 43% chance to win $58.53. If you're interested in trying out Calshi, use the link in the description, trade $25 with code DigestNFL and get $25 added to your account instantly. All right folks, let's talk about this Bengals game here and I wanna start off, of course, with the guy leading it all, Joe Burrow, with what I thought was his best week one performance that we've seen from him. It might have been the Vikings game back in 2021 or maybe you could say the 2020 game, I don't know, but certainly the best performance in week one we've seen from Joe Burrow in a really, really long time and why shouldn't it be, right? The Bengals had a good camp. Burrow wasn't really recovering from anything, any sort of injury, right? He was healthy to finish out last year aside from having a steel plate or a carbon fiber plate in his foot for that toe. But I think overall, Joe Burrow, you look at the stat line, not gonna be super impressive but I thought he made some really smart decisions with the ball outside of that pick six. Really bad play there. Uncharacteristic throw from Joe Burrow, just a bad decision overall. But Joe Burrow, 25 of 35 for a good completion percentage and 254 passing yards. One touchdown and then the one pick. Chase Brown ran in the Bengals' other offensive touchdown but you see an 89.5 passer rating right there and I just don't think that says the whole story because I think Burrow was efficient. I think he moved the ball well, just took one sack which he probably didn't need to take, right, but the offensive line, shout out to them as well, gave Burrow plenty of time to throw but he was one of the fastest quarterbacks to throw this week, averaging just about two and a half seconds per attempt on the day and Joe Burrow, I think we should all be pretty happy that the Bengals found a way to win a game when Joe Burrow only threw for one touchdown because think back to 2024, right? That Bengals team would have never won any games if Joe Burrow just throws for one touchdown but the defense stepped up today and made the plays that they needed to to win the game. Let's dive into some of these guys on offense just a little bit here. I wanna start off with number one because Jamar Chase had an awfully quiet day out there on the field. Buccaneers did a really good job locking him down. I haven't seen the all 22 but I'm guessing they were doubling him a lot but that did leave opportunities for other folks. Let's take a look at the Bengals. Receiving stats right here in the box score. Mike Gusecki with a heck of a day. Five catches, 78 yards and a touchdown. Love to see the Gusecki gritty in week one. Tee Higgins, the next leading receiver, three for 59. No touchdowns for Tee but he had a great, great day and literally just pulled game at the end of all of it. What a catch. Shout out to Tee Higgins to reeling this ball while his body is contorting in the air. All hands, Tee Higgins, maybe some of the best hands in the NFL, certainly on the Bengals. Just a phenomenal play by Tee Higgins and the Bengals won the game on offense and that was huge and that was awesome. Mike Gusecki, wanna give him his flowers here because Mike Gusecki is just so awesome. Always steps up when the Bengals seem to need him. When teams are focusing a lot on trying to stop Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins, it seems like every time Mike Gusecki is the one who steps up. It's not Andre Yosivage, not some other guy. It's definitely not Drew Sample. Drew Sample actually had a really nice day blocking and with a few catches as well on the stat sheet but Mike Gusecki just stepping up, being that big body guy who can go up there, burrow can throw it where only he can get it and Mike Gusecki goes out there and he makes plays. Now, Dante Myers as well getting in the mix. Didn't have any punt return opportunities. You saw that the Bengals had him out there returning kicks and Dante Myers had one nice catch for I believe it was 18 yards but a good play there and then also a rushing attempt for Dante Myers and Dante Myers just looked like the guy that we all saw in preseason, that we're all excited about adding that yak ability to this Bengals wide receiver room and hopefully he gets more opportunities coming his way soon. We'll see especially in the Houston game. But let's switch to the rushing attack for the Bengals and they weren't running the ball down their throats for the Buccaneers but Chase Brown, not a bad day at the house. Didn't average great but did have a touchdown. Samaje Pirine steady. I thought Joe Burrow had some really nice runs in this one and was looking tough and I love to see Joe Burrow out there being tough but Chase Brown, like I said, gets a big touchdown. Had some great blocking on that play in front of him including Drew Sample with a heck of a block on Reuben Bain Jr. And this was just a fun day. This was a really fun day to watch this. I don't know if some of you guys were downtown. I was downtown watching at a bar and man, the amount of orange everywhere was just unbelievable. The whole city showed up and I just absolutely loved to see that. It was electric everywhere. So shout out to all the Bengals fans out there. Now let's dive into one of the Bengals, well the Bengals biggest pick, their second round pick, Cassius Howe. Flashed a lot for the team on defense. Next gen stats had Bengals rookie Cassius Howe with four pressures on just 15 pass rush snaps. So didn't get that first sack for Howe but Cassius Howe did impress when you're watching the game closely and I think the Bengals really like what they got here and I know they would've taken him in the first round if they could have, if they had that pick but they didn't need to. They got him in the second and we still got Dexter Lawrence out there and I thought Dexter Lawrence had a good day at the office too. You don't see it in the stat sheet for him. He's a nose tackle so oftentimes you don't but Dexter Lawrence just swallowing up double teams, creating opportunities for other Bengals players and every time he got his one-on-one opportunities, well Sexy Dexy was destroying guys and forcing Baker Mayfield to have some uncharacteristic, not great throws and just making him really uncomfortable back there in the pocket but just what I wanna focus on here with Cassius Howe and Dexter Lawrence and all these guys is that these new guys stepped up big time for the Bengals. They wouldn't win this game if they didn't make the moves that they made in the offseason and we can talk about Boye Mafe getting a forced fumble. Jonathan Allen having his first career sack as a Bengal. Both these guys with sacks on the day. I believe the Bengals sacked Baker Mayfield four times, forced him to fumble three times and Boye Mafe making plays. Jonathan Allen making plays. Brian Cook with a forced fumble. The other new Bengal said it almost brought a tear to his eye coming out of the tunnel and getting to play at Pacor Stadium for his hometown team. I thought that was really, really cool but good day for the Bengals' defense. They give up 20 points. You can't be upset about that. The seven other points that the Buccaneers had with their 27 was from the Joe Burrow pick six. Like I said, really dumb, uncharacteristic play from Burrow. That one's probably gonna bother him a lot for a while but we gotta move past it. We gotta get ready for Tampa Bay and so hopefully Joe Burrow has gotten that out of his system and will be a little stronger as week two comes. But Baker Mayfield, how about that? Not a great performance out of him. You know, Baker has one passing touchdown on the day. No interceptions but just fumbling the ball all over the place. Bengals forced four fumbles, one from Bucky Irving but Baker Mayfield with three himself. Bengals got lucky recovering every single one of them. You can't expect that to happen every time. Takari Davis almost had a pick if it weren't for a pass interference call as well but Baker Mayfield after getting the new contract, getting paid more than Joe Burrow now, certainly not impressive. And while we wanna, excuse me there, folks. To wrap things up, I wanna talk about Evan McPherson here because Money Mac was doing everything for the Bengals, making 58-yard field goals, made all the extra points, four field goals in four attempts for Evan McPherson. So just a phenomenal day for him. Best kicker in the NFL in my opinion. Certainly Zach Taylor thinks so as well. So the Bengals are lucky to have Evan McPherson. And I was talking about it. I was like, man, he had a great camp. He had a great preseason. Didn't seem like Evan was missing anything. And well, it continues into the regular season. And with that, with those four field goals, the Bengals wouldn't have done it without him, wouldn't have gotten the victory. And so the Bengals, 1-0, beat the Buccaneers 33-27 at Paycourt Stadium. They are 1-0 for the second straight year, looking to be 2-0 as they get ready to take on the Houston Texans in Houston. That's all I've got for you guys today here on Bengals Digest. As always, like, comment, subscribe, ring that notification bell, all that good stuff, and we are gonna have plenty more coming your way. This has been Michael Makin with Bengals Digest.