UPON FURTHER REVIEW: what I heard and observed watching the Bengals-Lions game a second time

CINCINNATI — 1. Trey Hendrickson absolutely destroyed Penei Sewell yesterday. It wasn’t even close. Hendrickson had the only sack of the day for the Bengals, and he was so relentless he managed to sack Goff while being held by Sewell. He continues to show why he was the biggest free agent signing for the Bengals in the offseason with now 4.5 sacks in the first six games this season.

2. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor, when asked what grade he would have given the offense for the first half, said he would have flunked them. I’m not sure what exactly he told the offense in the locker room at halftime, but whatever he said or did got them cooking on gas in the second half with four scores on their first four possessions of the second half.

3. FOX color analyst Daryl “Moose” Johnston said towards the end of the broadcast if the Bengals can play 60 minutes of football that they could be a special team.

4. Ja’Marr Chase’s best play yesterday was the block on Joe Mixon’s touchdown reception, but there was another effort play he made that stands out. On the play Joe Burrow was intercepted, Chase fell to the ground after a leaping attempt for a catch, but still got up and sprinted to make the tackle on Lions cornerback Amari Oruwariye. Those effort plays are why it’s so easy to love Ja’Marr Chase, and it validates even more why the Bengals drafted him

5. When Logan Wilson ripped the ball away from Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown for an interception following Burrow’s interception, Zac Taylor left no doubt he was challenging the play by throwing the challenge flag almost ten yards onto the field. That’s being aggressive.

6. The head of the one-man Bengals analytics department, Sam Francis, literally looks like a Zac Taylor clone. Seriously! He looks just like Taylor!

7. I feel so bad for Detroit Lions fans. Their team is so inept and so bad it’s disheartening.

8. Lions head coach Dan Campbell looked like he knew from the sidelines Burrow was going to throw to running back Chis Evans on the Bengals first touchdown pass, but there was nothing he could do about it once the play started.

9. Sure the Lions moved the ball well in the fourth quarter, but that’s because the Bengals had a big enough lead that they could allow Detroit to dink and dunk their way down the field.

10. Speaking of dinking and dunking, that is literally what the Lions did all game. They didn’t have the personnel to try much of anything downfield, which made it easier for the Bengals defense to get off the field. Hockenson was their only downfield threat and they only targeted him deep once, and it was well overthrown.

11. On to Baltimore, a game for first place in the AFC North.