Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor didn’t do himself any favors with his first half playcalls against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Bengals went into halftime down 14-0 to the Jaguars after accumulating only 107 yards of total offense. Joe Burrow put together a strong first drive of 66 yards that ended with a missed field goal, but after that, Taylor and the Bengals committed heavily to the run. At one point, with the Bengals facing a 2nd and 16 from their own 42-yard line, Taylor dialed up a draw play to Joe Mixon.
When you're a very serious football team pic.twitter.com/8q8wSd9cm1
— Computer Cowboy (@benbbaldwin) October 1, 2021
The most baffling sequence came at the end of the first half. The Bengals managed to stop the Jaguars essentially at the goal line, giving them the ball back with two timeouts and 53 seconds left in the half. Instead of trying to do anything to cut into the 14-point deficit, the Bengals took a delay of game, apparently not wanting to risk running the ball out of their own end zone. Instead of doing it again, they handed off to Joe Mixon, ran the clock down to six seconds before taking timeout, then let Joe Burrow keep it to end the half.
the Bengals purposefully taking a delay of game penalty from their own 6-inch line is probably their best play of the night
— Christian D'Andrea needs help to buy Ale Asylum (@TrainIsland) October 1, 2021
I don't know what Zac Taylor is doing right now but let's just say it's a good thing he knows Sean McVay
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) October 1, 2021
I am offended at Zac Taylor wasting everyone's time with that
— John Shipley (@_John_Shipley) October 1, 2021
The Bengals don’t have the offensive line to run the ball, yet leaned on it in the first half. They have weapons at wide receiver, but hardly used them. The entire game plan made very little sense.
There were rumors that Taylor’s job wasn’t safe following the 2020 season. A lot of Bengals fans will want to see him go after that first half.
