The Bengals are set to play without a couple of offensive starters against the Raiders on Sunday.
Wide receiver Tee Higgins and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. missed practice for the third straight day on Friday. They have both been listed as doubtful to play against Las Vegas.
Higgins did not play last week because of a quad injury while Brown, who has knee and fibula injuries, has started all eight games this season. He has missed big chunks of the last two games, however.
Running back Zack Moss (neck) is also listed as doubtful. Wide receiver Charlie Jones (groin) and safety Geno Stone (shin) are listed as questionable while defensive end Sam Hubbard (shin) has no injury designation after being added to the report on Thursday.
Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said that the club would take things day-by-day when it comes to receiver Tee Higgins and offensive tackle Orlando Brown Jr.
Thursday is apparently not the day for either player to get on the field.
Per multiple reporters on the scene, Higgins (quad) and Brown (knee/fibula) were not on the field for practice once again.
Higgins missed last week’s game against the Eagles after suffering the injury during the practice week. Higgins has played five of Cincinnati’s eight games this season, catching 29 passes for 341 yards with three touchdowns.
Friday’s practice will be telling for Higgins and Brown when it comes to their potential availability on Sunday.
The Raiders have lost four games in a row to put them at 2-6 heading into this week’s matchup with the Bengals.
The team’s offense has been one of its weak points, ranking No. 26 in points, No. 29 in yards, and No. 31 with 17 giveaways.
Head coach Antonio Pierce noted during his Wednesday press conference that one of the club’s issues is play-calling. But at this point, he’s still comfortable moving forward with Luke Getsy as offensive coordinator.
“Yeah, I think it has to get better,” Pierce said of the offensive play-calling. “There’s been a lot of opportunities for us to score points and make opportunities. And, yeah, that’s on the play-caller. But then also, like I told our staff, and I told our players, it’s all of us. It’s easy to sit here and just point the finger at Luke, or myself, but you look at O-line play, quarterbacks, running backs, turnovers, missed blocks, missed executions on plays, alignments on details — all those things have got to get cleaned up.
“So, yeah, it does start with the coordinator. He’s got to be the one that takes the fall for that and gets most of the blame. But it is collective.”
The Raiders will try to get things going offensively on the road in Cincinnati this weekend.
Early in Wednesday’s press conference, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was asked if Sunday’s game against the Raiders was as close to a must-win game as the Bengals are going to see.
Burrow went even further in his reponse. Burrow called the matchup with the Raiders a must-win game and explained why that is the case.
“We’re 3-5,” Burrow said. “You go to 3-6, then you gotta basically win out to get in. Urgency’s very high every week from here on out.”
Calling games must-win affairs can be hyperbolic and the math says the Bengals will be alive regardless of their result this week, but it’s hard to frame this week’s game any other way.
Among the reasons the Bengals are 3-5 is that they’ve lost all four of their home games and losing to the Raiders in their building will make it all but impossible to believe they are capable of the kind of play that would allow them to advance to the postseason this year.
Last year, Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua caught 105 passes, setting a new NFL record for a rookie. Nacua may not own that record for long.
This year, Raiders tight end Brock Bowers has 52 catches through eight games, putting him on pace to catch 111 passes this season and break Nacua’s record.
Bowers’ 52 catches lead the NFL, and with eight more catches on Sunday he can join Nacua and Saquon Barkley as the only players with 60 catches in the first nine games of their careers.
Bowers has 535 receiving yards this season, the most of any tight end in the league, and if he gets 65 more yards on Sunday he’ll join Mike Ditka and Kyle Pitts as the only tight ends with at least 600 receiving yards in their first nine career games.
After Sunday’s Raiders-Chiefs game, Travis Kelce approached Bowers and told him, “Happy as hell for you. Keep doing your thing. I’m gonna shoot my jersey to your locker.” Kelce recognizes that Bowers is the NFL’s next great tight end.
The Bengals did not have two of their key offensive players on the field on Wednesday.
Receiver Tee Higgins (quad) and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. (knee/fibula) both did not practice.
Head coach Zac Taylor once again characterized both players as day-to-day during his Wednesday press conference.
Higgins missed the team’s Week 8 loss to the Eagles. He’s caught 29 passes for 341 yards with three touchdowns so far this season.
The fibula designation for Brown is new this week.
Cincinnati defensive tackle Kris Jenkins (thumb) was a full participant in practice.
Quarterback Joe Burrow (right wrist) continues to be listed as a full participant in practice as well.
Bengals receiver Tee Higgins did not play in Sunday’s game against the Eagles after suffering a hamstring injury late in the practice week.
In his Monday press conference, Cincinnati head coach Zac Taylor said in his Monday press conference that they’ll take things day-to-day with Higgins.
“There are things he was trying to do Sunday morning,” Taylor said, via Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “At the end, it was smart to limit that.”
Higgins has caught 29 passes for 341 yards with three touchdowns in five games this season.
Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. (knee) was also able to play only 50 percent of the team’s offensive snaps during Sunday’s game.
“Similar as it was last week for Orlando,” Taylor said. “No worse off going in. As the game went, he felt some discomfort.”
Playing the Raiders on Sunday, the Bengals will release their first injury report of the week on Wednesday.
Late in the third quarter of Sunday’s matchup between the Chiefs and Raiders, quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw an interception to Tre’von Moehrig that the safety returned to Kansas City’s 3-yard line.
Down 17-13 at that point, it looked like the Raiders were about to take a 20-17 lead over a division rival that was struggling offensively.
Alexander Mattison rushed for 2 yards to Kansas City’s 1 on first down. But then he was stuffed for no gain on second down. He was stuffed for a 2-yard loss on third down. And Garnder Minshew was sacked for a 5-yard loss on the next play for a turnover on downs.
It was the turning point of the game. The Chiefs went on a 19-play, 87-yard drive in response that ended in a field goal to go up 20-13. The next time Las Vegas had the ball, Minshew fumbled when trying to escape the pocket on the second play of the possession, with Kansas City recovering.
After the game, both head coach Antonio Pierce and Minshew lamented not being able to score from inside the 5 after the takeaway.
“You’ve got to punch it in, right?” Pierce said. “Last week, we had the same opportunity, and we threw it four straight times., Trying to get it. We just got knocked back. They won the line of scrimmage on those plays.
“I’m trying to establish some physicality with our guys up front,” Pierce later added. “Right there at the 3-yard line, you have to pound it in. Turnover, sudden change — you should be able to punch that ball in.”
Minshew called it “really frustrating” to get stuffed at that point on the field.
“That’s obviously something we have to be better at,” Minshew said. “We’ve been getting down there a few times. The defense put us down there a few times.
“We have to be able to get it in the end zone, point-blank, period, if we want to be the team we have to be. I think we’ll have to look at it, figure out what we’ve done well over the last little bit, and figure out what’s not working and go from there.”
The Raiders are now 2-6, with the club scorn 20 points or fewer in each of its last five games and in six of eight games overall. The club will go to Cincinnati next Sunday before a Week 10 bye.
It was win, rinse and repeat for the Chiefs on Sunday.
While still not dominating, the Chiefs won again anyway. They beat the Raiders 27-20 for their 13th consecutive win.
Kansas City (7-0) is the last undefeated team in the NFL. Las Vegas fell to 2-6.
The Chiefs overcame eight penalties for 55 yards and an interception by Patrick Mahomes, who was bailed out by his defense. The Raiders failed to score on four plays from inside the 5-yard line after Raiders safety Tre’von Moehrig returned Mahomes’ pick 12 yards to the Kansas City 3.
On the possession before that, the Raiders kicked a field goal after stalling at the Kansas City 14.
The Raiders were 2-for-4 in the red zone, scoring 17 points on the possessions inside the Kansas City 20.
The Chiefs had five sacks of Gardner Minshew and held the Raiders to 228 yards.
Minshew went 24-of-30 for 209 yards and two touchdowns, with rookie tight end Brock Bowers catching five for 58 yards.
The Chiefs had 334 yards with Mahomes throwing his first two touchdowns in October. He went 27-of-38 for 262 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Travis Kelce had his first touchdown of the season, catching 10 passes for 90 yards.
Kareem Hunt rushed for 59 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries.
Patrick Mahomes has thrown an interception in every game this season.
His pick on Sunday came when Raiders defensive tackle John Jenkins hit Mahomes’ arm in the end zone. The pass was up for grabs, and Raiders safety Tre’von Moehrig intercepted it.
Moehrig ran it back 12 yards to the Kansas City 3. The Raiders did not get any points.
Alexander Mattison gained 2 yards to the 1 and then was stopped for no gain. Nick Bolton and Drue Tranquill dropped Mattison for a 2-yard loss on an outside run on third down, and then on fourth down, Gardner Minshew attempted what appeared to be a quarterback draw but was ruled a 5-yard sack.
Tershawn Wharton and George Karlaftis split the sack.
The Raiders have run 13 plays deep in Chiefs territory in the third quarter and have three points.
The Chiefs lead 17-13.
