With a 5-6 record, the Bengals will play a Monday night game in Jacksonville, where former Washington Huskie Jake Browning will try to build on his first career start. This is Browning’s final score against Pittsburgh.
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What kind of grade does Jake Browning deserve after making his NFL debut?
Jake Browning performed admirably in this game, earning a C+ from me. Browning accomplished more than the majority of backups. He didn’t impress anyone with his arm talent or general skill set, but he did appear to be someone who was familiar with the rules, the playbook, and the game’s flow.
The Bengals’ nonexistent run game also did not help, making it much more difficult for Browning to complete passes through the air when Pittsburgh could frequently drop back in coverage.
Browning performed mediocrely throughout the game, with the exception of a couple of tipped balls and a terrible borderline red zone interception in the second half on a forced ball to Ja’Marr Chase that was underthrown on a play where the ball cannot be underthrown. That was evident in his performance and stats. Ultimately, in this league, winning games requires more than just 10 points.
At the end of the game, Browning completed 19 of 26 passes for 227 yards, one touchdown, one interception, and three nine-yard rushes. His Pro Football Focus grade for the game was 51.0, which wasn’t too bad for a divisional matchup in the rain with no rushing attack. With consistent reps and game action, I’d expect him to keep getting better every week.
Ja’Marr Chase led Browning in receiving with four receptions for 81 yards. Throughout the offense, the backup quarterback did a good job of finding nine different receivers to connect with the ball, but none of them became a reliable target.
The obvious problem, as I indicated, was Cincinnati’s inability to execute in the run game, which prevented the first career starter from really expressing himself on the football field. Cincinnati only made 11 attempts to run the ball.
Over time, this negatively impacted Jake Browning’s QBR for the day. It will come back to haunt you because Browning was forced to make dubious passes, have several third and longs, and struggle to be effective on first and second downs. With just Mac Jones, Tommy DeVito, and Tim Boyle in front of him, his QBR of 22.6 was among the lowest of the entire weekend.
