Bengals Defense Takes Big Steps in Opener, but Missed Tackles Still an Issue

The Cincinnati Bengals pulled off a statistical anomaly Sunday in their 33-27 season-opening win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, recording four sacks and recovering four fumbles in a game for just the third time in franchise history.

Three of the four fumbles were either forced or recovered – or both – by newcomers Boye Mafe, Bryan Cook and Jonathan Allen.

One year after recovering seven fumbles, the Bengals already are more than halfway there.

They also had just 35 sacks in 2025, tied for 22nd in the league.

So the instant impact provided by the newcomers, including defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence, was a notable positive sign in the opener.

One issue from 2025 that remained, however, was a large number of missed tackles.

The Bengals had 171 of them last year, which not only led the league but did so by a huge margin as the next highest total was 131 by the Washington Commanders.

The 171 was the most by any team in any season since data sites started tracking missed tackles in 2007.

ProFootballFocus had the Bengals with 13 missed tackles against the Buccaneers, while SportRadar credited them with 10.

Both head coach Zac Taylor and defensive coordinator Al Golden said the tackling needs to be better, but neither seemed troubled by seeing some of the issues from last year repeat themselves Sunday.

“There's gonna be moments where we got to better, come to balance and get guys to the ground,” Taylor said. “But I thought the effort was there. I thought guys did a good job of leveraging the ball. I thought our vice tackling, you saw a lot of jerseys around the ball. A lot of times the ball got in space and sometimes our coverages were really good, made them drop it down.

“You'd see three, four guys rally to the ball, get the ball carrier on the ground,” he added. “So overall, it was good for Week 1. And we'll just continue to improve from there.”

The Bengals had 11 missed tackles in Week 1 last year, which was tied for the fifth most of the season.

There were 195 missed tackles league wide in Week 1, 2025.

This year, there were 189 across the 16 games in the opening week.

PFF had linebackers Demetrius Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter with three missed tackles each Sunday to lead the team. SportRadar had Carter with three and Knight with two.

Knight finished with the fifth most missed tackles in the league last year with 18, while Carter was tied for 10th with 17.

While it’s just one game, they are pace to blow past those numbers after Sunday’s performances.

Not only did Golden say he wasn’t bothered by the tackling Sunday, he endorsed it.

“I am encouraged by the tackling,” he said. “No. 1, I think Bucky (Irving) is as elusive a lateral step as there is. You guys could probably look at how he generates missed tackles, but he is really good at it.”

“Overall, (the tackling was) good, physical,” Golden added. “There are some we can be better at, but overall really pleased.”

Next up for the Bengals defense are the Houston Texans. Running back Woody Marks forced five missed tackles on just nine carries against the Buffalo Bills in Week 1. The five missed tackles forced were tied with Irving for the sixth most in the league.

Houston running back David Montgomery forced three missed tackles.

“There are a lot of good players in this league. You have to give them credit,” Golden said. “You can’t be perfect, but I thought we were physical. We ran to the ball, we populated the ball so it was on the ground, and we got it.”

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