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The good Jake Fisher Jersey White , the bad and the ugly from the Bengals’ win over the Colts What a way for the Cincinnati Bengals to start their 2018 season. A year removed from one of their worst season-opening performances in team history, this year’s squad gave us one of the most electric results in recent memory. Even with an 11-point win on the road, as well as overcoming a 13-point second-half deficit, things weren’t all rosy in the Cincinnati’s victory. Here are the best and worst from the team’s 34-23 win over the Colts in the season-opener. The good:Joe Mixon: Though he had a bigger number of scrimmage yards in a game last year, it’s hard not to call Mixon’s performance against the Colts as his best as a pro. Perhaps that’s in the facet of overall consistency. He was a dual-threat on Sunday, giving Indianapolis’ defense fits. He finished with 17 carries for 95 yards (5.6 average) and a touchdown, along with five catches for 54 yards. Geno Atkins and Carlos Dunlap: The Bengals used a lot of rotations up front, but it was their two stars on the defensive line that provided the biggest boosts. Atkins was a major factor in holding the Colts to just 3.4 yards per carry on the ground and had a sack of Andrew Luck. Meanwhile, it was a roller coaster of a day for Dunlap, who ended up getting riled up after a certain questionable penalty was called against him. He used that anger towards team production, ending with a sack, a defended pass and two total tackles. P.S. — Get used to being frustrated in watching pro football this year, as this is now a penalty in today’s NFL:Special teams: Randy Bullock hasn’t been fully embraced by the fan base, but after a solid 2017 campaign, statistically-speaking, he started 2018 on a similar note. He finished 4-of-4 on extra points and 2-of-2 on field goals, with a massive one in the fourth quarter. Kevin Huber also had a nice day, with two punts averaging 50 yards per kick, while Alex Erickson also had a nice 28-yard kick return. Coming back from a large second half deficit: For about two and a half quarters, this had all of the style of a 2017 disappointment. Yet, inexplicably, the team metaphorically tightened their laces and got to work. The “changes” we have heard so much about this offseason began to take shape. Big plays in the passing game, improvements in the rushing offense and creating turnovers on defense were all part of a 24-point second half by the Bengals. Preston Brown and Nick Vigil: Unfortunately, Brown’s day was cut short with an injury, but he was active. Yes, he allowed a couple of frustrating underneath completions, but he had a gigantic first quarter interception to go along with five total tackles. Vigil may have had his coming out party against the Colts. He led the team in tackles with 11, with a couple of them going for a loss.Cordy Glenn: When you don’t hear an offensive lineman’s name very often during a game Jeff Driskel Jersey , that’s often a good thing. Glenn wasn’t highlighted very much by the announcers, but held his own in pass protection. The big man also aided greatly in the run game. Check out Joe Mixon’s gains versus the Colts and how able the left side was at springing big plays. Yes, Billy Price and Alex Redmond had some nice pull blocks on a couple of occasions, but Glenn was a force on the left side. The bad:Scheme and execution with Giovani Bernard: For all of the success Mixon had on Sunday, Bernard had just as many struggles. We’re not sure if it’s because of the styles of the respective runners, but the Bengals’ line will need to adjust to No. 25. Bernard struggled to find any room at all, running once for minus-two yards and grabbing one reception for 11 yards. It will get better for Bernard going forward, we presume, but not a great output in packages designed for the versatile back in Week 1. The right side of the offensive line: Even though the line showed improvement overall, Redmond and Bobby Hart struggled on Sunday. Hart got manhandled by former Bengals’ defensive end, Margus Hunt, as he racked up two sacks on Sunday (he had just 1.5 in four seasons with the Bengals). As seen above in the tweet from Adam Spinks, they were able in the run game, but not necessarily the strong points. Both Redmond and Hart had penalties called against them as well. Disparity of total plays: In some ways, it’s a miracle that the Bengals left Lucas Oil Stadium victorious. One of the ominous stat lines was in the amount of offensive plays called by each team. Indianapolis ran 77 plays to the Bengals’ 50, which is startling. However, it was in the Bengals’ ability to get big plays on offense and defense that got them the win. After all, even though the Colts ran 27 more plays, they only had 50 more total yards (380 to 330).The ugly:Inability to cover tight ends...still: Luck attempted to kill the Bengals in a death by a thousand paper-cuts, given the dink-and-dunk nature of the Colts offense. The tight ends feasted on the Bengals’ defense, which has been a bug-a-boo for this team for a long time. Jack Doyle had seven catches for 60 yards, while Eric Ebron had for grabs for 51 yards and a score. Even on the big play by Fejedelem, Doyle was set to convert a massive 15-yard third down. Teryl Austin needs to fix this in a hurry, as the tight end-heavy Ravens come to town on Thursday. A near-loss from high-completion plays: To piggy-back on the previous point, Luck was all but poised to write a great NFL headline via high-percentage passes. In his first game back in over a year, Luck threw 53 passes, but completed them at a staggering 74% rate (39 completions). Again, Austin needs to get to work here. Teams will undoubtedly use this method until the Bengals’ defense shows it can regularly clamp up on a variety of plays. Four dropped interception opportunities: Austin has preached the need for game-changing plays and the Bengals had their chances on a number of occasions on Sunday. Whether it was because of rusty throws from Luck http://www.thebengalslockerroom.com/authentic-clint-boling-jersey , or being in the right place at the right time, Cincinnati’s defense didn’t make some of the plays they needed to. Dre Kirkpatrick let two interception opportunities go through his hands, while Vigil dropped a difficult one as well. And, despite Dunlap’s great afternoon, he did have one that hit him in the throat in the fourth quarter. Imagine if Cincinnati had just one of these potential turnovers.Bengals Week 4 rookie report: Mark Walton finds himself on the scoresheet While it wasn’t scorigami, the Bengals 37-36 win over the Falcons on Sunday was just the third time in NFL history a game ended with that score. It’s fitting that the final score wasn’t as rare as the fashion of how the Bengals won this game. The Bengals went score for score against a high-octane offense in their own stadium, and won on the final drive of the game where they converted two fourth downs. Amidst all the excitement were the five rookies that dressed and played, but only a few truly made an impact in the high-scoring contest.Jessie BatesThrough the first quarter of the season, one of Bates’ biggest perceived weaknesses has shown to be the exact opposite. He finished second to linebacker Nick Vigil in solo tackles with seven and had no missed tackles to his name. With context, none of these tackles were stops as they all occurred past the line to gain, but he ended the contest with no tackles missed, and only has one instance of that all month.Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan torched everyone in the secondary, so while it’s true that the rookie free safety didn’t make much of an impact in pass coverage, no one else did either. The whole system looked flappable against the Falcons high-powered aerial attack, and Bates was just bit too slow to react playing centerfield, though again, there wasn’t much he could do against a nearly flawless game plan from the opposition. The expectations bestowed upon Bates were high entering this season and it’s fair to see he’s on track for meeting them. He’s not exactly been what Derwin James has been for the Chargers, but they’re playing vastly different roles. Bates has held his own and has been anything but a liability. The secondary as a unit may need a re-evaluation following this narrow win, but Bates is on the right path.Sam HubbardWith only three defensive tackles active for the game, and one of them being Josh Tupou, Hubbard was forced onto the field early in the rotation on the interior even on base downs. With defensive end Michael Johnson back, Hubbard actually played more inside than he did on the edge.As a result, Hubbard struggled on and off when dealing with down blocks in run defense, and made minimal impact as a pass rusher. Aside from his active game against Baltimore in Week 2, Hubbard’s splash plays have been far and few between. Hopefully the team has newly acquired Adolphus Washington activated next week so Hubbard can keep to the edge in run defense, because he is a fine edge-setter. However, we need to see a jump in pass rushing efficiency on third down from the rookie when he’s at his under tackle alignment.Malik JeffersonDuring last week’s Orange and Black Insider, we discussed the possibility of Jefferson getting integrated in the defense for this week. With MIKE linebacker Preston Brown back on the field Alex Erickson Jersey , Jefferson was once again regulated to just special teams while the five other active linebackers all saw time on the field for the defense (including Vincent Rey’s one snap).As we all know, WILL linebacker Vontaze Burfict is set to return to the team this week as his four-game suspension has ended. Burfict will likely just replace tight end Tyler Eifert on the roster when the team puts Eifert on the injured reserve list for his season-ending ankle injury, so all linebackers, including Jefferson, should remain on the roster. Burfict’s return can’t diminish Jefferson’s current role because he’s just a special teamer, but unless a situation like last year happens where a multitude of injuries at the linebacker position pile up, Jefferson isn’t seeing the field on defense anytime soon. Mark WaltonThe Bengals once again had just Walton available behind Giovani Bernard at running back for the second week in a row with Joe Mixon sidelined with his knee injury. Unlike last week though, Walton actually had some touches to write home about in his time on the field. He finished with just nine rushing yards on five carries, and 28 receiving yards on two receptions. Most of those yards came on this impressive catch and run. The blocking for Walton up front mirrored that of the preseason when he averaged less than one yard per carry, but with how Bernard was running the ball, his production on the ground was marginal. The real bad news for Walton was him being evaluated for a concussion after he took a head-to-head hit late in the third quarter, which was called for unnecessary roughness on Atlanta. The collision put Walton into the concussion protocol and out of action for a bit, forcing Bernard to take more snaps than planned.Fortunately, Walton soon returned and partook in the final two offensive drives that resulted in 9 points. Whether his evaluation for a concussion was just precautionary or not, the last thing the Bengals needed was another injury at the running back position. Next week’s game against the Dolphins could very well be when Mixon returns to the field, which would diminish Walton’s opportunities going forward. The offense will be better for it, and now Walton has some experience to build off of. Darius PhillipsLost in the madness that was Sunday’s game was cornerback William Jackson leaving the game temporarily for an injury right before the end of the third quarter. This shifted slot cornerback Darqueze Dennard to Jackson’s spot on the outside, and inserted Tony McRae into Dennard’s spot inside. It was the third game this season McRae played on defense, and Phillips has yet to see anything beyond special teams. He only took six snaps on special teams, and saw Alex Erickson take all the reps at both kickoff and punt returner. He did make a touchdown-saving tackle on his first special teams snap, and tackled Atlanta’s kickoff return man Marvin Hall at midfield before he could run back the opening kickoff for six points.Did not playBilly PriceAuden TateBates and Hubbard are not amongst the liabilities that have contributed to one of the worst scoring defenses in the league. Their play through the first four games has been about as good as we could expect from them playing significant snaps in their first handful of games. And just adding Jefferson to the mix won’t make much of a difference like adding Burfict back will.As of now, we don’t know if next Sunday will be the game Price returns, but we should probably expect him to takeover for Trey Hopkins at center. While it may yield better results if Price were to just replace Alex Redmond at right guard, that would be uncharacteristic of the team to do, especially when they declared they were focused on Price at center only right after they drafted him. But the Bengals winning a game like this one is also pretty abnormal. We’ll just have to wait and see what else they may surprise us with.