The availability story changed during the game. Ja'Marr Chase, the receiver who caught 9 for 98 and a touchdown in Pittsburgh a week earlier, was ruled out with a concussion before halftime. That left Tee Higgins as the only proven target, and Burrow was already playing behind a defense missing B.J. Hill, Kyle Dugger, Bryan Cook and Swayze Bozeman. Jacksonville came out of it banged up too. Safety Eric Murray was ruled out with a concussion late, and safety Caleb Ransaw was questionable to return with a knee injury. That's a lot to absorb for a secondary that had already lost corners Christian Braswell and Montaric Brown before kickoff.
The Bengals closed as a short home favorite, and the most money tracked on Polymarket went to Cincinnati. The scoreboard went the other way most of the afternoon. At 72 degrees, partly cloudy and with 3 mph of wind at kickoff, neither offense could blame the weather. The 39 combined points came from the football.
The second quarter decided it. Jacksonville scored 10 in that quarter while Cincinnati managed a field goal, and the Bengals spent the second half chasing. They won the 3rd and 4th quarters 14-9 and got within a possession, but every Cincinnati touchdown was followed by Jaguars points. A 3-point Jacksonville quarter after the break and 6 more in the 4th kept the lead at a possession or more. Jacksonville scored 22 points on a day the line score shows 2 or 3 field-goal quarters. The Jaguars moved the ball steadily but stalled in the red zone more often than you'd like. A cleaner red zone would have made this comfortable much earlier.
For Cincinnati this is the same problem as last week with a different cause. In Pittsburgh, the Bengals gave away points on special teams and a late strip-sack. This time they spotted Jacksonville a 10-point halftime lead at home, and without Chase they couldn't make it up. The box score I found doesn't settle individual lines for Higgins, Bhayshul Tuten or Travis Hunter, all 3 names the preview built around. What the line score does show is that the Bengals offense didn't score a touchdown until the 3rd quarter.
Jacksonville goes to 3-1 with a road win it didn't have last week, and the defense has now held all 4 opponents to 20 or fewer. Cincinnati falls to 2-2 after 2 straight losses. The next questions are Chase's concussion recovery and a defensive injury list that keeps getting longer. The Jaguars' worry is at safety, where Murray and Ransaw both left the game.