Snap Count Takeaways: Bengals Deploy New Rotation During Worst Loss in Franchise History

Rookie Jalen Rivers played 23 snaps (41%) on Sunday after Dalton Risner suffered a calf injury. Will Rivers get another shot at guard?

Noah Fant was dominating the tight end snaps before suffering a concussion on Sunday. Mike Gesicki played 17 snaps—the bulk of them came after Fant's injury.

Rookie Tahj Brooks got 10 snaps and played the most he's played this season. That was in large part due to the score and Samaje Perine's thumb injury. Chase Brown still led the backfield with 31 snaps.

Check out the defensive snap counts below:

Winners and Losers From Bengals' Historic Loss to Vikings

Josh Newton led the way on defense by playing 54 (90%) of the snaps.

Logan Wilson played 42 snaps, with Demetrius Knight Jr. and Oren Burks right behind him with 37 and 21 snaps, respectively. Rookie Barrett Carter saw his most extensive action of the season, playing 18 snaps.

The Bengals took Wilson on the field in some packages throughout the game.

"That was a position coach's decision," Wilson said after the game. "He told me about it before the game. He was just trying to keep me healthy. I don't know. I'm not going to complain about it. That's what he wanted to do and that's what we're going to do I guess. We'll go from there."

Wilson finished third on the team with five tackles.

Howard Cross III made his NFL debut, tallying nine defensive snaps. Marco Wilson was on the field for 13 snaps in his first regular season action of 2025.

Worst Loss in Franchise History

The Bengals suffered the worst loss in team history. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor blamed the five turnovers—two of them were returned for touchdowns.

"Turnovers. I mean, I don't know how clearly I can say five turnovers put you in a horrible spot, four of them in the first half, two of them for touchdowns," Taylor said. "So that's going to lead to a lot of historical issues, when you have two that suck the momentum right out of you, when you're in scoring position and they get 14 points out of it without their offense having to walk on the field. That's a blow to the gut, and the score is going to be ugly when that happens. Usually when there's one turnover for a touchdown on the road is tough. Two is tough, but again, just three more on top of that. I mean, our guys, like, I don't feel like it took the wind out of our sails. I mean, it is a blow, and it's hard to get yourself up, but our guys kept responding and trying to put ourself in position. I didn't see guys quit. It was just a tough, tough all around loss and we’re going to have to own it."