CINCINNATI – The Cincinnati Bengals capitalized on three first-half takeaways to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 33-27 in the season opener at Paycor Stadium on Sunday. The Buccaneers dug themselves a hole with all three first-half fumbles, each of which led to Bengals touchdowns. The first, on a Baker Mayfield sack, was scooped up by linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr., who ran it back for a 27-yard touchdown. The Bengals went into halftime with a 24-10 lead. The game became tense in the third quarter when Buccaneers rookie linebacker Josiah Trotter returned a Joe Burrow interception 38 yards for a touchdown to make the score 27-20. A fourth-quarter sack by Boye Mafe led to Mayfield’s third fumble and halted Tampa Bay’s momentum, but Mayfield scored on a final fourth-quarter drive to get back within 33-27 with 3:19 remaining. Burrow and the Cincinnati offense were able to run out the rest of the clock to preserve the victory. Box Score | Week 1 Live Blog | Game DiscussionBuccaneers @ Bengals Best PlaysCincinnati’s offseason strategy on display with revamped defense All the money and draft capital spent reinventing Cincinnati’s defense was in action Sunday. Nearly every well-compensated free agent or top draft pick made a big play, and the players the personnel department bet would make the jump were at the center of the game’s most impactful moments for the unit. Let’s take a look back at the offseason. The Bengals paid Mafe $20 million per year. He blew up Mayfield from behind for a fumble in the fourth quarter and also recovered a fumble in the first half. They paid safety Bryan Cook $13 million per year and he forced a fumble in the first half. They paid Jonathan Allen $25 million over two years. He had a sack on third and long to force a field goal. They traded for Dexter Lawrence. He could have contributed the calmer stat line, but he pushed the pocket, forcing Mayfield to scramble on what became a fumble in the end zone in the first half while drawing double teams all afternoon. • In the second round they selected Cashius Howell, who received a holding decision to put Tampa behind the sticks early. • They believed in maligned second-year linebackers Knight Jr. and Barrett Carter. Carter was part of a sack in which Myles Murphy forced a fumble and Knight scooped up the ball for a defensive touchdown that set the tone for the day. Playing with the lead, the defensive front came in waves just as de facto general manager Duke Tobin expected as he continued to throw resources at the problem. Chaos erupted in the backfield on nearly every clear pass to Mayfield, none greater than Mafe’s final fumble of the day. This was the vision in the offseason. Vision delivered the punch on the way to 1-0. Paul Dehner Jr., Bengals beat writer Bucs plagued by fumbles For a team that had been excellent in season openers of late (entering Sunday, Todd Bowles had won all four since becoming Bucs coach in 2022, with Mayfield winning his first three as a starting quarterback), this was not simply a surprising debut for Tampa Bay but a concerning one. That’s because the Bucs, particularly their new $165 million quarterback, couldn’t stop turning the ball over. In total, the Bucs lost four fumbles that afternoon, including three by Mayfield, the most in a game in his nine-year career. For perspective: The Bucs didn’t lose their fourth fumble last season until Week 7. That’s not exactly how Tampa Bay saw 2026 play out after signing Mayfield to his record contract last week. Much of the credit goes to the Bengals’ revamped defensive front: Mayfield was under pressure all afternoon. They worked on the Bucs’ offensive line, particularly early on, when five different defenders sacked Mayfield. Tampa Bay was able to put up 27 points, enough to win a lot of games in this league, but turnovers made the difference. A bright spot on defense came in the person of Trotter, who in addition to nine tackles and a sack in his NFL debut also had a pick six, becoming the first player in franchise history to do so. 2025 revolved around increasing the use of under center training. The Bengals lived in shotgun more than almost every team in football over the past four seasons. They wanted to find more explosive plays in the running game, use play-action and, most importantly, use formation as a weapon to finish leads. They did just that. Cincinnati ran from under center 17 times for 78 yards, using it predominantly in the fourth quarter to squeeze out the game clock for a two-score lead. Burrow wasn’t spectacular – he took down Tee Higgins on a deep play-action attempt under center in the first half – but he played well using the center. The offense was far from perfect, specifically the inexcusable pick-6 that Burrow threw to Trotter in the second half to allow Tampa Bay to get back into the game, but the formation under center proved beneficial and effective. — Dehner Icing the game The Bengals talked endlessly about being better at finishing games. Coach Zac Taylor even put on screen all the games where they led or were within one score and lost in the fourth quarter last year during team meetings. Well, the first game provided the first opportunity to show that this year could be different. After the defense gave up a Mayfield touchdown to pull within six with three minutes remaining, Burrow and the offense delivered. Training camp favorite Dohnte Meyers contributed a slick catch-and-run, as did third-down back Samaje Perine. But the exclamation point was a ridiculously bold display of athleticism by Higgins, who seemed to levitate to catch an 18-yard pass from Burrow that essentially put the victory on ice. -Dehner
