The Bengals defense continued its string of redemptive performances today against the Arizona Cardinals. Al Golden’s boys held their opponents to just 233 total yards, their best overall effort of the year by far.
But it was a group effort with multiple players contributing to stifling Jacoby Brissett and Trey McBride. From late round picks to rookie projects, let’s take a look to see which performances raised some eyebrows (in a good way for once) this Sunday. Because we all need some positivity headed into the 2026 season.
SHEMAR STEWART
Ever since he was drafted, Shemar Stewart has polarized Cincinnati fans with both his potential and his lack of performance on the field. We’ve seen some flashes of what he could become, but injuries have limited his development this year.
Today he got his first NFL sack, and Bengals fans hope it’s the first of many for the Orange and Black. He used his size to bully past Arizona’s right tackle Josh Fryar and bury Jacoby Brissett. While it is just a small step in his long road to becoming an impactful edge rusher, you have to start somewhere.
CEDRIC JOHNSON
Of all the potential impact defensive linemen on this team, you rarely hear about Cedric Johnson. He was drafted in the sixth round in 2024 out of Mississippi and had one sack last season. He came up big today, also adding a sack of his own along with six total pressures and four hurries.
It was the game of his young career to be sure, and he certainly has shown that he deserves more snaps in the rotation in the final next week against the Browns. The question of course becomes how a player like Johnson can build upon this game to be a more consistent contributor moving forward.
MYLES MURPHY
Like Shemar Stewart, ask any Bengals fan about Myles Murphy and you’ll get opinions ranging from apathy to anger to unbridled optimism and everything in between. But his productivity is ticking up and it’s hard not to be optimistic about his future for this defense. He has four sacks in his last six games and with Trey Hendrickson out, is getting the majority of the attention from opposing offensive lines.
His sack today was a pure motor play (like so many of his impact snaps are) where he just refused to stop and ran down Jacoby Brissett from behind. Murphy clearly has the physical ability and desire to get after opposing quarterbacks and those are the bedrocks of what this team needs to improve its defense.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN?
Yes the Bengals’ opponents these past few weeks have not been of the highest caliber. But let’s not forget that this team lost to the likes of the New York Jets not too long ago, and the defense surrendered 39 mind boggling points. So any signs of improvement from that standpoint should be cause for at least some celebration. These last games have been all about identifying which players could have an impact on the 2026 season. And so the work put in by the guys on our defensive line is worth paying extra attention to as the year comes to a close. The plays these guys make may not make Sportscenter’s top ten on Monday morning, but that isn’t what this defense should be expected to produce at this point. They need to find a way to work together to field a defense that can get stops in any way possible in order to allow our offense a chance to put up points, build a lead, and keep it. It’s not just going to come from one or even a handful of players, but will be a group/unit effort just like we saw from our front four today.
