New York Jets vs Bengals Match Player Stats: The Full Story Behind One of the Season’s Wildest Wins
Key Facts
| Detail | Info |
| Date | Sunday, October 26, 2025 |
| Venue | Paycor Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio |
| Final Score | New York Jets 39 — Cincinnati Bengals 38 |
| Jets QB | Justin Fields (starter) / Breece Hall (key finisher) |
| Bengals QB | Joe Flacco |
| Total Yards — Jets | 502 |
| Total Yards — Bengals | 398 |
| Jets Time of Possession | 33:40 |
| Bengals Time of Possession | 26:20 |
| Jets Rushing Yards | 254 |
| Bengals Rushing Yards | 181 |
| Jets Turnovers | 0 |
| Bengals Turnovers | 0 |
| Jets Passing Rating | 109.2 |
| Bengals Passing Rating | 100.5 |
| Jets Field Goals | 3-for-3 (24, 25, 46 yards) |
| Bengals Field Goals | 1-for-1 (26 yards) |
| Halftime Score | Bengals 24 — Jets 13 |
| Jets Record After Game | Season continued |
When You Almost Gave Up Watching
Let me set the scene for you.
It’s late in the fourth quarter. The scoreboard reads Cincinnati 38, New York 24. The Bengals have been in control for most of the game. Their running backs keep punching it in. Their quarterback, the ageless Joe Flacco, looks comfortable and sharp.
You could be forgiven for believing it was finished.
But football has a way of reminding you why you never leave early. The New York Jets were about to put on one of the more remarkable late-game performances of the 2025 NFL season — and the story of how it happened is worth telling from the very beginning.
How the First Half Went So Wrong for New York
The Bengals came out of the gate with something to prove at Paycor Stadium. Cincinnati drew first blood on a Joe Flacco quarterback sneak for a touchdown just five minutes into the game. A field goal from Evan McPherson followed quickly. By the end of the first quarter, it was already 10–0 Cincinnati, and the Jets hadn’t sniffed the end zone.
New York finally got on the board in the second quarter with a Nick Folk field goal from 46 yards. That brief moment of relief didn’t last long.
Flacco found Tee Higgins down the right side for a 44-yard touchdown — the longest play of the game for either team. Then things got worse. Flacco connected again with Cam Brown for 19 yards and another score. By halftime, the Bengals led 24–13, and the Jets were playing catch-up ball.
Cincinnati’s offense in that first half was efficient and punishing. The Bengals ran it well and protected the ball perfectly. Not a single turnover for either team — a clean, competitive game up to that point, just heavily tilted in one direction.
The Passing Battle: Fields vs. Flacco
Both quarterbacks had genuinely solid games when you look at the raw numbers — and neither one made the kind of mistake that usually decides close games.
Justin Fields for the Jets completed 22 of 33 pass attempts. He gained 248 yards through the air, threw 2 touchdown passes, and wasn’t sacked a single time. His passer rating finished at 109.2. That’s a strong afternoon for any quarterback, and it’s a testament to how well New York protected him.
Fields also added 5 rushing scrambles in his stat line, helping the Jets convert on tough situations. He put two points on the board himself with a conversion rush in the fourth quarter when it mattered most.
Joe Flacco for the Bengals was no slouch either. He completed 21 of 34 passes for 223 yards, threw 2 touchdown passes, and also kept his turnovers at zero. His rating sat at 100.5. Flacco, who has one of the most lived-in careers in football at this point, looked comfortable all day.
The difference between the two passers wasn’t huge. It came down to what their teams built around them — and in the second half, New York built something special on the ground.
The Running Game That Won the Game
If you want to understand why the Jets eventually won this football game, you need to look at the rushing stats.
New York ran the ball 37 times. Not 27, not 30 — 37 attempts. They gained 254 yards on the ground. That works out to nearly 6.9 yards every time they hand the ball off. The longest run of the game for anyone in a Jets uniform went for 50 yards.
Cincinnati also ran the ball effectively — 23 attempts, 181 yards, averaging almost 8 yards per carry. Samaje Perine had a beautiful 32-yard touchdown scamper in the third quarter that seemed to put the game to bed.
But the player who rewrote the whole story was Breece Hall.
Hall carried the ball relentlessly. He scored twice on the ground — one of those was a stunning 27-yard run to the right end. But the moment that will stay with people who watched this game came late. With the Jets trailing and the fourth quarter draining away, Hall caught a short pass out of the backfield and turned it into a touchdown. He made it a one-score game. Then he scored the touchdown that tied it. Then Nick Folk’s extra point made it 39–38, New York.
The Jets, who were down 14 points with under ten minutes left, had just taken the lead for the first time all game.
The Fourth Quarter Chaos — Scored Play by Play
The fourth quarter of this game deserves its own section because it was genuinely wild. Here’s what happened, in order:
The Bengals still led 31–16 entering the final quarter. Hall scored from 5 yards out. Fields then ran in a two-point conversion — 31–24.
Then Cincinnati’s Cam Brown punched one in from a yard out to push it back to 38–24. That felt like the door closing.
Hall answered again, this time rumbling 27 yards to the right side — 38–30. Fields tried another two-point pass to Ihmir Smith-Marsette but it was initially ruled incomplete. Officials reviewed it. They overturned it. The conversion counted. 38–32.
Two minutes left on the clock. The Jets had the ball again. Fields dropped back and lofted a short pass to Mack Taylor. Taylor hauled it in for a 4-yard touchdown. The Jets had 38 points.
Nick Folk calmly stepped up and kicked the extra point through the uprights.
Jets 39, Bengals 38.
That was the final score.
The Turnover-Free Masterpiece
One of the quieter stories of this game is what didn’t happen.
Neither team turned the ball over. Not once. No interceptions. No fumbles lost. Zero turnovers across 128 plays of football. That’s remarkably clean for a game that was this chaotic in the final quarter.
When you play turnover-free football, you stay in the game. The Bengals held zero interceptions despite throwing 34 times. The Jets gave away nothing through the air either — and Fields, who has historically dealt with turnovers at times in his career, was completely locked in.
Clean football from both sides meant the game was decided purely on execution, clock management, and one team’s ability to flip the script in a hurry.
Time of Possession Told the Bigger Story
New York held the ball for 33 minutes and 40 seconds. Cincinnati had it for 26 minutes and 20 seconds.
That gap of nearly seven minutes is enormous in professional football. It kept the Jets’ defense rested. It wore down Cincinnati’s. And it allowed New York to run their 37-carry ground game without burning out.
When you control the clock, you control the rhythm of the game. The Jets did that beautifully in the second half even when the scoreboard wasn’t reflecting their dominance. They just kept grinding, kept running, and trusted that their legs would outlast Cincinnati’s will to stop them.
By the fourth quarter, that trust paid off completely.
What the Kicking Game Contributed
Let’s not forget Nick Folk, because he was perfect all day.
Folk made all three of his field goal attempts. He hit from 46 yards — the longest of the three — and added two others from 24 and 25 yards. He also made his one extra point when it mattered most, giving the Jets the lead they’d keep for the final two minutes.
Cincinnati’s Evan McPherson went 1-for-1 on field goals as well, hitting a 26-yarder early. Accurate kickers on both sides, but Folk ended up with 10 points on the day — a quiet, steady contribution that helped bridge the gap during those stretches when touchdowns weren’t coming.
The Receiving Rooms — Who Stepped Up
The Jets’ passing game featured 22 completions spread across multiple receivers. The target count shows how widely New York distributed the ball — 30 targets going to various pass-catchers. Tyron Johnson caught the Jets’ first touchdown, a 15-yard grab from Fields that made the halftime score respectable at 17–13.
The Jets’ receivers also picked up solid yards after the catch — 152 total yards after contact, matching Cincinnati’s number exactly at 152. That suggests both teams were running with the ball after catches, not just catching short routes and falling down.
For the Bengals, Tee Higgins had the most electric catch of the game — that 44-yarder in the second quarter that was the longest completion either team attempted all day. Higgins and Cam Brown both found the end zone, and Brown also scored a rushing touchdown late that briefly appeared to seal Cincinnati’s win.
The Defense: Quiet Numbers, Real Pressure
Neither defense dominated — this was primarily an offensive showcase — but the Jets’ defense deserves some credit for how it held up in crunch time.
New York recorded 1 sack in the afternoon. Their defenders forced 3 three-and-outs, which was meaningful. They also defended 7 passes, more than Cincinnati’s 4 defended passes.
Cincinnati’s defense recorded no sacks, which explains why Fields had so much time to distribute the ball and why the Jets’ run game worked so effectively. The Bengals blitzed on 12 plays but generated just 1 hurry and 1 knockdown. That’s not a lot of return for that kind of aggressive pressure-sending.
New York blitzed 3 times and generated 5 hurries — a better success rate on fewer attempts.
What This Game Means Looking Back
The Jets came into 2025 with high expectations and then ran into a brutal early stretch. Losses to Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Tampa Bay, Miami, Dallas, and Carolina — at times by wide margins — made the season feel uncertain. A win over Cleveland had come before this one, but the team badly needed a big moment.
Beating the Bengals 39–38 on the road, coming back from 14 down in the fourth quarter, was that moment.
It showed that Justin Fields could manage a game under pressure without making mistakes. It showed that the offensive line could protect and create lanes. Most of all, it showed that Breece Hall — when given the carries and the trust — could be one of the most impactful running backs in the AFC.
This wasn’t a perfect game for the Jets. They dug themselves a deep hole in that first half. But they climbed out of it, and that takes a certain kind of toughness that doesn’t always show up on a stat sheet.
Final Words
Some games are memorable because of one big play. One Hail Mary. One interception returned for a score.
This game was different. The Jets won it through sheer persistence — 37 rushing attempts, 7 minutes of extra possession time, three perfect field goals, zero turnovers, and a running back who simply refused to let his team lose.
It was the kind of win that reminds you why patience matters in football. And why you should always, always keep watching.
FAQs
1. What was the final score of the Jets vs. Bengals game on October 26, 2025?
The New York Jets won 39–38 over the Cincinnati Bengals in a thrilling comeback at Paycor Stadium.
2. Who was the Jets’ starting quarterback?
Justin Fields started and played the full game, finishing with 248 passing yards, a 109.2 passer rating, and 2 touchdown passes.
3. How many yards did the Jets rush for?
New York ran for 254 yards on 37 carries — a fantastic ground performance that averaged nearly 6.9 yards per attempt.
4. Who scored the winning touchdown for the Jets?
Breece Hall caught a short pass from Justin Fields and scored a 4-yard receiving touchdown with about two minutes left. Nick Folk’s extra point made it 39–38.
5. How many touchdowns did Breece Hall score?
Hall scored 3 touchdowns — 2 rushing and 1 receiving — all in the fourth quarter.
6. Who started at quarterback for the Bengals?
Joe Flacco started for Cincinnati. He completed 21 of 34 passes for 223 yards and 2 touchdowns with a 100.5 rating.
7. Did either team turn the ball over?
No. Both teams played turnover-free football across all four quarters — zero interceptions and zero fumbles lost for either side.
8. What was the score at halftime?
Cincinnati led 24–13 at the break, largely built on a big second quarter from Flacco’s arm.
9. How was time of possession split?
The Jets dominated possession — 33:40 to the Bengals’ 26:20. Almost a 7-minute advantage for New York.
10. Who kicked field goals for the Jets and how did they do?
Nick Folk was 3-for-3, connecting from 46, 25, and 24 yards. He contributed 10 points to the final score.
11. What was the biggest play of the game?
Tee Higgins’ 44-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter was the longest play of the game, putting the Bengals up 16–3.
12. Did the Jets attempt any two-point conversions?
Yes — two of them. One succeeded (Justin Fields rushed it in). One was initially ruled incomplete but overturned on review and counted.
13. How many total yards did each team gain?
Jets: 502 total yards. Bengals: 398 total yards. New York outgained Cincinnati by 104 yards.
14. Where was the game played?
At Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio — the Bengals’ home field.
15. What was the Jets’ record before this game?
The Jets had gone through a difficult stretch of losses before this game — the win over Cleveland had been the prior bright spot — making this Bengals comeback particularly meaningful for the team.
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