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Bengals Week 4 rookie report: Mark Walton finds himself on the scoresheet While it wasn’t scorigami Preston Brown Jersey , the Bengals 37-36 win over the Falcons on Sunday was just the third time in NFL history a game ended with that score. It’s fitting that the final score wasn’t as rare as the fashion of how the Bengals won this game. The Bengals went score for score against a high-octane offense in their own stadium, and won on the final drive of the game where they converted two fourth downs. Amidst all the excitement were the five rookies that dressed and played, but only a few truly made an impact in the high-scoring contest.Jessie BatesThrough the first quarter of the season, one of Bates’ biggest perceived weaknesses has shown to be the exact opposite. He finished second to linebacker Nick Vigil in solo tackles with seven and had no missed tackles to his name. With context, none of these tackles were stops as they all occurred past the line to gain, but he ended the contest with no tackles missed, and only has one instance of that all month.Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan torched everyone in the secondary, so while it’s true that the rookie free safety didn’t make much of an impact in pass coverage, no one else did either. The whole system looked flappable against the Falcons high-powered aerial attack, and Bates was just bit too slow to react playing centerfield, though again, there wasn’t much he could do against a nearly flawless game plan from the opposition. The expectations bestowed upon Bates were high entering this season and it’s fair to see he’s on track for meeting them. He’s not exactly been what Derwin James has been for the Chargers, but they’re playing vastly different roles. Bates has held his own and has been anything but a liability. The secondary as a unit may need a re-evaluation following this narrow win Ryan Glasgow Jersey , but Bates is on the right path.Sam HubbardWith only three defensive tackles active for the game, and one of them being Josh Tupou, Hubbard was forced onto the field early in the rotation on the interior even on base downs. With defensive end Michael Johnson back, Hubbard actually played more inside than he did on the edge.As a result, Hubbard struggled on and off when dealing with down blocks in run defense, and made minimal impact as a pass rusher. Aside from his active game against Baltimore in Week 2, Hubbard’s splash plays have been far and few between. Hopefully the team has newly acquired Adolphus Washington activated next week so Hubbard can keep to the edge in run defense, because he is a fine edge-setter. However, we need to see a jump in pass rushing efficiency on third down from the rookie when he’s at his under tackle alignment.Malik JeffersonDuring last week’s Orange and Black Insider, we discussed the possibility of Jefferson getting integrated in the defense for this week. With MIKE linebacker Preston Brown back on the field, Jefferson was once again regulated to just special teams while the five other active linebackers all saw time on the field for the defense (including Vincent Rey’s one snap).As we all know, WILL linebacker Vontaze Burfict is set to return to the team this week as his four-game suspension has ended. Burfict will likely just replace tight end Tyler Eifert on the roster when the team puts Eifert on the injured reserve list for his season-ending ankle injury, so all linebackers Jordan Evans Jersey , including Jefferson, should remain on the roster. Burfict’s return can’t diminish Jefferson’s current role because he’s just a special teamer, but unless a situation like last year happens where a multitude of injuries at the linebacker position pile up, Jefferson isn’t seeing the field on defense anytime soon. Mark WaltonThe Bengals once again had just Walton available behind Giovani Bernard at running back for the second week in a row with Joe Mixon sidelined with his knee injury. Unlike last week though, Walton actually had some touches to write home about in his time on the field. He finished with just nine rushing yards on five carries, and 28 receiving yards on two receptions. Most of those yards came on this impressive catch and run. The blocking for Walton up front mirrored that of the preseason when he averaged less than one yard per carry, but with how Bernard was running the ball, his production on the ground was marginal. The real bad news for Walton was him being evaluated for a concussion after he took a head-to-head hit late in the third quarter, which was called for unnecessary roughness on Atlanta. The collision put Walton into the concussion protocol and out of action for a bit, forcing Bernard to take more snaps than planned.Fortunately, Walton soon returned and partook in the final two offensive drives that resulted in 9 points. Whether his evaluation for a concussion was just precautionary or not, the last thing the Bengals needed was another injury at the running back position. Next week’s game against the Dolphins could very well be when Mixon returns to the field, which would diminish Walton’s opportunities going forward. The offense will be better for it Hardy Nickerson Jersey , and now Walton has some experience to build off of. Darius PhillipsLost in the madness that was Sunday’s game was cornerback William Jackson leaving the game temporarily for an injury right before the end of the third quarter. This shifted slot cornerback Darqueze Dennard to Jackson’s spot on the outside, and inserted Tony McRae into Dennard’s spot inside. It was the third game this season McRae played on defense, and Phillips has yet to see anything beyond special teams. He only took six snaps on special teams, and saw Alex Erickson take all the reps at both kickoff and punt returner. He did make a touchdown-saving tackle on his first special teams snap, and tackled Atlanta’s kickoff return man Marvin Hall at midfield before he could run back the opening kickoff for six points.Did not playBilly PriceAuden TateBates and Hubbard are not amongst the liabilities that have contributed to one of the worst scoring defenses in the league. Their play through the first four games has been about as good as we could expect from them playing significant snaps in their first handful of games. And just adding Jefferson to the mix won’t make much of a difference like adding Burfict back will.As of now, we don’t know if next Sunday will be the game Price returns, but we should probably expect him to takeover for Trey Hopkins at center. While it may yield better results if Price were to just replace Alex Redmond at right guard, that would be uncharacteristic of the team to do, especially when they declared they were focused on Price at center only right after they drafted him. But the Bengals winning a game like this one is also pretty abnormal. We’ll just have to wait and see what else they may surprise us with. Andy Dalton ended the year on IR, and the future of the position seems to be in question."With the NFL Combine coming to an end and free agency just around the corner, now is the perfect time to do what Zac Taylor and his freshly-hired assistants have done over the past couple of weeks: evaluate the Bengals’ roster.Injuries plagued most positions for the Bengals in 2018, and the quarterback position was no exception. We begin our position reviews with the most important position in the game.Key players:Andy DaltonJeff DriskelBrad Kaaya2019 potential free agents:Tom Savage2018 SummaryThe addition of Alex Van Pelt as quarterbacks coach seemed to be a positive for Andy Dalton. Unfortunately, as the season went on Joe Mixon Jersey , Dalton lost one of his top targets in tight end Tyler Eifert and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor’s offense got stagnant and his production suffered. Dalton ended the season on IR after suffering a thumb injury late in the season. Preseason star Jeff Driskel stepped into the lineup, but was not as dynamic in the regular season as he was in August. He competed admirably, but did not give the Bengals the late season spark they needed to make a run.2019 Outlook and NeedDalton’s future is the biggest question of the offseason. There has been some talk about trading Dalton and bringing in Ryan Tannehill, who played for Taylor in Miami. Tannehill is still with the Dolphins as of this writing, but Cincinnati did add a quarterback familiar to new offensive coordinator Brian Callahan in Brad Kaaya. Driskel and Kaaya figure to compete to be the backup in Taylor’s new offense.Odds are Dalton will be the Bengals starter in 2019, but the team hired a quarterbacks coach as their head coach for a reason. They are expecting more out of Dalton and even if it is not immediately, the organization is thinking about the future of the position. Unless they decide to trade up, they likely won’t draft a quarterback in the first round, but they could look at acquire one later in the draft. Dalton’s season has ended early in two of the last four seasons due to injury. They need to improve the backup quarterback position be it through free agency or the draft, They also need to consider the long term future of the club and if they can build a contender around Dalton, or if they need to move on sooner than later.