New England Patriots vs Cincinnati Bengals Match Player Stats (Nov 23, 2025)

Final: New England Patriots 26, Cincinnati Bengals 20 | Paycor Stadium, Cincinnati, OH

Two starting offensive linemen were carted off the field. Drake Maye threw a pick-six before the second quarter was 41 seconds old. New England trailed 10-0 on the road against a team that had nothing to lose. The Patriots still won.

New England’s 26-20 victory over Cincinnati on November 23, 2025 was their ninth straight win and made them the first team in the 2025 NFL season to reach 10 victories. Andres Borregales kicked four field goals. Marcus Jones returned an interception 33 yards for a touchdown. Hunter Henry turned in the best receiving performance of his 10-year career. None of that was supposed to be necessary against a 3-7 Bengals team playing without Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase.

It was necessary. Mitchell Tinsley caught a 17-yard touchdown from Joe Flacco with 4:40 left to cut the lead to three. Borregales responded with a 52-yarder. Flacco drove Cincinnati to the New England 26 in the final seconds and his fourth-down throw for Mike Gesicki was incomplete. That was the game.

Game Information

Score by Quarter

Scoring Summary

The Comeback

McPherson opened the scoring with a 54-yarder late in the first quarter. Three plays into the second period, Geno Stone intercepted Maye’s deep pass, let it sit in the air, and returned it 32 yards for a touchdown. Cincinnati 10, New England 0. It was the first double-digit hole the Patriots had been in since the second half of their season opener.

Maye answered immediately. Nine plays, 70 yards, capped by a 28-yard touchdown to a wide-open Henry in the end zone.

“That’s what the league is about, battling adversity,” Maye said. “I gave them one early in the game and just battled back on the next drive.”

Two minutes later, Jones jumped Flacco’s screen pass intended for Tahj Brooks and scored untouched from 33 yards. It was the second pick-six of Jones’ career, both against Cincinnati, and his team-leading third interception of the 2025 season.

“I was just watching the quarterback’s eyes,” Jones said. “I saw him flash toward the running back, so I didn’t want to go down there too soon.”

Borregales added a 41-yarder before halftime. McPherson closed the period on the final play with a 63-yard field goal, the longest in Bengals franchise history, to cut New England’s lead to four at the break.

The third quarter turned into a red zone failure for New England. The Patriots ran four plays from Cincinnati’s one-yard line and came away with nothing, settling for Borregales’ 45-yarder. The second half grind continued into the fourth, where Borregales added a 19-yarder and then Tinsley’s late score briefly made it a three-point game.

“Just been one of those years where we haven’t found a way at the end of the game, and that’s been frustrating,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said.

“That’s what happens in this league. You need everybody,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said.

Full Box Score

Passing Stats

Advanced Passing

Maye averaged 8.5 intended air yards per attempt and generated 105 yards after the catch on his completions. His three scrambles added 24 yards. Flacco was under pressure on nearly 24% of his dropbacks, dealt with three drops, and threw seven bad passes, numbers that reflect a unit missing its best quarterback and its best receiver.

Rushing Stats

Cincinnati won the ground battle. Chase Brown ran 19 times for 107 yards at 5.6 per carry, a season-high in attempts, and picked up seven first downs. Henderson’s 66 yards on 18 carries came despite averaging just 1.6 yards before contact, a sign that New England’s makeshift offensive line was losing the point of attack most of the afternoon.

Receiving Stats

New England Patriots

Cincinnati Bengals

Henry was the clear standout on either side of the ball. Seven catches for a career-high 115 yards, one touchdown, and 61 yards after the catch on 56 snaps. PFF graded him at 92.8. With Chase suspended for spitting on Pittsburgh’s Jalen Ramsey in Week 11, Iosivas stepped into the top receiver role and led Cincinnati with 61 yards on four catches. Higgins posted five receptions for 31 yards before a concussion forced him out with 4:50 remaining.

Team Stats

New England’s red zone was the one clear failure. The Patriots went 0-for-2 converting touchdowns inside the 20, including four straight plays from the Bengals’ one-yard line in the third quarter that produced nothing. That left six points on the field and is why Borregales’ 4-for-4 kicking night mattered as much as it did.

Defensive Stats

New England Patriots Defense

Cincinnati Bengals Defense

Harold Landry recorded the game’s lone sack, bringing Flacco down for a 10-yard loss in the first quarter. Carlton Davis held his own in coverage, allowing four catches on nine targets while adding three pass breakups. Jones finished with a 91.5 PFF coverage grade on 62 snaps, the top defensive mark in the game.

Special Teams

Kicking

Borregales scored 14 of New England’s 26 points across four clean makes. His 52-yarder with 1:51 left proved to be the winning score. McPherson’s 63-yarder on the last play of the first half was the longest field goal in Bengals franchise history, clearing the previous team record of 58 yards that McPherson himself set in 2021.

“I’ve always thought about how it would be cool to get one from the other side of the field one day,” McPherson said.

Punting

Kick and Punt Returns

Snap Counts

New England Patriots

Cincinnati Bengals

PFF Initial Grades

Offense

Defense

Injuries

New England Patriots

• Will Campbell (LT): Sprained MCL, carted off in the third quarter after a defender fell on his right knee; placed on injured reserve the following week
• Jared Wilson (LG): High ankle sprain, carted off on the game’s first offensive series; left the stadium in a walking boot; Ben Brown replaced him and played 68 offensive snaps
• Khyiris Tonga (DT): Chest injury, did not return
• Brenden Schooler (S): Left ankle, did not return

Cincinnati Bengals

• Tee Higgins (WR): Concussion, exited with 4:50 remaining, did not return
• Tahj Brooks (RB): Concussion, did not return
• Marco Wilson (CB): Right hamstring, did not return

Standings After Week 12

New England’s victory pushed their AFC East lead to 2.5 games over Buffalo, who lost at Houston on the Thursday before, and put them half a game ahead of Denver atop the AFC. The Patriots finished the day at 10-2, their sixth road win in as many tries during the 2025 regular season.

Cincinnati fell to 3-8 with their eighth loss in nine games since Burrow went down with a turf toe injury in Week 2. The Bengals’ defense had surrendered at least 23 points in every game during that stretch, and their offense ranked in the bottom two percent of EPA per passing play on the afternoon per PFF.

The 2025 Patriots, through 12 games, had joined the 1961 Houston Oilers as the only NFL teams to win nine straight while scoring 23 or more and allowing 23 or fewer in each of those games.

Looking back at the full Patriots vs Bengals player stats from November 23, the box score tells part of the story. Cincinnati outrushed New England and the turnover count was even. What it does not show is how close this was to going sideways: four plays from the one-yard line in the third quarter with nothing to show for it, two starting offensive linemen carted off before halftime, and a late touchdown that made it a one-score game with four minutes left. The Patriots won because Andres Borregales did not miss from four different distances, because Marcus Jones read a screen pass before the receiver knew it was coming, and because Hunter Henry had the best game of his career when the offense needed someone to carry it. That combination, on a day when almost nothing went smoothly up front, was enough.