The Bengals defensive tackle tandem hit the draft day double late during Sunday's 24-6 lockdown of the Browns.
Second-rounder Kris Jenkins Jr. notched his second sack of the day on a play he quite fittingly has honed this season with B.J. Hill, the last Bengals defensive tackle to get multiple sacks in a game.
A few plays later, third-rounder McKinnley Jackson got his first NFL sack with a second effort that saw him crawl into the pocket to take care of Browns quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
In what the Bengals hope is a step ahead in the AFC North arms race against the Browns' formidable trenches on either side of the ball, both plays victimized the Browns Pro Bowl guards.
Jenkins backed up six-time Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio before Jackson initially got stoned by three-time Pro Bowl right guard Wyatt Teller and then kept scrambling inside Teller right into his first game ball.
"Nothing better than that. Especially the first one," said an exuberant Jackson, who could be seen clutching his game ball an hour after the game. "I'm excited about this (sack), but I'm more excited about the next one."
He'll certainly get the chance in the last two games of the season. On Sunday, he played his third straight game with at least 30% of the snaps, and in the last two he's got a forced fumble and that sack. After missing most of training camp and the first four games of the season with a knee injury, Jackson looks to be getting his feet under him.
"Both of us are just getting used to the speed of the game," said Jenkins, the first Bengals rookie defensive tackle to have three sacks in a season since Pro Football Hall of Fame hopeful Geno Atkins in 2010.
"We're blessed to have the vets we've got to keep teaching us and making it easier for us each week. Because we feel like we're getting better each week. Just continue to try and build off that and slow the game down."
Jenkins did more than join Atkins last Sunday. He did something his dad did three times as a two-time All-Pro D-tackle during a 108-game career. Kris Jenkins Sr. got his first two-sack game in his 20th game. Junior got it in his 13th. That gave dad six career sacks.
Hill, who got two sacks in his Bengals debut in the 2021 opener, worked with defensive line coach Marion Hobby to teach Jenkins "a stutter bull rush." The delay move appeared to throw off Bitonio's timing.
Jenkins also missed time early when a broken thumb took him out of the first two games. He's started the last five games playing at least 47% of the snaps as one of the responses to the loss of Sheldon Rankins.
Sunday's first sack is evidence he's starting to execute on experience when he felt a Thompson-Robinson bootleg just as he was trying to pull a stunt with Hill. But he spun away from Teller out of his gap and chased down DTR with left edge Joseph Ossai not letting DTR get outside.
"We had a play, but I could feel the play. I could feel the quarterback go out, so I spun off and tried to track him down," Jenkins said. "I had Joe hold him up. He couldn't go anywhere because Joe had him tied down. That's the (kind) of play you get used to. You can feel it. Feel that play coming out. You already know where the ball is going."
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MASSIVE MIMS
With 840 snaps under his belt as a rookie, right tackle prodigy Amarius Mims has now played more snaps in the last 90 days than during his three years in college. When he injured his ankle in Sunday's game, he tried to come back in but had to leave after his 38th play of the day in favor of Devin Cochran.
Mims' fate for Saturday's game (4:30 p.m.-Cincinnati's FOX 19 and NFL Network) against Denver is uncertain. But one thing he knows is that he's adjusting to the NFL's long year: It's been a long enough season that he started it at age 21, and he just played his ninth game as a 22-year-old.
"I knew it was real physical," Mims said. "But as long as this season is, you never realize how much of a toll it does take on your body. Your body always seems to be sore. But it's the NFL. Everybody is sore."
Ankle surgery at Georgia last season took out most of his last year and is the reason he was available at No. 18, a pick that head coach Zac Taylor has been raving about for the last month. If Jenkins and Jackson are answers to the AFC North physical cold wars in the trenches, then the 6-8, 345-pound Mims is his own silo in the offensive trench. Mims allowed just one pressure Sunday on 23 pass blocks. The Bengals also averaged 5.3 yards per on the ground for their best-rushing numbers against the Browns with Burrow at the helm.
"I'm just glad we got the win." Mims said. "And I'm just glad we have a guy like Devin who is always ready."
Mims got some airtime Sunday when he and offensive line coach Frank Pollack exchanged some heated words on the sideline. All good, Mims said. He says it helps that Pollack played in the league himself.
"We hugged it out," Mims said. "It was a miscommunication during the course of the game. It's a game played with passion and emotion and we're good. Two grown men voicing their opinions. He's seen it 100 times as a player and a coach."
SLANTS AND SCREENS
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow’s face-plant touchdown pass and over-the-shoulder flip to tight end Drew Sample in the grasp of a rusher contributed to his 77% passing day. That means he regains the NFL's all-time completion percentage lead at 68.2, slipping ahead of Tua Tagovailoa's 68.1 …
Burrow leads the league averaging 281.9 passing yards per game. If he does that in the last two games, he'll finish with 4,793 yards to break his franchise record of 4,611 set in 2021 …
How about the Vikings' Justin Jefferson having a monster 144-yard game in Seattle last Sunday and he's still runner-up to Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase in the NFL receiving yardage derby by 123 yards? Although Jefferson did cut into the lead by 47 yards …
At the end of Sunday, Chase's 108 catches led three players with 101: Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and Raiders tight end Brock Bowers …
