For the second Sunday in a row, safety Jordan Battle received a game ball in the locker room after a Cincinnati Bengals’ victory.
“Some guys just have a knack for finding the ball,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said before tossing a football to Battle, “and we’re finding out right now Jordan Battle just has a knack for finding the football.”
Cincinnati has opened the 2025 NFL season with two victories, and the former Alabama defensive back has an interception in each game. Battle had one interception in each of his first two seasons after joining the Bengals in the third round of the 2023 NFL Draft.
Cincinnati has a 2-0 record for the first time since 2018. In the intervening seasons, the Bengals posted a 1-11 mark in the first two weeks.
“It’s a great feeling,” Battle said. “Obviously, want to keep stacking, keep elevating.”
But Cincinnati will have to do that without star quarterback Joe Burrow. Burrow sustained a toe injury in the second quarter against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday and is expected to be sidelined until December.
“That’s just extra motivation on top of the motivation we already have in the game,” Battle said. “Obviously, when he goes down, we love Jake (Browning). We got faith in Jake. Like 2023, my rookie year, when he came in, he did a great job. We got all the faith in Jake to go out there and do what it takes to win a game like he did today.”
The Bengals beat the Jaguars 31-27, with Browning scoring the winning touchdown with 18 seconds remaining.
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Leading 27-24, Jacksonville gained possession on the Cincinnati 12-yard line with 5:12 to play on an interception and 22-yard return by linebacker Devin Lloyd. But the Bengals defense stopped a fourth-and-5 snap with 3:42 remaining. Battle had the coverage on the fourth-down incompletion, and the Cincinnati offense moved 92 yards to score the winning touchdown.
“It was a great situation early in the season to get a game like that,” Battle said, “to go out there and see how we finish in close games, and I feel like we did a great job today as a defense going out there and closing out the game, especially how we reacted to sudden changes in that red zone.”
In addition to his interception on Sunday, Battle had four tackles, all on Jacksonville running plays.
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Five snaps after Burrow went down, Battle picked off a long pass down the middle by quarterback Trevor Lawrence for wide receiver Brian Thomas, diving to catch the football after it had been tipped. Battle’s 4-yard return put Cincinnati on the Jacksonville 30-yard line with 7:04 left in the first half. The Bengals turned the field position into a field goal to reduce the Jaguars’ lead to 14-10.
“Sometimes you’re just a magnet,” Battle said. “Sometimes it just comes right to you. You got to make the play.”
In Cincinnati’s season-opening 17-16 victory over the Cleveland Browns on Sept. 7, Battle led the Bengals by equaling his career high with 12 tackles and intercepting a pass.
The safety picked off a pass by quarterback Joe Flacco that former Alabama wide receiver Jerry Jeudy managed to get a hand on, keeping the football in the air long enough for Battle to make an acrobatic interception.
Battle’s interception put Cincinnati on the Cleveland 34-yard line and set up a 35-yard field goal by former Fort Payne High School standout Evan McPherson that put the Bengals ahead 17-16 with 2:48 left in the third quarter.
“Turnover led to points,” Taylor said in awarding Battle a game ball. “Points were the difference in the game.”
Battle has played every defensive snap for the Bengals this season. He had never done that in a game before 2025.
The AFC North’s only undefeated team two weeks into the 2025 season, Cincinnati will seek to improve to 3-0 for the first time since 2015 when the Bengals play the Minnesota Vikings at noon CDT Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.
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