For about five minutes on Monday night, it looked like the old Cincinnati Bengals had turned up.
Jake Browning and the offense zipped down the field at Denver’s Mile High Stadium.
They picked up four first downs before Evan McPherson tucked home a short field goal. 3-0 Bengals.
And then… nothing. Literally nothing.
Cincinnati never crossed midfield again in a miserable 28-3 mauling at the hands of the Broncos.
The stats are as ugly as the scoreline
Denver racked up 512 yards of total offense – their biggest haul since the Peyton Manning days – while Cincinnati mustered just 159.
That 353 differential is the biggest the NFL has seen all season. And it comes just a week after Cincy suffered a worst-ever 48-10 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
The Broncos dominated the clock, with almost 38 minutes of possession, and rattled off 80 offensive plays to Cincinnati’s 43.
The Bengals managed just five first downs after that first possession and punted on eight straight drives. Ryan Rehkow must be exhausted.
They were outgained, outmuscled and outthought all night. So, what are the problems?
Well, where do you start?
Quarterback play
Beginning with the obvious, Jake Browning is not Joe Burrow. Nobody expects him to be but the drop-off in both ability and attitude has been brutal.
In front of a Prime Time TV audience, Browning dinked and dunked for 125 yards on just 14 completions. He rarely dared to throw beyond the sticks and when he did, his attempts sailed wide or fell harmlessly out of bounds.
With Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins on the team, five-yard outs are not going to cut it. When Chase is held to 23 yards and Higgins disappears after the first drive, you know the quarterback play is a big part of the problem.
Offensive scheme and play-calling
Of course, the result and the performance are not just on Browning. Zac Taylor’s playbook looked devoid of ideas. There was no rhythm, no tempo and absolutely no sense of how to get their star receivers involved.
The run game was non-existent again too. Chase Brown posted a meagre 40 yards, which left Browning in obvious passing downs. The result? Third-and-long, punt, repeat ad nauseam.
The defense did not come out of this one clean either. Bo Nix had all day in the pocket and calmly chalked up a career-high 326 yards.
Coaching and preparation
With two straight blowouts, in which they have been outscored 76-13, it is clear this is not a one-off. The Bengals have been flat, unprepared and outcoached all season.
Forget ‘bad day at the office’. This feels like ‘recession’.
Cincinnati failed to generate consistent pressure and when they did, they bailed Denver out with penalties. They had 11 flags in total, including one that wiped out a 37-yard Higgins gain.
It is hard to beat teams like Denver at the best of times, but if you get in your own way at the same time…
Even when rookie linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. picked off Nix in the end zone to give Cincinnati a spark, the Denver offense snuffed it out with yet another three-and-out. Then, they rubbed salt into the wound with a 20-yard touchdown to essentially ice another game by the break.
That feels like more than just poor execution. That suggests mental fragility.
How low can they go?
After that mirage of a 2-0 start, the ultra-uncompetitive Bengals have now slumped to .500. On the schedule, the Lions, Packers and Steelers lie in wait so I do not see an end to the slide any time soon.
Without Burrow, expectations for the remainder of the season were always going to be tempered. But the Bengals lack more than their franchise quarterback.
From where I stand, they lack discipline, focus, identity and confidence. They are flailing around for answers, seemingly without a plan. As The Athletic‘s Paul Dehner Jr said on ‘The Growler’ podcast, we are witnessing “historical futility”.
This theory was backed up in the post-game pressers. Knight said: “Everybody is still finding their identity. We are still on that journey to who we are trying to be.”
Browning added that they need to “Figure out our identity on offense, what are we, what’s our go-to stuff.”
All a bit late for that, I feel.
Browning also came out with: “We played clean but we did not move the ball, so who cares?”
We do, Jake, we do.
But do you?
