‘One f***king stop!’
That was all Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase could mutter as he trudged down the tunnel, his frustration cutting through the stunned silence at Paycor Stadium.
Moments later, in the locker room, an unfiltered Chase Brown told the press that his defensive teammates should: “Finish the f***ing game. Just end it.”
They were angry but they were not wrong. We were all thinking the same.
The Bengals scored 42 – easily enough to win most games – but allowed the visiting Chicago Bears to rack up 47.
A shootout that could, and should, have been a statement comeback win became another heartbreaking defeat. And another fine offensive display was lost as a footnote to this game, buried under another defensive implosion.
Offensive fireworks wasted again
I will start with the positives, because there were some.
Joe Flacco – in his 18th NFL season and nursing a sprained AC joint in his throwing shoulder – had a career day. He went 31-for-47 for 470 yards and four touchdowns, having never thrown over 400 before.
I absolutely love this guy and hope he stays next season, even aged 41. He is a breath of fresh air: committed, confident, calm, professional and accountable.
With Flacco cooking, Tee Higgins exploded for 121 yards and two spectacular touchdowns while Ja’Marr Chase quietly added 111 yards on six receptions. The offense roared back from 41-27 down, scoring 15 points in one crazy minute, to take an improbable lead with under a minute remaining.
Hats off to special teams too. They started the day with a 98-yard kick-off return touchdown from Charlie Jones on the game’s opening play, blocked a Cairo Santos field goal attempt and recovered an onside kick late in the fourth to set up the late lead.
Plucking defeat from the jaws of victory
Of course, having gone ahead 42-41 with 50 seconds left, the defense handed the game right back to the Bears on a plate.
Second-year quarterback Caleb Williams needed just four plays and 37 seconds to march 75 yards down the field, capping off the drive with a 58-yard touchdown pass to tight end Colston Loveland.
The rookie shrugged off three Cincinnati defenders, including a pathetic attempt at a shoulder barge from Jordan Battle, and rumbled 35 yards for his second score of the game.
What was wrong with, you know, an actual tackle? Utterly unacceptable.
Another defensive disaster
Once again, the Cincinnati Bengals could not stop the run. Even with their top two running backs out, Chicago ate up 283 yards on the ground, largely thanks to another rookie, Kyle Monangai.
Once again, the tackling was atrocious. There were 15 misses for 133 additional yards per Next Gen Stats.
And once again, the discipline was conspicuous in its absence. A 3rd-and-10 sack was nullified by an illegal contact penalty while a missed Bears field goal on 4th-and-6 was erased because a Bengal lined up offside.
Instead of ending in a change of possession, both of those reignited drives brought touchdowns for Chicago.
That was 14 free points, gift-wrapped and tied with a bow. You cannot expect to win games that way.
Culture, accountability and silence
Afterwards, the locker-room tension was palpable. Flacco and Chase bit their tongues and picked their words carefully; Brown not so much.
As for the defenders, most declined to speak to the media and skulked away. Some were reportedly seen laughing as reporters approached. That is a terrible look for a unit that has become a total joke across the league.
Head coach Zac Taylor looked shell-shocked in his presser. “We are working tirelessly,” he said. “We will find the solutions.”
Unfortunately his endless platitudes and promises have no meaning now. If he does not know what the solutions are yet, this team is doomed.
Taylor’s tenure has been built around discipline, togetherness, accountability. And yet the team’s body language screams the opposite.
You cannot preach ‘culture’ while fielding a defense that is not only historically bad but seemingly indifferent about it.
Incompetence by numbers
- The Cincinnati Bengals are the only team since 1966 to score 80+ points across two consecutive games and lose both.
- The 1,151 yards and 94 points allowed against the Jets and Bears is the team’s worst two-game defensive stretch ever.
- Opponents have scored 27+ points in six straight games, the longest such streak in franchise history.
- Cincinnati are currently dead last in total yards per game, rushing yards per game and points per game allowed, and 31st in passing yards per game allowed.
- Having allowed passing touchdowns by Breece Hall and now D.J. Moore, the Bengals became the first team to allow non-quarterbacks to throw scoring passes in consecutive games since 1992.
What now? More of the same…
When the same mistakes recur week after week, something is fundamentally wrong. If this continues, Taylor’s tenure risks crumbling into farce. He has already lost swathes of fans and I suspect he is beginning to lose the locker room too.
If there is anything left to salvage from the wreckage of the last fortnight, it needed to start with changes to the coaching staff, changes to defensive personnel – or both.
With the team on a bye, there was a natural hiatus. It would have been the perfect time.
Every Tom, Dick and Harriet wants Taylor, Defensive Coordinator Al Golden and Director of Personnel Duke Tobin gone, yesterday. But that is not the way this franchise works. Taylor has already given Golden his backing in public.
He also reiterated his somewhat deluded belief in the players. Not surprisingly, the Twitterverse was awash with calls for a trade deadline day fire sale. “Trade Trey!” “Ship out Cam Taylor-Britt!” Alas, a deal sending disgruntled linebacker Logan Wilson to Dallas was the only move made.
The Bengals reportedly rebuffed calls from San Francisco, Detroit and others enquiring after Hendrickson. So as expected, the stubborn front office did not shift any dead wood or acquire any assets of note. Nothing changes; the purgatory continues.
That will leave Bengals fans spending the next two weeks replaying Ja’Marr’s soundbite over and over in their minds: “One f***ing stop.”
That is all it would have taken for the Cincinnati Bengals to win. But somehow, it still feels like too much to ask.
