INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The 2024 Bengals are just good enough to lose close games and no better.
That’s what Sunday night’s excruciating rally and collapse in the final 45 seconds reaffirmed to every Bengal fan watching, every coach trying to get the most out of the team all season and every player in Stripes.
The Bengals nearly redeemed themselves for an inexcusable first half of football that had players yelling at other players, star players physically dismissing the head coach, a star quarterback with a look of disgust and bewilderment on the bench and star players wondering aloud about coaching and “finishing” after the 34-27 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.
Afterward, Joe Burrow had precious few answers for why the team has gone in reverse at the speed of light, Tee Higgins wondered aloud why the Bengals can’t “f-ing finish” and Ja’Marr Chase asked reporters not to ask him what’s wrong with the team late in close games. “Ask Zac, ask the coaches. Don’t ask me. I play football on the field. I don’t call plays for us.”
The stars are clearly growing tired of carrying the water for the rest of the team. This was supposed to be the year the Bengals got Joe Burrow back healthy and Burrow and Chase would have a chance to return to New Orleans and play in Super Bowl LIX, where they won the 2019 National Championship.
After Sunday night, at 4-7, that ship has left port and is well on its way out to sea, never to be seen again.
The Bengals are 0-6 against teams with winning records this season. They lost at KC by 1, they lost twice to Baltimore by a combined four points. They lost to Washington by five. They lost Sunday night by six. In all five of these games, the Bengals had the lead. In four, they were either leading or tied in the fourth quarter with a chance to win.
“I think we all watch the game,” Taylor said. “We can see it’s just coming down to one play in every single game. So why would you make a big wholesale change when it’s just coming down one play? To me, that’s just panic. That’s not what we’re about. We believe in what we’re doing. We’re not going to be those people that just panic because the record is four and seven and we start making all these significant changes.
“That’s not what the answer is. We play good football, we’re a good football team, we believe in our guys. We’ve got good systems in place and again, we’re going to hang in there and support each other and try to find a way to get this thing done. And if we can get it done, it’s going to be a dang good season. Again, it’s not so far what we would’ve written for ourselves, but I’m telling you I stand here today with the utmost belief that we can still get this done on the back half of our schedule.”
Well, the Bengals are making far more than just one or even two costly plays a game. In the first half Sunday, their defense parted like the Red Sea.
As for the chances of the playoffs?
“Yeah. I’m not just saying it to convince others. I say what I believe right now. When you watch this team compete, the guys we got and the coaches we got, I love going to work every single day. It’s not something you dread,” Taylor said of coming into work every day. “You’re four and seven and you don’t want to be around these people, it’s the opposite of that because I can see that something special can still be there. People may not believe it. That’s okay, I get that. But I’ve seen this group do some really good things before and I still believe that we can get this thing turned around and do that.”
The Bengals looked like they were ready to take it to the Chargers when they marched down the field on their second drive and had first-and-goal from the 3 and started to do what bad teams do – self-destruct with penalties that pushed them back and forced them to settle for a field goal.
After forcing the Chargers to punt on their first drive, the Bengals defense became a tissue-soft paper tiger, getting torn to shreds by LA quarterback Justin Herbert and a secondary that looked like it had no clue what it was doing on the field.
Cam Taylor-Britt and Evan McPherson will be natural lightning rods for another failure Sunday night. But from the moment they came unprepared to play a woeful New England Patriots team at home in Week 1, these Bengals are a systemic failure that goes far beyond one or two players.
Sunday night was just the latest example. The Bengals in one hideous stretch of defensive ineptitude, allowed five straight passes of over 20 yards.
Taylor-Britt, in his third NFL season, has regressed so badly that he appears not to know what defense is being called, playing man in zone and vice versa. His techniques have gotten worse and he’s getting spun around like a top and a Chargers receiving corps that would be rated as average at best was literally running circles around Taylor-Britt.
The Bengals fell behind 24-6 at the half and 27-6 just over three minutes into the second half.
Joe Burrow nearly rescued this team again with a pair of fourth-down touchdown passes, one to Tee Higgins and one to Ja’Marr Chase and then another TD to Chase that tied the game with 12 minutes left in the game.
The Bengals defense that shut down the Chargers in the second half melted in the final 45 seconds as LA went 84 yards in 27 seconds and five plays.
Evan McPherson missed a pair of field goals in the fourth quarter. He’s missed six field goals this season, that’s one more already in 11 games than any of his previous three seasons. He was paid before the season to hit kicks like he missed from 48 and 51 in the final eight minutes.
Adding to the misery, DJ Turner II fell hard to the turf in the third quarter and left the game with a serious right clavicle injury, forcing the Bengals to re-insert the benched Taylor-Britt back into the game.
On top of this, the optics of a team not willing to bring in a veteran free agent corner like Xavien Howard this week because the financials didn’t work out, looks like a team that’s not serious about competing.
The Bengals are leaking all over and there’s not enough players stepping forward to plug the holes.
