Bengals Beat: Latest Loss Exposes Weakness in Bengals DNA, Non-Existent Run Game, Worn-Out Defense

CINCINNATI — The Bengals are just not tough enough.

They can’t run the ball. They can’t stop the run.

They allowed the Steelers – a team averaging 280 yards of total offense – to march into Paycor Stadium Sunday and run roughshod over them for 421 yards in a 16-10 loss. The Steelers hadn’t had a game of 400 yards total offense in 59 games, dating back to 2020.

As Lou Anarumo says, yards don’t beat you, points do. But if your defense can’t get off the field, then your offense has limited chances to do damage. The Bengals made tight end Pat Freiermuth look like George Kittle, allowing nine passes to be caught on 11 targets from Kenny Pickett for 120 yards.

With 2023 essentially up in smoke with Monday’s surgery on Joe Burrow’s right wrist, it’s time to start thinking about 2024 and how this Bengals team can become more of a team and not one tied solely to the golden right arm of the $275 million quarterback.

The last two seasons were great rides but perhaps Burrow’s greatness glossed over a big problem. The Bengals simply have never established a run game that not only kills clock in four-minute drives but also takes the burden off Burrow a bit.

The Bengals were 29th in the NFL in rushing in 2022 at 95.5 yards per game. They were 23rd in 2021 at 102.5 yards per game. Sure the Bengals won 22 regular season games and five in the postseason. But that’s not sustainable if you want to protect your quarterback, who is not Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson.

If the Bengals are going to be the team that Burrow famously said is in a Super Bowl window for as long has he’s in Cincinnati, then the Bengals need to find a way to become a tougher, more physical team.

That starts in the trenches. It starts with a real running game, not one that has one running back – Joe Mixon – that carries it eight times for 16 yards. That’s just embarrassing. It’s particularly alarming when you have a quarterback in Jake Browning making his first NFL start. The Bengals ran the ball eight times in a game where they held the lead late into the third quarter. Chase Brown didn’t touch the ball at all.

“This has nothing to do with Joe Mixon,” Zac Taylor told me. “This is the entirety of the unit coming together. Don’t make this about one person. It’s not like there was missed opportunities there from what I could see. He continues to run hard and he’s given us what we needed this season.”

It’s simply inconceivable to put that much pressure on Joe Burrow’s backup going up against a Steelers defense that wins games with its defense. It was also inconceivable that the Broncos, Colts, Texans, Browns and Steelers would be looking down on the Bengals in the standings when Cincinnati won four straight to improve to 5-3. But Burrow took a blow to his right wrist before throwing his final TD pass of the season and everything changed.

If the claim is that there were not enough offensive snaps to get the run game going – as Taylor maintained after Sunday’s loss – maybe he needs to have a talk with his defense. The first play of the game was a post for 24 yards to Freiermuth. On the next drive, there was a 29-yarder to Freiermuth.

The Bengals have been abysmal on first down this season offensively while allowing their opponents to regularly gash them on first and second down.

The Bengals promised their fans that their offense would be transformed with a quarterback like Burrow at the wheel. It has not. The Bengals have been too dependent on their quarterback throwing the ball all over the field. They have scored 30 points once this season. They have scored less than 20 five times.

The “that’s what they do in today offense” to defend passing all the time doesn’t hold water when you look around at other successful teams like Kansas City, Baltimore and Miami, they all have the ability to run clock and protect the quarterback by getting into second or third down and short. The Bengals have not been able to do that in the last two seasons, and as a result the hits have piled up on Joe Burrow, finally resulting in a torn ligament in his right wrist against the Ravens on Nov. 16.

It’s pretty clear the Bengals are going to have to completely revamp their run game in the offseason in personnel and scheme. One could make the argument that the Bengals have the offensive line to run the ball very effectively but just don’t scheme to the strength of Alex Cappa, Ted Karras and Cordell Volson, who has had a rough sophomore season in the NFL.

But as any football coach will tell you, the sport is a complementary one. If you have good offense, it’s usually because the defense is getting you the ball in good field position. And a good offense holds onto the ball, giving its defense ample time to rest.

The opposite is true. If your defense keeps giving up gash plays and can’t get off the field on third down, your offense doesn’t get as many chances to get into any rhythm, explaining why the Bengals had just 37 offensive snaps over 60 minutes on Sunday. Starting with the Texans game, the Bengals defense looks like one that is worn out and chasing the play, not the trademark of the Anarumo units in the last two seasons.

“The really good teams are really balanced. They can run it. They can throw it. They can do it all,” Jason Garrett said on NBC’s broadcast moments after watching Ravens improved to 9-3 with a 20-10 dismantling of the Chargers in LA. There’s a culture on display every time the Ravens take the field. The Bengals have an extraordinarily gifted quarterback and two elite receivers. But culture goes far beyond the players. It’s an attitude.

The Steelers were 8-for-17 on third down. The Bengals were 2-for-10. The Steelers had 22 first downs. The Bengals had 10. The Steelers gained 421 yards to Cincinnati’s 222.

All we hear from the Bengals is how the game gets shortened in the AFC North against the Ravens, Browns and Steelers. Apparently, as we learned on Sunday even with a backup quarterback, the Bengals simply aren’t capable of doing that to others right now.

Change is constant in every offseason. Zac Taylor told his players after Sunday’s loss that the narrative can still be written on this season with a winning performance in Jacksonville. The Bengals still have a chance to tell a story of perseverance and toughness. It’s not about effort. The Bengals have plenty of leaders in the locker room who have put forth the effort and the work in the film room. They say all the right things.

“Next play. I can’t be pissed now,” said Ja’Marr Chase, who caught four balls for 81 yards. “I gotta play forward and play for the team.”

But what the Bengals don’t have right now is the will to make other teams pay a price. Right now, it’s not in their DNA.