W2L4: Bengals Hope To Bear The Brunt Of A Challenging Week And Roar Back With A Win Into Bye Week

Bears (4-3) at Bengals (3-5) Sunday, Nov. 2 at Paycor Stadium (Field Turf CORE), 1 p.m. ET, TV: CBS: Locally WKRC-TV Ch. 12 (Cincinnati) Spero Dedes (PBP), Adam Archuleta (analyst), Aditi Kinkhabwala (sideline). Radio: Dan Hoard, Dave Lapham. 700 WLW AM, WEBN-FM (102.7 FM), ESPN1530.

CINCINNATI — The Bengals are once again in desperate need of a win to salvage morale inside their locker room and inside the organization. It’s a recurring theme of the last five seasons.

In 2021 and ’22, the Bengals got hot in the second half and won the AFC North. In 2023, Joe Burrow went down with a wrist injury and Jake Browning just missed leading them to the playoffs. Last year, the Bengals won their last five games but couldn’t overcome a 1-4 start and missed the playoffs with another 9-8 record. The Bengals have been consistently inconsistent.

Head coach Zac Taylor insisted Friday that he’s seen nothing but “outstanding” effort this week after one of the worst losses in his seven-year tenure as head coach. He implored his team to step up after the 39-38 meltdown to the Jets. So far, so good.

“Great. Outstanding. I hate losing. I hate the way you lose but it does reveal a lot of guys and we’ve had a lot of guys step up,” Taylor said. “And so for me, really encouraging to see who views themself as a leader on defense step up and try to do everything they can in their power. I mean those guys out there practicing the last three days, it has been tremendous. The energy. The attention to detail. You don’t see a team come off the loss we just came off of and the heartbreak. You see a team that’s hungry and trying to do everything right to win the game. That’s been awesome to see. That’s all we can control during practice. And so, I’m just really excited about those guys and what they’re committed to trying to do for our team.

“Even a guy like Flacco. I mean this guy’s — he’s got a right shoulder injury. He’s 40 years old. He’s been with this team for three weeks. His willingness to even attempt to practice during the week coming off an injury tells you everything you need to know about his personal and football character. He doesn’t know — he probably can’t even name three-fourths of these guys in the locker room, so for him to try to do that speaks volumes for him. When you see leaders and guys you’re counting on doing that, how can you not give your all for those guys? I know our record is what it is. I know some of the performances are what they are but the character in our locker room has been awesome to watch. These guys step up in practice these last three days, now we just got to transfer it to Sunday and go put a great performance together and find a win and just keep building momentum off of this.”

The Bengals made two roster moves on Friday that could have significance this week and going forward. Cedric Johnson has been battling a calf injury since the start of the season. He is fully healthy now and was returned to the active roster. The sixth-round pick from 2024 out of Ole Miss should give the Bengals a boost if Trey Hendrickson is not recovered from the right hip injury that was re-aggravated late in the first half against the Jets. At the very least, the Bengals want to give Johnson a chance to prove what he can offer the Bengals as an edge.

The other move came at quarterback. The team signed Sean Clifford to the active roster as the third quarterback available. Should Joe Flacco not be able to go and be inactive for the game, Clifford will be the backup to Jake Browning. And if it’s long-term with Flacco, the team needs a competent signal-caller that knows the playbook and the pride of St. Xavier fulfills that role.

The Bengals thought they had some momentum building after beating the AFC North-leading Steelers on Oct. 16. They had fourth-quarter leads of 31-16 and 38-24 at home, and were outscored 23-7 in the final 15 minutes by a Jets team that entered as the only NFL winless team.

Adding to the misery, the Bengals had their starting quarterback injured on the next-to-last series of the game when Flacco was sacked and suffered a bruised AC joint in his right (throwing) shoulder.

If Flacco can’t go, the Bengals will go back to Browning, who lost all three of his starts after Joe Burrow injured his left big toe and had surgery.

“He wants to play in the game, so kudos to him,” Taylor said of Flacco. “He’s been here three weeks; he wants to play. I hate speaking for him, but that’s what he’s told me. He’ll have to work through the week to see if he’s able to do that. It’s a throwing shoulder. It’s painful.

“I’ve been happy with Jake’s response. He’s still working hard. If he’s in there and he gets the opportunity then I have confidence in Jake and that Jake can win us the game. However it shakes out we’ll have a great plan in place to help those guys.”

Leading pass rusher Trey Hendrickson re-injured his right hip late in the first half and did not return. He missed the first practice of the week as preparations began for the Bears.

The Bears (4-3) could not get their offense on track on the road in Baltimore and fell, 30-16 to the Ravens, falling further behind the Packers and Lions in the NFC North.

The Bears enter the game leading the NFL in turnover margin (plus-10) and interceptions (11). The Bears lost both in Baltimore, as Caleb Williams was intercepted once and the Bears lost the turnover battle, 1-0. They also committed 11 penalties to Baltimore’s six.

“We have to eliminate the penalties,” Chicago first-year coach Ben Johnson said. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot way too much and we’ve got to be more efficient in the red zone as well on offense. I thought defensively we came out and we played well for the first, call it three and a half quarters. And then we gave up two touchdowns to finish the game and allowed 30 points when all was said and done.

“It’s really not that far off from how we’ve played the previous four games, and yet we won because we had those takeaways. This week we didn’t get the takeaways. When you play ugly football like that, it’s a lot more difficult to win the ball games. We’re on a mission here this week to get this all cleaned up and I have complete confidence that we’ll do that.”

The Bears are also dealing with many injuries. They will be without defensive linemen Dominique Robinson (high ankle sprain) and Shemar Turner, who was put on season-ending IR with an ACL injury. Wide receiver Luther Burden III is in concussion protocol and is out. The Bears will be without two running backs, as D’Andre Swift and Roschon Johnson are out.

Here’s what to look for:

• When the Bengals have the ball:

Who is the quarterback? No doubt Joe Flacco will do everything in his power to get on the field and deliver the ball to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Everything was great last week in the Jets game for 50 minutes because the Bengals ran the ball with skill and authority. Flacco was in complete command and the Bengals piled up 38 points. These are not the ’85 Bears defensively by any stretch. The Bears are 25th in total defense (350.7 yards/game). They are worse in rush defense at 27th (143.3 yards) but 13th in passing (207.4). Ja’Marr Chase leads the NFL with 70 receptions and has 38 receptions in his past three games, tied with Michael Thomas (38 receptions from Weeks 1-3 in 2018 with New Orleans) for the most receptions in a three-game span in NFL history. Chase – who had 10 receptions in Week 6, 16 receptions in Week 7 and 12 receptions in Week 8 – can join Pro Football Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson (Weeks 13-16, 2012 with Detroit) as the only players in NFL history with at least 10 receptions in four consecutive games. Additionally, Chase can become the fourth player ever with at least 100 receiving yards and a touchdown reception in 20 games in his first five seasons, joining Pro Football Hall of Famers Lance Alworth (24 games), Randy Moss (24) and Jerry Rice (21). The Bears, as mentioned above, live and die defensively by the the turnover. They lead the NFL in turnover margin. If Flacco/Browning can avoid giving up the ball, and if the Bengals don’t put the ball on the ground, they should have a puncher’s chance.

• When the Bears have the ball:

Which Caleb Williams will show up Sunday? Or will both? The good Caleb Williams has a strong arm and can drive the ball into small windows and is athletic and can run out of the pocket. The good Caleb Williams will find a way to get the ball to Rome Odunze (31 catches, 473 yards, 5 TDs) on the perimeter of the defense outside the numbers. DJ Moore (26/331/1) is the other primary target for Williams. Tight end Cole Kmet is also a big target in big moments. But the bad Williams will force the ball in bad moments and give the defense a chance to make a play. Williams is completing just 61.9 percent of his passes this season, which is 23rd in the NFL. Trey Hendrickson is not likely to be available so can the Bengals get any pass rush on Williams? Can they make it uncomfortable for the second-year quarterback? Can the Bengals actually get off the field defensively in the second half? The fourth-quarter defense of the last two games has been nowhere to be found. Now would be a good time to change that.

• Bottom Line:

The Bengals end their three-game homestand and this is a good chance to head into the bye with a feel-good moment. A win over the Bears and a Steelers loss at home to the 7-1 Colts would leave the Bengals just a half-game out of first in the AFC North. Here’s thinking the Bengals have one more surge in them to remain relevant in the second half of the season. This feels like a game where the Bengals could actually feast on a quarterback who can be baited into bad decisions. The Bengals don’t have a pick-6 this year and this feels like a game where that could happen as Williams targets one Odunze or Moore outside the numbers. The Bengals don’t have a defensive touchdown this season and now would be a good time for the first. If the Bengals avoid turning the ball over, they have a good chance to grind one out.

Bengals 20, Bears 17