Sobering reality.
Finally, someone is willing to tell it like it is. No excuses, no b.s., nothing but the truth.
“We’re not a championship-level team right now,” Cincinnati Bengals’ quarterback Joe Burrow said after Sunday’s 41-38 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. “We’re not…I like to think that we’ll come back and improve throughout the season to get to that point, but right now, we are not, and we have to get better.”
Improvement is not a word that can be applied to the Bengals’ defense. Cincinnati’s run defense looked stout throughout most of the game, with the exception of Derrick Henry’s 51-yard scamper in overtime that led to the Ravens’ winning field goal.
The pass defense was a whole other story. And that story was just plain bad. Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson completed 26 of 42 passes for 345 yards and four touchdowns and was only sacked one time. He also ran 12 times for 55 yards and looked like Harry Houdini more times than not.
The Bengals defenders looked a step slow all day. Third-year tight end Charlie Kolar, who was clocked at 4.67 for the 40-yard-dash, outran the Bengals secondary for a 55-yard gain early in the third quarter that led to a Baltimore touchdown.
Zay Flowers had seven receptions for 111 yards, including a long of 26 yards. Tight end Mark Andrews, who hadn’t caught a pass all season, ended up with four catches for 55 yards, including a 27-yard reception. Tylan Wallace had a 19-yard reception, and Rashod Bateman finished with four catches for 58 yards and a score.
Of course, Cincinnati was playing without the services of slot cornerback Mike Hilton and lost starting cornerback Dax Hill early on. Cam Taylor-Britt, the other starting cornerback, had another bad day and was constantly a step behind. All in all, it was a defensive disaster.
So it fell to Burrow to try to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and he nearly did just that. Burrow set a career mark for touchdown passes with five and completed 30 of 39 passes for 392 yards. In the shootout with the two-time NFL MVP Jackson, Burrow had to be perfect. He called it before the game, and he nearly was.
With the Bengals up 38-35 with 3:05 left and facing a 2nd and 15 at the Baltimore 33, Burrow threw a killer interception that the Ravens eventually turned into the tying touchdown.
“There’s always room to improve,” Burrow noted. “By no means was it perfect. That’s always what I’m striving for. My (I have to play perfect) statement rang true today. Perfect was what was needed, and that’s not what we did.”
