To paraphrase Han Solo in Star Wars, “It’s worse”.
The Cincinnati Bengals shot themselves in the foot on Sunday, yet somehow inexplicably came up with a one-point lead with under a minute left in regulation. However, as has been witnessed so many times in recent memory, the Cincinnati defense surrendered another epic collapse.
The Bears scored a big touchdown with 19 seconds remaining, scoring 47 on Cincinnati on their home turf. For those keeping tabs, that’s 87 points allowed to the Jets and Chicago in back-to-back weeks at Paycor Stadium, respectively, directly leading to two consecutive Cincinnati losses.
As if things weren’t crazy enough in the Bengals’ locker room after the deflating loss to the Jets last week, leading to a defensive players-only meeting, the offensive players are seemingly getting openly frustrated with the team’s defense, following the wild defeat against Chicago.
Star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase was videoed on his walk to the locker room venting his frustration, pleading for one stop after the inexplicable loss.
For the second straight week, Chase’s postgame press conference had a blend of defeat, frustration, and anger.
With Burrow injured, Chase is essentially the team leader, in many respects, but other notable offensive players seem exasperated with the Cincinnati defense. Running back Chase Brown, who has had his own hiccups, but also a solid overall statistical run since Flacco took over, vented some of his own feelings after the 47-42 loss.
Yikes.
However, Brown himself and the other units weren’t immune to errors. The running back had an egregious drop at the beginning of the game, forcing the Bengals to settle for a field goal instead of an easy first down/touchdown. In contrast, the special teams unit had an offsides penalty on a missed field goal attempt by Cairo Santos, as well as a missed 54-yard field goal attempt by Evan McPherson.
Still, Brown is accurately noting complementary football. When a team’s offense puts up 81 points at home in back-to-back weeks against poor-to-middling teams, that should be a formula for a win. And, when the quarterback in relief of your franchise starter has 693 passing yards and six touchdowns in that span, it should definitely point to a 2-0 home stretch.
Along with the perceived dissension, the lack of getting wins will breed interesting discussions heading into the bye week. Will the Bengals be sellers of their star veterans? Can they salvage the season in a relatively weak division and conference?
Or does this house of cards need to collapse completely to get them back to championship aspirations?
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