That’s a wrap, folks. Stick a fork in them. The Bengals are done.
What else is there to say? What happened today against the Pittsburgh Steelers was nothing new. It was the same crap we’ve been watching for twelve weeks. It’s the same crap the Steelers have been feeding the Bengals for 57 years.
Entering the game, it was no mystery that the Bengals were bad on defense. And yet, the Steelers have been no better than average on offense. The Bengals offense, after all, can score on anyone. They’ve proven that time and again. The Bengals, coming off their bye, had an extra week to prepare. Was there an opportunity against Pittsburgh?
Hell no. Emphatically. Pittsburgh had no time for the Bengals shenanigans. An opening-drive pick six by Russell Wilson (which probably could have been called a penalty on Cam Taylor-Britt), just delayed the inevitable. Defensively, the Bengals had no answers.
It’s been a season full of abysmal defensive performances, and the Bengals saved their worst for last. The Steelers scored 44 points. The Steelers. Scored 44 points. This season has conditioned Bengals fans for a lot of misery – nobody could have imagined this.
How do the Bengals keep doing it? It’s been a refrain since Week One: the Bengals find new ways to lose. But this is too far. This shouldn’t be possible…
Let’s recap:
Week One: fumbled at the goal line and missed and extra point, taking six points minimum off the board in a 16 - 10 loss to the Patriots
Week Two: missed an extra point and committed a penalty on 4th & 16 to put the Chiefs in position for the game-winning field goal in a 26 - 25 loss
Week Three: allowed a rookie QB to put up historic numbers and missed a field goal in a 38 - 33 loss to the Commanders
Week Five: missed a game-winning 53-yard field goal in overtime after settling for three straight runs following a miraculous fumble recovery in a 41 - 38 loss to the Ravens
Week Eight: threw behind the line of scrimmage on a must-have 4th & 1 and watched in horror as a rookie CB wrapped up Ja’Marr Chase for negative yardage in a 37 - 17 loss to the Eagles
Week Ten: attempted a gutsy, game-deciding two-point conversion at the end of the game versus the Ravens and failed to convert after the pass to the third-string tight end was broken up
Week Eleven: missed two, go-ahead field goals in the second half in a 34 - 27 loss to the Chargers
Week Thirteen: allowed the middling Steelers offense to go up-and-down the field in the worst defensive effort of the season in a 44 - 38 loss
In all eight losses, the Bengals have been hard at work pushing the boundaries of football ineptitude. They’ve left no stone unturned.
Here’s some more (not-so) fun-facts from today’s game:
The Bengals have now lost two games this season scoring 38 points, and they’re 2 - 4 when scoring 30+.
This is the second time the Bengals have allowed 520 yards in a game, the third time they’ve allowed 400+, and the eighth time they’ve allowed 300+ yards. The Bengals, incredibly, are just 1 - 2 when allowing fewer than 300 yards of offense.
If it stands over the next five weeks, this will be the third-consecutive year the Steelers have scored their season-high against the Bengals.
The Steelers hadn’t allowed 38 or more points since October of 2022, and hadn’t scored 44 or more since November of 2018.
Today was the third time the Steelers have allowed 375 or more total yards this season. The Steelers, incredibly, are now 2 - 1 in those games.
The Steelers now own a 22:12 turnover differential over the Bengals since 2019, and a staggering 14:1 differential over their last five games.
I could go on, but I think this illustrates the point. The Steelers are good because they capitalize on opportunities and, for the most part, play complimentary football. The Bengals, other than random, periodic spurts, do not, have not, and (more than likely) will not.
Joe Burrow can play an otherwise perfect game, but then he’ll have a key fumble or interception. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins will be unrecoverable for 99% of the game, but then they’ll have a boneheaded drop or the coaching staff will fail to get them the ball. When the offense is clicking, the defense will offer no resistance. And, if all else fails, the special teams will find a way to blow it.
This is the Bengals seventh one-score loss. That’s no accident. Call it whatever you want: the inability to finish, lack of a killer instinct, the team isn’t clutch, it’s all the same. It’s a cliché in the NFL that winning is, in fact, quite hard. The Bengals are living, breathing proof of that axiom. They make winning look downright inconceivable.
So now, we’ll hear more about how the Bengals are this close and how we still believe and there’s no quit. We’ve been hearing it for weeks. It rings a little hollow right now.
It’s taken some time to admit, but the Bengals are a bad football team. It’s no mystery why they’re 4 - 8. They aren’t as talented as their opponents, and they aren’t as well-coached. If it weren’t for Burrow and Chase's endlessly spectacular play, the Bengals could be mistaken for the Panthers. Those two are all that’s standing in the way of that reality.
Looking forward, it shouldn’t shock anyone if things get much, much worse. Tee Higgins is likely gone after the season, and there’s no indication the Bengals will be able to fix their offensive and defensive lines in one offseason – and it’s not like they haven’t been trying. Burrow and Chase are phenomenal, but they can’t do everything. They aren’t literally super-human, they just look like it on TV. Even if they were, I’m not sure that would be enough for this Bengals team.
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