When Charger-ing meets Bungle-ing, it turns out Bungle power is mightier. Chalk it up to another cursed game in a cursed season. Say it with me, “The Bengals keep on inventing new ways to lose.”
This time, the Bengals lost because their well-compensated kicker missed two makeable, game-winning field goals in the fourth quarter. The fall of Evan McPherson will be studied for generations. How does a kicker who made a name for himself as a rookie banging home the biggest kicks in the biggest moments go from “Money Mac” to “Morbid Mac?” We called him “Shooter” once – now he’s just shot.
We once called the Bengals Super Bowl contenders, too. That feels like an eternity ago.
Where do the Bengals go from here? What’s left to correct? Is anything correctable in the first place?
There should be no illusions anymore. The Bengals are not a good football team. They aren’t a sleeping giant and they aren’t in a funk. They aren’t going on a playoff run. They might be lucky to win another game the rest of the year.
It looked so promising at the start. The Los Angeles Chargers ran the ball three times on their opening drive, and instead of getting 40 or more yards like they probably expected, the Bengals forced them into a surprise three-and-out. Had the Bengals rediscovered their aptitude on defense?
Uhh…firm no. With the Chargers running backs failing to find room, quarterback Justin Herbert found plenty of room when, instead, he took it himself. Herbert had a season-high 58 rushing yards…in the first half. Yeah, it was that kind of night.
In a season full of miserable games, this was easily the most frustrating. Everything that had made this season so excruciating was distilled and concentrated into this single game.
With three elite offensive players like Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, the Bengals should never struggle moving the football. And yet, in the most critical moments at the end of the game – and for much of the first half – they missed opportunities. Burrow had another brilliant game statistically, but two missed throws to Chase in the second half spoiled another productive night. It feels lame to criticize the Bengals three best players after another close loss, especially after the three played so well, but in a season full of what-ifs and close-calls, no stone can be unturned.
The finger has to be pointed at everyone. The defense, after the first possession, sleep-walked through the rest of the first half. The Chargers found the endzone on their next three possessions before settling for a field goal and an eighteen-point margin at halftime. That should have been the ballgame, but the Bengals, talented as they are, made a furious comeback.
Somehow, someway, the defense came alive in the second half. Maybe the Chargers started getting in their own way, or maybe the onslaught of rookies the Bengals committed to playing actually made the difference, but either way, it looked like a completely different unit on the field. But in the end, it was too little too late.
The Bengals lost this game because they’ve lost their killer instinct. This team used to look at NFL-titans like Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs dead in the eye and not blink. Now, they flinch. They duck and run for cover. They’ll fight, but only enough to make it look like they’re fighting. In reality, they all just want to go home.
It’s redundant to continue to take account of all the issues with this team, but it’s still important to do so all the same.
With so many high draft picks invested in the defense, especially in coverage players and pass rushers, the Bengals should not struggle so much against the pass. And yet, Justin Herbert and the Chargers 25th-ranked pass offense was airing it out like they were Peyton Manning and the 2013 Broncos. Trey Hendrickson continues to play out of his mind, and it’s all for naught.
How many more times are we going to watch Cam Taylor-Britt flailing behind a wide-open receiver or Geno Stone late in contesting every pass?
How many times are we going to watch a “rebuilt” offensive line allow Joe Burrow to get crushed play after play?
How many times are we going to watch the Bengals struggle to get the ball to their star receivers at the end of games?
How many times are we going to watch the Bengals run the ball into concrete and barbed wire on first down and on third-and-short?
How many times are we going to watch them call timeouts on offense after failing to line up correctly and with enough pace?
How much longer can we expect Joe Burrow or Ja’Marr Chase to keep putting up with this? How could anyone put up with this?
Look at it this way: imagine you had a job working in sales for a company with a terrible reputation. You take your job seriously and dedicate yourself, and despite not having the best resources or the best training, and in spite of your boss fighting with clients over who should be picking up the tab, you manage to eke out a respectable career. People told you it couldn’t be done, but you succeeded all the same.
But how much is success worth, especially when success could come just as readily somewhere else? But at what point does Joe look at himself and say, “why?” Why am I doing this? Why am I putting up with these shenanigans? There are competent NFL franchises out there – why am I hitching myself to the incompetent one? Just to prove a point? Well, how’s that working for you?
Of course, in reality, Burrow isn’t going anywhere (not any time soon, anyway). Likely, Chase isn’t going anywhere either. But Higgins is almost certainly gone, and it won’t be long until Hendrickson follows him out the door. Mike Hilton will be gone soon too. D.J. Reader and Jessie Bates are already gone. Little by little, the core of a championship-caliber team has been whittled away, and players the Bengals tabbed to replace them have just not been up to snuff.
Nothing’s working. And we really shouldn’t be that surprised. Bungle-power is mighty, after all.
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