A season on the brink with the Cincinnati Bengals
Joe Burrow is flourishing, but the Cincinnati Bengals are teetering. (Mike Bass Photo)
By Mike Bass
mbass@mikebasscoaching.com
The Cincinnati Bengals were all about the finishing kick. Begin a game or season slowly, and rally late. It became their identity. You dreaded the false starts but loved the rebounds. It was more than a new day in Who Dey Ville, it was a new era in Bengal Land.
A Super Bowl. A second straight AFC title game. A third straight winning season despite Joe Burrow exiting in the middle of it. Another Lombardi Trophy challenge this time.
Instead, the franchise is teetering.
Your dream is deteriorating.
And you are trying to cope.
In our weekly day-after-game X session, you told me the hardest part about being 4-6 after losing at Baltimore.
“The hardest part is that there's 7 more games to make excuses for,” @StevenCrowtown wrote. “I'd rather be a crappy 4-13 team than an underperforming 8-9 team.”
Is that where they are headed?
Who knows?
This has been a season on the brink for the Bengals.
Every loss to a good team puts them on the verge of irrelevance. Just when you think they are out, they pull you back in. Every win over an also-ran puts them on the verge of .500 and relevance. Just when you think they will beat a winning team, they lose.
The hardest part isn’t just the losing. It’s ...
“The manner of which it happened,” @ChiChiBubs wrote.
Usually excruciatingly.
“Hardest part is seeing how close we get,” @Truck_1_0_1_ wrote. “I rarely get super high or super low during games like many do, but the close ones always sting a bit more as a result.”
Close? Aside from the Philadelphia dud, Cincinnati has lost five games by 16 total points. It’s always something. A fourth-down penalty. A botched hold in overtime.
“Hardest part about being 4-6,” @eric_a_hammond wrote, “is knowing they should be 7-3.”
“They could be 8-2,” @gridirongirl_ wrote.
“I think it has to be knowing we are maybe 6 plays away from being 9-1,” @adkinlk83 wrote.
This time? A fumble with a 14-point lead. Multiple blown tackles. A missed two-point conversion with 38 seconds left, when two apparent Ravens penalties were missed.
“We didnt lose,” @flablete wrote. “It was stolen from us!”
It might feel that way. But are you confident the Bengals would have converted a second chance? And if they had, are you sure they would have prevented Baltimore from scoring in the end? We want to believe, but our confidence is waning.
“When they went up 21-7, I said they’ll still find a way to lose,” @thenotoryousone wrote. “And sadly, I was right.”
The Bengals used to win a lot of these close games en route to the best run in franchise history. It was the Bengal Way. Now suddenly losing one after another is hard.
“Knowing that we are one play away in 5 of those 6 losses,” @bobo_j13 wrote. “Too many games not being played a full 4 quarters by one side or the other is the story of this season. Joe (Burrow) should be in MVP, (Ja’Marr) Chase OPOY, Trey (Hendrickson) DPOY convos but we have not finished games and will likely miss postszn now.”
But wait.
The Bengals exit the mini-bye just one game out in the wild-card race. If they beat the Chargers in Los Angeles on Sunday night – a winning team – Cincinnati will pull within a game of .500 again, entering the bye.
But wait.
Until they win one of these, you might wonder if they can.
But wait.
Once they do, maybe more will follow. And wouldn’t that be the ultimate Bengal rebound?
“The good thing is they don't have to overtake an army of teams in line in front of them to get there, and they have 4 destiny controlled games against teams in ahead of them they can maneuver their way in and catch to get in,” @BengalsMike wrote, “unfortunately the margin of error is very small.”
And shrinking fast.
Faith is getting harder every time they falter. The Bengals are living off a last-place schedule and a conference with only six winning teams. The hardest part is knowing they can’t wait any longer to make a move this season.
“I would say the position you put yourself in for the rest of the season,” @willie_lutz wrote. “This team knows they can go on a run and win 5 or 6 of 7, but it’s a tough way to live week-to-week. Going to make every week feel like the biggest game of the season, which is DEMANDING.”
On the Bengals. And on you.
You want to believe the Bengals can turn into the team you thought they would be, but every time they don’t wears on you. You are angry and frustrated and trying to make sense of this amid the maelstrom. You wonder if the franchise is plummeting. You want to blame. You want answers. You want results. You want help.
The Bengals worked out former star cornerback Xavien Howard on Monday. They reportedly made him an offer he could refuse. It has been that kind of season.
A healthy Burrow was supposed to make a difference. He threw four touchdown passes against Baltimore last week, and Cincinnati lost. He threw five in the first game against the Ravens, and the Bengals lost.
Jared Goff was intercepted five times Sunday, and Detroit beat the Houston Texans. “This is what great teams do,” Lions coach Dan Campbell told his team. “Even when you’re having an off day, you find a way, man.”
The Bengals are not a great team through 10 games. That is reality. They underachieved. That is undeniable.
It is hard to see this team clearly through your confusion and emotions, and finding a comfort zone might be hard during a season on the brink. Do you lower expectations? Assume crash positions? Embrace hope? Try to take it game by game? Whatever works for you, lean on it, and accept that you might not find total clarity on this team until later.
Wishing the Bengals were just bad instead of underachieving might seem preferable now, but you watched a lot of bad Bengals football wishing they were playing games with meaning. They still are.
At least for one more week.
Join Mike Bass (@SportsFanCoach1) on X.