What happened to the Cincinnati Bengals? Go ahead and vent.
Remember when the Bengals were a Super Bowl team? How could they be 1-4? (Mike Bass Photo)
By Mike Bass
mbass@mikebasscoaching.com
If you are a Cincinnati Bengals fan, the hardest part of 1-4 is the collateral damage to you.
“Being optimistic,” @StevenCrowtown replied.
“Knowing you can be as optimistic as you want, but they ain’t coming back from this,” @OhioWriterRM wrote.
If Sunday was the day the optimism died, Monday was the day to vent and lament about it in our weekly day-after-game X exchange. It was healthy. You needed this.
The Bengals made like Penn and Teller again over the weekend, making another victory disappear. Only this time ... PRESTO! ... your hopes for the Bengals vanished, too. And that was the hardest part of Ravens 41, Bengals 38.
“Knowing we aren't even making the playoffs,” @PatHeadRedsFan wrote.
“Knowing that our Season is over after 5 weeks,” @rwalters81 wrote.
“Not only is this season over, the Super Bowl window is closing faster and faster,” @Wchc1Michael wrote.
This isn’t about doing the math, this is about processing an early flop. You can look for hope later. First you have to face the agony of a prematurely dying dream.
The hardest part of 1-4 is not exactly the same for everyone, but more than 100 responses Monday showed you share a lot of the same frustrations.
“Knowing you have a championship SB Caliber offense …. And we are 1-4 … ughhhh,” wrote @bengaljims_BTR.
Bengal Jim Foster foresaw a Super Bowl or Bust season. The early schedule was relatively easy. Joe Burrow was back. No way would the Bengals start slowly again.
How could they start slower?
How could they be a bust already?
Many of you said the Bengals should be 4-1 now, maybe 5-0. They played the three worst teams from last season and only beat one. They were beating Kansas City and Baltimore and stumbled each time at end.
You feel 1-4 so deeply because of how much you care about the Bengals, your Bengals, and how much you covet that elusive Lombardi Trophy. You just missed one after the 2021 season, just missed a Super Bowl berth a year later, foresaw another shot last season until Burrow went out. This could be the season, you thought. The days of assuming crash positions were past, right?
“Were used to bad years, @zzadoc wrote, “but hopes were so high.”
“In the 90s we deserved it,” @Cincysports4li1 wrote. “This team should be 4-1.”
Let it out. Commiserating loves company. Grieving together can feel better. Sometimes you just need a group wallow. Call it a perk of being part of a fan community. You are surrounded by people who get it. They are shocked. Disappointed. Angry. Blaming. Why not you?
Who did this to the Bengals? Who did this to you? Zac Taylor? (How could he run in overtime?) Mike Brown? (Why won’t he spend more on players and coaches?) For some of you, the hardest part of 1-4 is believing they are the ones who brought down this franchise.
“Realizing that we could be at worst, 4-1,” @JohnMandt4WV wrote, “with better ownership and a better coaching staff and not able to do anything about it!”
Is it true? Did it matter Monday?
“Watching the team self destruct by running three times from the 38 against the number 1 run defense when Burrow and the receiving Corp(s) are cooking!” @FXSpringer01 wrote. “Zack (Zac) is not the coach that will ever get the team to the SB.”
Ummm ...
“Never?” @BengalsCaptain replied. “Like ever?”
Wait ... didn’t he ...
“Sorry, he has had the horses for long enough,” @FXSpringer01 wrote. “Runs the Ferrari like a model T.”
Maybe he meant Taylor wouldn’t get the Bengals to the Super Bowl again. But if any of you weren’t thinking clearly Monday, it was understandable. You were someplace between rational and irrational, logical and emotional. Nothing made sense, and everything made sense. How could the offense be so good and the defense so bad?
“Offense is easily top 5,” @BradneyLincoln wrote.
“Top 2,” @zimwhodey added.
And this can be the hardest part of 1-4.
“That we are wasting the greatest offense in franchise history by rolling out the worst defense in franchise history,” @LordOfBengaldom wrote.
“We don't need the 2021 defense. We just need average and we're not getting that,” @BengalsCaptain added. “For years I said we don't need the top OL, just average. It hurts.”
“I dont know what happen(ed) this year,” @JLforemanjrAcTN wrote, “but our defense is reopening scars from the 2018 season.”
The Bungles Era was not so long ago. You don’t want to look back. You wanted the greatest stretch in franchise history to continue, with a Super Bowl title coda. The more you read into 1-4, the harder it was to stomach.
“The fact that the only opportunity for a Super Bowl in cincy has come and gone,” @dylan_barcus wrote. “Cincy will never win it and that’s hard to accept, not what I want. I believe Joe will win one but it will be late in his career after he’s been traded or signs with another team.”
“Realizing this team will never change and that we will never see a super bowl won in Cincinnati,” @footballcookies wrote. “It’s over.”
“Another wasted year of Joe Burrows prime,” @FalkenthalScott wrote. “We’ll still get exciting games to watch, but every year we’re not winning championships with the best quarterback in the league at our helm is a travesty.”
“Knowing that I am no longer a fan of this team,” @JodyVanWinkle wrote.
If you think the sky is falling, can you rely on the Bengals’ defense to protect you? Do you run for cover? Is the hardest part of 1-4 staying and bracing yourself?
“It’s on the road to being 1-15,” @EdEddiee wrote.
“Accepting the fact I paid $2500 for season tickets to this garbage,” @byg_tymr wrote.
“The crap i gotta take from chiefs fans,” @kyle_dannells wrote.
It is as easy to get swept away by weeks of misery as by a run of victories. You are human. This wasn’t supposed to happen. The Bengals were supposed to energize your fall and winter after another Reds letdown. It is early October, for crying out loud. This is what is so hard about 1-4: “Getting eliminated in 5 games after waiting patiently for 7 months,” @Jacolope5432 wrote.
Officially, of course, the Bengals live. A small percentage of teams have rebounded from 1-4 to the playoffs. Washington did in 2020. Does that help?
“The hardest part is the data of how hard it will be to climb out of this hole,” @whodeynorth wrote. “It IS possible. We need to take it one game at a time and make real adjustments on defense. Tough conversations need to happen, like Joe mentioned in his presser. Gotta trust the young players on D & be aggressive for the entire game.”
Is that a hint of optimism?
Too soon?
Give it time. Maybe you need a few days to get there.
The Bengals will play on national TV on Sunday night against the New York Giants, with another chance to prove who they really are.
On Monday, you are worried they already did.