Bass: Is it ‘Super Bowl or Bust’ for 2024 Cincinnati Bengals?

With Joe Burrow back, expectations have blown up for the Cincinnati Bengals. (Mike Bass photo) 

By Mike Bass
mbass@mikebasscoaching.com

The Bengals are back, Joe Burrow is ready, and expectations sweeten the air like fresh beignets. 

“Super Bowl LIX!” @thewhobae posted to me on X. “Hope to see you in NOLA! 🧡”

How cool would that be? Burrow could be Burreaux again, the Bayou Bengal-turned-Cincinnati Bengal back where he won the national championship. I love New Orleans. I covered the Sugar Bowl when future Bengal Tim McGee scored the go-ahead touchdown for Tennessee. An old Cox Media Group buddy living in NOLA could help us navigate Bourbon Street. Laissez les bons temps rouler! 

The season is about to begin, and I had asked for your expectations as Bengals fans. This was fun. You took me to places I was kind of ready to go. Or return.

“13-4,” @MadamDad5 wrote. “First round bye. Super Bowl win. Joe goes to Disney World.”

I lived near Disney when I interned at the Orlando paper. Once, I inadvertently turned into the Disney entrance and was charged for parking just to turn around and exit. I am willing to forget that if Burrow goes as Super Bowl MVP.

“All the wins and trophies,” @brandonmariemil wrote.

Including the Super Bowl trophy?

“Lombardi in NOLA 🧡🖤,” @JamieGrice8 wrote.

As in the Bengals winning it, for the first time. I can see it.

“Super Bowl or BUST!” superfan Bengal Jim Foster (@bengaljims_BTR) posted.

Come again?

“It's super bowl or bust,” @JakeJonzz posted.

Or bust?

OK, I was not ready to go there.

Is anything short of a Super Bowl automatically a bust?

Then again, is Super Bowl or Bust simply your expectation now? And are you open to adjusting as the season unfolds?

You can lean on your experience here. Inside, you know  a lot depends on Burrow’s wrist. You went through this with the knee and the appendix and the calf. What if he isn’t the same Joey B? Or what if gets hurt again? Jake Browning was a 2023 revelation, but what if he has to quarterback the team into and through the playoffs?

What about other injuries or factors? As I started writing this, Ja’Marr Chase remained in limbo. What can the Bengals reasonably withstand to hold off the rest of the conference? The competition is impressive, too.

You’ve got this. If not, remember 2022. A slow start felt catastrophic, and you could not fully savor each step of a historic run back to the AFC title game by fixating on a Super Bowl return and national recognition. Your expectations controlled you. They changed you. It is normal. You were not used to this. Now you are.

I have faith in you.

I have faith in the Bengals, too.

As for expectations?

“More wins than I have fingers,” @Chazperin posted.

 Same here. The over-under says 10.5 wins. That sounds about right. I lean toward the over.

I expect the Bengals to return to the playoffs.

I think the defense will be better this season. It has to be. I think the running game will be better, too. Joe Mixon was OK, but the Bengals needed a game breaker. I have a good feeling about Chase Brown. I think Burrow will be back to being Burrow. I don’t expect any quarterback to play all 17 games, but if he misses a game or two, the Bengals are better suited than a lot of teams to adjust.

Want more?

I think the Bengals will make the Super Bowl.

Why stop there?

I think they will win it. Finally.

But those are my predictions, not my expectations.

I think everything the Bengals have gone through has prepared them for this. Sometimes it works that way. Sometimes, it doesn’t.

For now, what’s wrong with a little healthy dreaming? As Mickey Rourke’s character from the movie, “Diner,” put it: “If you don't have good dreams ... you got nightmares.”