CINCINNATI — The Bengals posted another lifeless performance on Monday Night Football to drop to 2-2 on the season with a 28-3 loss to the Denver Broncos, who had one of the worst offenses in the NFL entering the game (38.6% success rate Weeks 1-3, 28th in the NFL).
Bengals leaders Zac Taylor and Jake Browning didn’t offer up many answers moving into a matchup as big underdogs against Detroit. It’s just back to work and keep rowing forward in what is tailspinning into a lost season at this rate.
A to Z Sports John Sheerean noted after the game that Cincinnati has now been outscored by 63 points in the past two games, tied for the worst two-game point differential in team history. They posted a disgusting 3.7 yards per play on Monday and actually won the turnover battle after losing it 5-0 last week. It’s hard to blame turnovers this week, especially when your team commits 11 penalties for 65 yards.
“I’ve been here seven years. I’ve been in the league for 13 years. There’s never been a season where we didn’t face adversity in some form,” Taylor said after another historic loss. “Usually it’s a lot worse than 2-2, early season, adversity. So this is nothing [out of the ordinary] you look at games around the league, feels like every team has gone through something with the exception of seven or eight, and so it’s what teams are going to be able to stick together.
“Find a way, find their identity, find a way to keep improving, build off the positive things we do do, and I have got the utmost confidence that the guys in that locker room are good building that’s coaching staff. So we’re 2-2. We haven’t played well the last two games, over the entirety of the game as a team, and we just got to find a way to play better, find a win, and create some momentum for ourselves.”
It would be one thing if Cincinnati were losing close games they played well in, like last season, but that’s not reality.
Cincinnati is insanely lucky to even have one win, let alone two, after they got gifted multiple missed kicks in the Cleveland win and a complete botch-job of a pass interference call against Travis Hunter on the final drive against Jacksonville to power that win.
The entire offense has been a mess for most of the season, outside of two quarters against the Jaguars. They became the first team since 1933 to start 2-1 despite rushing for under 100 yards in all three games. They posted just 53 yards last night, and the horrendous offensive line allowed Browning to get hit six times with three sacks.
No backup quarterback in the NFL is succeeding in this offensive environment.
“Get back to work, have a solution mindset, and try to figure out what our identity on offense is?” Browning said after the loss. “What are we? What’s our go-to stuff that we’re going to do, and how are we going to feed our good players on the perimeter? How do we put them in situations where they can go make plays and do what they’re capable of doing? I think that’s kind of my main focus. And I really just say the perimeter, because that’s my area on offense, is trying to get those guys the ball.”
Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins combined for eight catches and 55 yards in the loss as Cincinnati’s perimeter stars.
“Urgency is there, man, it’s just you gotta want it,” Chase said after the brutal loss. “At the end of the day, we gotta want it. Today, it didn’t look like we wanted it.”
