People have been wondering all season whether the issue with the Bengals’ craptastic defense was talent, coaching, communication, positioning, poor tackling, or effort. It’s everything. All of it.
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Every single aspect of quality defensive play is lacking. It’s unreal to watch. The Bengals get worse and worse. They somehow allowed 37 points and 414 passing yards to Russell Wilson and the Steelers in Sunday’s dispiriting 44-38 defeat. (Pittsburgh also returned a fumble for a TD.) At this rate, Wilson will threaten Norm Van Brocklin’s single-game passing record of 554 yards in the season finale rematch in Western PA.
We knew Lou Anarumo’s defense was atrocious, but Sunday’s “effort” was a new low. No pass rush, as usual. The blitzes aren’t getting home—Cincinnati is dead last in the league in sacks while blitzing—and, worse, the back-end adjustments are constantly late or missed entirely. Secondary “handoffs,” the passing of one receiver to another, are consistently botched.
The Bengals’ missed tackles are legion, for sure, but almost worse are the countless plays not made because defenders take the wrong angles or technique and can’t shed blockers or reach the ballcarrier. Wilson benefitted from 254 yards after the catch on Sunday, the most of his career. Bad tackling and wide-open passes between the hashmarks were the primary culprit. Over and over, Wilson dumped off to players just past the line and there were no Cincinnati defenders within a country mile.
The entire season on that side of the ball was summed up on the fourth and 4 that ended the game, when a blatantly obvious zone read keeper by Justin Fields was completely Snafu’d by the Bengals’ defense, allowing for an easy conversion and the ballgame. Hey, at least Evan MacPherson didn’t miss any kicks this week … though he’s now going to some games with a groin injury.
Cincinnati’s offense hummed as usual (when it wasn’t turning the ball over), even against a tough defense that’s given the Bengals issues over the last few years. Joe Burrow did some magical things Sunday, even under the crushing burden of knowing that any mistake he made—like his two fumbles and a deflected interception—would only make his Sisyphean job harder.
Much of what went wrong could be narrowed to yet more poor play on the interior offensive line, especially Orlando Brown at left tackle, who gamely gave it a go on one leg but was hobbling around like Captain Ahab out there. One of T.J. Watt’s strip sacks (more of a swat-away as he ran by than a sack, to be fair) was a direct result of Brown’s immobility. Imagine what this offense would be if Zeus, by far the best lineman on the team, had remained healthy. On the other side, Amarius Mims had a strong outing, showing more and more that he’s going to be an excellent tackle once he gets more snaps under his belt. That at least is something to build on in an otherwise lost season.
Burrow, who is apparently a much bigger comic book and fantasy dork than we ever realized, as proven by the Batmobile purchase revealed on Hard Knocks Tuesday night, was exceptional yet again. Remember that “Can Burrow’s wrist work in the cold?” ridiculousness that was briefly a thing last week? Yeah, it was dumb. The things he’s forced to do in the pocket, before the snap, and on the move are at such a high level it’s manna for QB film nerds. The fact that this MVP caliber season is being wasted is so sickening I don’t think I can go on.
I’ve been thinking a lot about 2016 this week. That season also went off the rails despite preseason Super Bowl fantasies. The 2015 Bengals were certainly championship caliber, until their quarterback suffered an arm injury against a division rival and was lost for the year, much like the 2023 Bengals. The difference is it was Andy Dalton coming back to play QB. A.J. Green and Tyler Eifert were hurt and would remain so for the rest of their Bengals time. Marvin Jones had left for greener pastures. The defense, stocked with aging veterans who seemed reliable, fell off badly. By contrast, the succession plan on the offensive line allowed Kevin Zeitler (who is still playing extremely well, by the way) and Andrew Whitworth to leave at season’s end. As we know, their departures were a disaster, to put it mildly.
I happened to travel to Dallas that October to see the Bengals play at Jerry World, a game that turned ugly for Cincinnati very quickly. They were down 28-0 and lost 28-14, by which point I was long gone. Cincinnati was 2-3 at that point and tumbled to a 6-9-1 finish. The team refused to move on from Dalton or Marvin Lewis, and after a strong start to the decade the late-teens saw a relentless decline into mediocrity.
Some circumstances are different now, of course, namely Burrow. But it’s hard not to connect the dots and see the potential for another half-decade slide by a franchise that remains so frustrating in their methods. He’s lifted the standards all around him, but even Atlas can only carry the weight for so long. Perhaps the most pernicious element of the last year (including the contentious offseason) is the revelation that, even though we thought/hoped/prayed the franchise would change its ways to take advantage of the Burrow Era, it’s mostly the same old method of operation in Cincinnati that isn’t fully dedicated to winning.
Ironically, the Cowboys are in much the same boat as they prepare to take on the Bengals Monday night in Dallas (unlike in 2016, when rookie QB Dak Prescott led the Pokes to 13 wins). The team that won 12 games three years in a row under Mike McCarthy has become an injury-hit shell of itself. Jerry Jones and the front office he dominates in Dallas is deeply frustrating in a far different way than the Brown/Blackburn House of Bengals, but remains vexing for a fanbase that hasn’t won a title in 30 years. At least they have five Super Bowl wins in their history.
Dallas is 5-7, one game better than the Bengals though with much worse underlying stats, including a -91 point differential (Cincinnati is -5). The Cowboys have improved a bit the last couple of weeks, including a dominating win over the hapless Giants on Thanksgiving Day, with Cooper Rush in at quarterback in place of the maimed Prescott. Still, Dallas is a woeful 30th in the NFL in Offensive EPA, among other stats that highlight their sputtering season.
Once upon a time (two years ago), Rush and the Cowboys beat the Bengals, back when Cincinnati could actually stop offenses and the Cowboys could actually score on good defenses. It was a tight, well-played game that mighta/coulda been a Super Bowl preview. Rush remains the same decent backup player, but the Bengals D is so bad right now that Rush is likely to be asking for a contract extension come Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, after dealing with Watt on Sunday, Cincinnati’s O-line gets to try containing Dallas Destroyer Micah Parsons, whose return to the field after injury has made a noticeable difference. What seemed a highly winnable game even two weeks ago now feels like a 50-50 proposition at best.
Of course, any breakdown off the actual contest is sadly overshadowed by the bigger picture of what happens next with both franchises, who gets fired, how much of a clean sweep is made in the offseason, etc. Actually beating the Cowboys won’t benefit the Bengals come draft day, but it would be nice to wear a smile for the first time since early November.
