The ball finally bounced their way. Was it too little, too late?

The Enquirer/Sam Greene / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Before we get into it, Happy New Year’s Eve! You made it through another year. Regardless of how you feel about your year, you got up every morning, you put one foot in front of another and you lived. Good job! I hope 2024 was a good year for you, and I hope 2025 is better.

I hope the lessons you learned in 2024 help guide you through 2025.

Hopefully the same happens for the Bengals front office.

Not the best transition into the meat and potatoes, but you get what I’m saying.

For the first time in the 2024 season, the Cincinnati Bengals don’t have a losing record. Unfortunately, despite the fact Joe Burrow is putting up MVP numbers and Ja’Marr Chase is closing in on the triple crown, it took until the second-to-last week of the regular season to even things up.

Now, not only do they have to win in Pittsburgh this weekend, but they need the Chiefs’ backups to beat the Broncos in Denver in Week 18, and they need the lowly Jets to beat the Dolphins in New Jersey.

It’s possible, but it’s probably not going to happen—and it won’t be the Chiefs’ or the Jets’ fault. It will be the Bengals’ fault. Starting with the patented Zac Taylor slow start to the season, having a terrible defense through the first three quarters of the season, special teams trouble, and some injury issues are the reasons they have one foot in the grave.

Will there be change after this season?

Define change.

If the Bengals miss the playoffs but beat Pittsburgh and finish with a winning record, I highly doubt anything happens outside of an assistant coaching change—and I’m not even sure that happens.

I think the Family will see the 2024 season ending with a five-game win streak, the last two being against playoff teams, and they’ll think the team is headed in the right direction. I’m worried they’ll write this off as a fluke year.

It wasn’t a fluke. It was the end result of poor planning, poor execution, and poor about everything outside of Joe Burrow and most of the offense.

If the Bengals don’t make the playoffs, his efforts will have been wasted, and I honestly believe the only way a change is made is if Burrow walks into Mike Brown’s office and demands a change be made so he doesn’t have to make a public announcement, a la Carson Palmer. If that happens, I could see real change coming.

I don’t think that will happen, though.

So, I think the Bengals will take care of business against the Steelers, and I unfortunately don’t think it will matter.

On the other hand, if the Bengals drop the ball against the Steelers, I could see Lou Anarumo fired, but that’s about it.

The reality is if Burrow hadn’t given the Bengals the best season of his young career so far, the team would have been eliminated from playoff contention a long time ago. The scariest part of that reality is the following question: What if this was the best we’ll ever see from Burrow? What if the greatest season of his career was wasted? I don’t think that’s true, but I’m a worrier, and worriers worry.

Thoughts on the Broncos game:

• The Bengals defense struggled in the second half, but they looked pretty decent in the first half and in OT.
• The Bengals took a few years off my life in OT. You don’t normally win a game in the NFL if you have to punt AND you miss a field goal in overtime.
• Burrow was absolutely brilliant on Saturday, but that’s nothing new. He’s been brilliant all year.
• I loved his griddy, and I loved the crowd’s reaction to it even more.
• Tee Higgins demonstrated why he’s so valuable to the Bengals. Chase still had a solid game, but he was blanketed throughout a lot of the game by Pat Surtain II. For some reason, the Broncos kept sending Riley Moss out to cover Higgins one-on-one, and… you saw what happened. There aren’t many who can cover Chase, but if a team decides to focus on him, it’s nice to have Higgins, another receiver who’s hard to cover one-on-one, around.
• The Broncos are a good team with a solid defense, and Bo Nix has a bright future in the NFL. The Bengals won ugly, but they won, and I won’t complain about the Bengals beating a playoff team, because the Broncos are likely going to be a playoff team.
• I’m liking what we’re seeing from the young defensive tackles. I also liked what I saw from Joseph Ossai on Saturday.
• Joe Burrow was sacked seven times, which is seven times too many. PFF credited five of those sacks to the offensive line, and none of them to the two offensive tackles who were playing hurt. Both Amarius Mims and Orlando Brown Jr. played well. Once Mims came out, Devin Cochran allowed one sack from RT, Cody Ford allowed two from the left guard position, and Alex Cappa gave up two from right guard. The Bengals need to address both guard positions before Burrow is lost to another injury. Could Matt Lee be a part of the answer?

Some Random Bengals Thoughts:

• According to PFF, Burrow is tied with the second-highest DPR (total pressures of any kind) with C.J. Stroud. The only quarterback who has been pressured more is Geno Smith. This is an expensive offensive line to be allowing their quarterback to be under pressure this much.
• If the Bengals do beat the Steelers and somehow sneak into the playoffs, they’ll be dangerous. I understand their defense isn’t going to be the thing that keeps them alive, but I believe Joe Burrow can do almost anything on a football field after what I’ve seen him do this season.
• At the same time, the Chiefs are 15-1 and are in no way, in my opinion, scared of the Bengals. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some starters upset they aren’t playing in the Broncos game. I would rather Bengals fans remember to blame the front office for missing the playoffs this year instead of blaming the Chiefs or Jets for not winning in Week 18. Good teams don’t need to rely on other teams to lose to get into the playoffs. The Bengals have a good offense, but they haven’t been a good team.
• Is Ryan Rehkow the answer? I don’t personally have an issue with him. After all, he hasn’t had to punt a lot this year, and, correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember some big punting error this season.
• I think Chase Brown is RB1 next year. I don’t want the Bengals to waste a Day 1 or even a Day 2 pick on the position, regardless of who’s available. If they want to grab a guy they like on Day 3, great. If they want to pair Brown with someone in free agency, great. But I want Brown to have the ball in his hands a lot in 2025.

The Bengals can only do what they can do, and that’s beat the Steelers in Week 18. If they do that, then they have a chance. If they can’t, it won’t matter.