Controlling Their Destiny Needs To Start Being A Season-Long Venture For Bengals
Credit: Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
To put it simply: the Cincinnati Bengals need a miracle to make the playoffs. They need three things to break their way, and a road win against a 10-6 Pittsburgh Steelers is somehow the easiest part of all that. They then have to turn around, tune into the 4pm games, and hope that Aaron Rodgers and Carson Wentz can play spoiler to the Miami Dolphins and Denver Broncos, respectively. While fans are holding out hope that a miraculous series of events can occur, the Bengals have nobody to blame but themselves for being in this situation to begin with.
Getting tired of hearing that the bengals should be in the playoffs over Denver because they’re more fun to watch.
If you want to be in the playoffs, don’t lose to NE week 1 and start 4-8.
— MinkahBurgh Steelers (@SteelersWin109) December 31, 2024
My reaction is as follows:
It’s been a common theme throughout the Zac Taylor Era. The team starts slow early and then follows that up with a diabolical stretch run that wills them to the playoff bubble. While in 2022, they overcame a 1-3 start to get to the AFC Championship Game, they’re on the outside looking in heading into Week 18 and it may be too little, too late. A team like Kansas City has the opportunity to ensure that Cincinnati doesn’t make the playoffs, simply by losing, and can you blame Andy Reid if he doesn’t go all-out to beat Denver on Sunday?
I don’t want to face the Bengals in the wildcard round pic.twitter.com/kTZfoxYj3N
— ꧁𝓝𝓲𝓬𝓸𝓵𝓮 𝓜𝓪𝓻𝓲𝓮꧂ (@nmbernard) December 29, 2024
The slow start stats are so staggering, but normalized to Bengals fans. During the Zac Taylor Era, the Bengals have a 1-9 record in Weeks 1 and 2. That’s one win! In five years! Week 1 at home against the Vikings in 2021, that’s it. It was the one week in league history since 2020 where no NFL game film of Ja’Marr Chase existed. Good times. It’s hard to control your own destiny when the team consistently enters the season looking unprepared.
Despite fans calling for Taylor to have his players prepared instead of rested for the regular season, he gave Joe Burrow exactly one offensive drive in the preseason. He followed that up by handcuffing him to a SleepNumber bed for a month and then going about his business.
As a result, despite Burrow’s MVP-caliber season, he was unable to produce anything in Week 1 against the Patriots, who have the worst record in the NFL. Of course, health is paramount, and getting through the preseason healthy should enable the Bengals to control their destiny, but when a fully-healthy team doesn’t appear ready to go until Week 5, it makes coming back from a rocky start that much more difficult. When season-ending injuries (Dax Hill and DJ Turner, we miss ya) inevitably happen, and teams need to make a charge with a depleted roster, the task becomes all the more difficult.
Finishing in last place in the AFC North with a 9-8 record gave Cincinnati a softer schedule than any contending team has a right to expect, and they had a shot to stack wins early facing three last-place finishers in their first four games. Oops.
Now, Who Dey Nation is in a position where they need to root for these two guys.
Gotta rely on 2024 Carson Wentz and 40 Year Old Aaron Rodgers to make the Playoffs 💔 https://t.co/2hiH49jVdj pic.twitter.com/SlTkxZhO9x
— Wain🐝 (@JoeyBFutureMVP) December 30, 2024
I’m not sure that’s something I can emotionally handle. I want to be immunized from having to root for Aaron Rodgers. Speaking of things people struggle handling…
The never ending cycle of the Zac Taylor play calling experience https://t.co/Up6P7Z95b4
— Brandon Stall (@DatDudeBPS) December 28, 2024
Taylor has been the Bengals’ offensive play-caller since the moment Mike Brown said “Congratulations, you’re hired!” For a guy who’s been given full control of the offense, his decision-making sure comes under a ton of scrutiny. The Bengals head coach has stuck to his core belief of running everything on his terms, and he’s been able to get away with it because his offense consists of Burrow, Chase, and Tee Higgins.
No matter how much film a team watches or how well a cornerback covers a wide receiver, there is no defense for a perfect throw. When your quarterback is the NFL’s all-time leader in completion percentage and your WR1 leads the NFL in every Triple Crown receiving category, even a psychic of a defensive coordinator will struggle to plan around it. (In case you’re wondering, Chase is currently eight receptions, 133 receiving yards, and two touchdowns ahead of every receiver in the NFL.)
That said, Taylor’s situational decision-making and lack of offensive creativity have led to a 3-7 record in one-score games, his role as play-caller severely coming into question. Perhaps two of the most questionable moments in this season for ZT came on overtime field goals, both of which Bengals kickers have missed. The first of those two misses, came after Taylor called three straight Chase Brown runs against a league-best rush defense, even though the Baltimore Ravens’ pass defense had no answer for Burrow for the majority of the day. The other game was just last week, where Cade York’s doink was bailed out by a “You’ve been randomly selected for a drug test”-esque performance from Burrow.
It’s been difficult to watch the season potentially slip away after so many “What could have been” moments. If even one crucial play broke right for the Bengals in those one-score games — whether against the Chiefs, the Ravens, or the Los Angeles Chargers — the Bengals would be in a totally different spot, and their destiny would remain in their control. A different decision here or a different decision there would allow the Bengals to breathe a sigh of relief. Instead, if the Bengals even make the playoffs, they will have to enter a scenario where they have to play the Buffalo Bills in the playoffs after spending an entire month fighting to the very last breath just to stay alive.
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