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The 12 Moments That Sank the 2024 Bengals

Nov 17, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) reacts after the game against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.

Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

By Justin Wood on January 15, 2025

Well, for the second straight year, our boys in stripes aren’t in the playoffs. I know some of Bengals Nation right now are blaming the Kansas City Chiefs for all but throwing their game against the Denver Broncos, but honestly, they’re missing the point. The Cincinnati Bengals didn’t need a ton of help to miss the postseason.

There were few games where the Bengals found themselves truly outclassed. Most of those losses came about from one or two moments in the game when things broke the wrong way, or more often, they shot themselves in the foot. If they’d had even one of those moments back, the city of Cincinnati would be watching playoff football instead of the Bengals. Here are 10 of those moments.

[WARNING: The following moments may cause emotional outburts and/or general day-ruining. Reader discretion is advised.]

Week 1: Tanner Hudson‘s Goal-Line Fumble

When you’re about to score a touchdown, you have one job: Hold onto the ball until you get across the goal line. Unfortunately, Hudson apparently thought his job was to be a server at Applebee’s, holding the ball like a food tray for anyone to knock out of his hand. Hey, at least those six points didn’t matter in a 16-10 loss, right?

Week 1: Mike Gesicki‘s Overturned Touchdown

The NFL announced the following day that this was, indeed, a touchdown. Some free advice: Maybe don’t wait a day to say a touchdown. And if you’re going to be late to the punch, don’t say anything at all. What’s the point, other than to upset the fanbase more?

Week 2: Chamarri Connor’s Scoop-and-Score

You’re not going to see Joe Burrow‘s name too many times in this retrospective, but he gets one here against the Chiefs in Swiftville.

In one of Burrow’s few fumbles lost in 2024, this came at the worst possible time. If Burrow holds onto that ball, the Bengals could have punted it away and it’s a different ball game. In a rare good showing by the defense, they played great against Patrick Mahomes to that point. And one uncharacteristically sloppy play wastes that effort.

Week 2: Conspiracy Theory Fodder

Sure, we can pinpoint Daijahn Anthony‘s pass interference call to put the Chiefs in game-winning field-goal range, but we won’t. But watch that play again, and you’ll see a horrible missed holding call on Creed Humphrey, right in front of the judge, which would have offset the PI penalty. Make it make sense…

Week 3: Jayden Daniels‘ Coming Out Party

Jayden Daniels is going to win OROY in a walk, but he didn’t become JAYDEN DANIELS until the Bengals let him destroy them in Week 3.

There wasn’t a particular play that did them in, but it’s just another example of the Bengals’ defense letting a rookie quarterback give them an L. In no scenario ever, can you have your quarterback throw for 324 yards and three touchdowns (which Burrow did), while also never once having to punt, and still lose the game 38-33.

Week 5: Game-Losing Field Goal

And so, we get to Cincinnati’s first truly “Must Win” game of the season, aaaaaaand… Evan McPherson does this…

This is the Zapruder Film of missed Bengals field goals. I’ve heard three separate theories on who’s to blame for this botched overtime-winner: The Kicker Formerly Known As “No McFearson,” a bad snap from Cal Adomitis, or a poor hold from rookie Ryan Rehkow. Heck, some say it was just a bad kick by McPherson. Regardless of who gets the credit, this play ends up here because [SpongeBob Narrator Voice] ONE. PLAY. LATER. Derrick Henry decides he’s Derrick Henry and breaks off a run that eventually seals the Bengals’ fate.

Luckily, there’s no way McPherson can cost Cincinnati another must-win later in the season, right?

Week 8: You Spin Me Right Round, Baby, Right Round

The NFL is too easy on quarterbacks and stars, which is why they completely missed this facemask on a potentially lead-taking two-point attempt. The MVP candidate’s head was spun like a record in front of the official, with no call. Somehow, Burrow still got rid of the ball, but the refs got to miss a second penalty against the Bengals with a Gesicki hold.

Week 10: Fumbling the Momentum

In fairness, before that play, the Bengals did some self-sabotage of their own with a Chase Brown fumble. Come on! It was 21-7 in the third quarter! At that moment, Bengals Nation hung our heads low, knowing how ugly it was going to get with the Ravens getting a freebie gifted to them.

Week 10: Where’s Wallace?

Tylan Wallace has had just one receiving touchdown in his four NFL seasons. Here it is.

And yeah, we were right. It got ugly. In the fourth quarter, Lamar Jackson hit Wallace on a small-yardage gain, but the entire defense seemingly gave up, believing the play to be over after two failed attempts to shove Wallace out of bounds. Nope. Wallace stayed in and broke off an 84-yard touchdown that left the entire stadium scratching their heads and rolling their eyes.

Week 11: All Of It

This game should have been fun, with the Bengals coming to the City of Angels to take on the Los Angeles Chargers in prime time. It promised to be a showdown between the top two 2020 Draft class quarterbacks: Burrow vs. Justin Herbert. Instead, it was really not fun for a while, then kinda-fun, then heartbreaking.

In the world of standup comedy, a good call-back shows creativity and strong joke writing. In the world of sportswriting — especially on a list of missed opportunities — it’s not nearly as fun, as this game shows.

Anyways, while we can’t give this to one moment in particular, the defense allowed 24 first-half points and Evan McPherson had multiple missed field goals. Those two problems were just too much for the Bengals to come back from. Kudos to the Bengals offense for somehow making it a game in the second half and only losing by, wait for it… one possession.

See how much that callback sucked?

Week 12: A False False Start

We did it! We made it to the last loss of the season and our last two plays that came back to bite the Bengals in the ass. Shout-out to the defense for letting 107-year-old Russell Wilson play like he’s 25 again. Seriously, what the hell? He had 410 yards and three touchdowns in this game.

But we have to give the honorifics to this penalty:

Down 24-21 with 2:05 left in the second quarter, Zac Taylor decides to go for it on 4th & 1 at their own 39-yard line. They’re desperate to put points on the board. Then Elandon Roberts jumps into the neutral zone, causing Alex Cappa to move because… science? Instead of calling Roberts for the infraction, they flagged Cappa for a false start, forcing the Bengals to punt, leading to a Steelers field goal before halftime.

Even Joe Cool couldn’t keep his cool after the game when asked about the call. “Yeah, they missed that one” he said with frustration easily visible on his face.

Week 12: Leaving It All On the Fields

I am so sorry for making you all re-live this one.

You know this play, as much as you tried to bury it. In the fourth quarter, and the Bengals have exhausted their last timeout. It all comes down to getting a stop on 3rd & 4 to give them one last shot at life. Paycor Stadium is on their feet, it’s a playoff football environment. Mike Tomlin sends in Justin Fields at quarterback.

It’s an obvious designed run for Fields. There’s no other reason for him to be in the game. I know it, you know it, the offense knows it, the stadium knows it, even my buddy Scott who doesn’t know ball knows it.

But somehow, Lou Anarumo and the defense doesn’t know it, biting on a fake hand-off and allowing Fields to run for seven yards and the game-sealing (and ultimately, season-sealing) first down.

Point your fingers at the Chiefs for laying down and resting their starters if you really want. But there’s 12 things that the Bengals should never have let happen before that point. If they only took care of one, they might not be in that position. They deserve all the blame for wasting a season where Burrow played like the damn MVP, Ja’Marr Chase won the Triple Crown, and Trey Hendrickson led the league in sacks.

Until next season… WHO DEY!

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