The Bengals Are Nearing A Burrow Era Rock Bottom
Sam Greene - Imagn Images
A sinking feeling is surrounding Who Dey Nation. Cincinnati’s beloved Bengals have officially fallen below expectations in 2024.
The #Bengals still can’t put a complete game together. When the offense works, the defense doesn’t. When the defense works, the offense doesn’t.
Fans heading to the exits.
Who can blame them?
— Cincy Jungle (@CincyJungle) October 27, 2024
After being a perennial Super Bowl contender ever since Joe Burrow began to blossom as one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks, the Bengals are sitting at 3-5 and in third place in the AFC North. It is not even November, and the Bengals have already lost as many games this season as they did in the entire calendar year of 2022.
“It’s frustrating,” Zac Taylor said, when asked about the Bengals’ 0-4 home record. “Everybody deserves better. We’ve got great fans, great support and haven’t done enough to reward them. We haven’t done enough to reward our players and the work that goes on in this building. We should feel more wins, we need to feel more wins. We haven’t done enough to do that for ourselves. That’s on us.”
The Bengals had everything in their favor going into 2024. They had a schedule full of last-place teams, a healthy Joe Burrow, a young and exciting receiver corps, and a revamped offensive line. Despite those improvements, Cincinnati has only won three out of its first eight games, and those three wins were against teams (Panthers, Giants, and Browns) that have a combined five wins heading into Week 9.
“We’re not good enough,” Burrow said. “We’re not good enough, so we’ve got to get better.”
Burrow has been playing out of his mind, to the point that he would be in the MVP race if Cincinnati was 5-3, or maybe even 4-4. However, the Bengals’ defense has been a major letdown, and they are one of eight NFL teams that have allowed at least 200 points thus far this season.
“We haven’t done enough, especially against those playoff-quality teams,” cornerback Mike Hilton said. “We’ve just got to find ways to win games. There’s no rhyme or reason to it — we’ve just got to close games out.”
Against “playoff-quality teams,” Cincinnati is a “perfect” 0-4 when facing teams who are currently in the playoff hunt. It’s a tough look for a team who had expectations of beating the best of their best in the postseason en route to a Lombardi.
Much of the struggles have been due to inconsistency and injuries on the defensive line. Early on in the season due to various injuries by defensive tackles, Cincy’s rush defense suffered, particularly in Week 1, as Rhamondre Stevnenson topped the century mark in terms of rush yards. However, the biggest culprit of the D-line’s struggles are due to its pass rush.
Jalen Hurts averaged 2.78s time to throw and 16.7 yards per attempt in the 2nd half vs the Bengals and was a perfect 9 for 9.
The Bengals pass rush is horrendous.
— Andrew Russell (@Andrew_Russell7) October 28, 2024
The Bengals have 12 sacks in the entire 2024 season, which is the fourth lowest total of any NFL team this season. Seven of those sacks are credited to Trey Hendrickson, and Sam Hubbard is the only other Bengals player with multiple sacks in 2024. The inability to generate pressure has played a big role in allowing QBs to make big plays and change the momentum of the game. In some cases, the ones with elite mobility have the ability to take a nothing play and turn it into a major positive.
ONLY LAMAR. WOW.
📺: #BALvsCIN on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/KenO7criwG— NFL (@NFL) October 6, 2024
As a Bengals fan myself, I’ve gone through the good times and the bad. However, the bad times are at their absolute worst when they begin with hope. Fans have seen the peaks that Burrow is bringing the team to. With the hopes that Burrow could help them reach those heights once again, it feels so much more disappointing when the team suffers a tough loss and players dumbfoundedly sit at post-game pressers after said losses and dejectedly say another version of “We’ve gotta be better.” It’s a far cry from the days in which several pundits, fans, and even the players themselves thought of the Bengals as the team to beat in the AFC.
"Everybody knows that. It's not no 'if', we are the team to beat in the AFC."
– Ja'Marr Chase
Bengals and Chiefs Sunday in Kansas City. pic.twitter.com/4kWpn839RO
— Joe Danneman (@FOX19Joe) September 12, 2024
That’s not to say a team renaissance isn’t impossible. Despite the 3-5 record, the Bengals currently sit only 1.5 games out of the last wild card spot. The current seventh seed, the LA Chargers, will play the Bengals in Week 11; that game comes after the Bengals will get what is essentially a week and a half break after their Week 10 Thursday night matchup against the Baltimore Ravens.
The Bengals have dug themselves out of holes like this before, but fans will have to see it to believe it. The pass rush must improve, the play calling and design has to take a near complete 180, and the ability to put together wins against quality teams will instantly boost the fan base’s morale that is currently the lowest it’s been in the Joe Burrow Era.
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