IIf there’s one truism I’ve learned and said repeatedly about the Cincinnati Bengals over these many years, it’s that team and high expectations don’t mix. I’ve been proven right many times over the decades, but I honestly believed that with Joe Burrow at the center, the Stripes had become immune to this kind of cynical view.
Alas, this Season of Suffering once again proved the shibboleth to be true despite Burrow’s genius. Sunday night’s 34-27 loss in Los Angeles to the Chargers was another inexplicable loss in a season full of late-game disasters.
I simply don’t have the space (or the strength) to catalog everything that happened in this now hated building in Inglewood. I loved this song but now I can’t even listen to it, because the phrase “Inglewood, Inglewood, still up to no good” now seems like a direct shot at Bengals Nation. All I know is that if Tupac is indeed still alive, he better not cross my path.…
The Chargers game featured another tragicomic defensive performance, more red zone misses on D, another head-scratching special teams effort – another game filled with “if only” moments. My man Cameron Taylor-Britt became even more perplexed in secondary school. Evan “10-Time All-Pro No More” MacPherson somehow forgot the rule that the ball must go between the amounts for points to be awarded, not around them. Even Burrow missed his chance again in the latter stages when just one play could save his team and secure a well-deserved victory. The man I nicknamed “Atlas” for carrying the weight of the franchise on his shoulders developed a hernia.
That this monument to self-inflicted frustration took place against the Chargers, thus far the league’s best sharpshooters when it comes to shooting themselves in the foot, is just another element ironic of this season-long journey to Hades.
So, despite putting up impressive offensive numbers that, under almost all circumstances, translate into a playoff berth, Cincinnati is now 4-7 and all but eliminated, although it still, surprisingly enough, scored more points than they allocated (by one). Somehow they’re 1-6 in one-score games, and the one win is disgusting thanks to a garbage time TD and a Cleveland two-point conversion. They continue to regularly find new ways to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. If there is a documentary film ever made about this edition of the team, it will be called Wasting time. This from a team that has a proven track record of winning close games in pivotal situations.
Technically, the Bengals are still alive. Of course, part of me thinks of the 2016 Packers, who went 4-6 with a high-flying offense led by an undercooked Aaron Rodgers and a sad defense, then won six straight games and two more games playoffs by scoring field goals and getting just enough D to make the NFC title game. Is Burrow capable of doing the same thing? Of course he is. Would 10-7 be enough for the final playoff spot? Probably.
But the more likely outcome is more heartbreak, the implosion of the locker room and the loss of jobs at the end of the season. However, there is a way to go before that. So the question of the day is: As of right now, are the 2024 Bengals the most disappointing/frustrating team in franchise history?
Obviously, there is no one right answer. It depends on your conditions. I throw away successful teams that failed terribly, like the Super Bowl and AFC teams (even though I think about them every day). Likewise, I throw away crappy teams with little to no luck early in the season – many had caps of 7-9 or so, it was hard to get too excited about them in particular (those years were more frustrating from an organizational point of view, and they usually lasted several seasons). Several teams got a job or were good, but they unfortunately played in an era with few playoff spots available. In retrospect, these terms are more frustrating, but we all knew the terms back then.
My previous answer to the “disappointment” question would have been limited to the 2005 and 2015 teams, even the 2023 version – teams perfectly capable of winning it all, but undone by quarterback injuries in terrible times (Joey B. last year, Carson Palmer , and even Andy Dalton), forcing us to put up with Jon Kitna and AJ McCarron leading otherwise excellent teams in critical games. But as maddening as they are, injuries are a part of sport; the number of excellent, championship-worthy teams that have failed because of bad-mouthing key players is legion.
This season, however, is a special torture: the Bengals have an All-Pro QB/WR combo and an excellent, cohesive offense that has remained mostly healthy; there are an unprecedented number of playoff spots on offer; and when the team fails, it’s usually in the most painful way imaginable. Worse yet, the current Bengals are made up of players who have, for the most part, been successful in the past.
This season’s failure cannot be blamed on the departure of a player, a series of injuries or a new system. Nothing is new, except so many reliable items seem unreliable, seemingly out of nowhere and for no good reason. And with Burrow and likely Chase’s contracts expected to eat up a much larger percentage of the cap starting next year, 2024 was always going to be a “The Time Is Now” season.
For this reason, because Burrow’s play may be the best of any Cincinnati QB in history through 11 games and has been so completely wasted, and because expectations were so high to begin with , I hereby nominate 2024 as the most infuriating thus far in franchise history. . Supported! (He hits the hammer.)
The worst part of it all, I suppose, was that the atmosphere was bad all summer. Before the season opened, I wrote a sadly prophetic column about how the team had more questions than answers — and yet this season has still far surpassed my pessimism. I didn’t even think that was possible after all the time I spent supporting this damn team.
In that sense, the Bengals’ bye week comes at a good time, for the sad reason that we simply can’t take another brutal blow without some recovery time. Usually, it’s best to play quickly after a horrible loss to cleanse your palate. But after so many accumulated groin kicks, I can use another week on the injured list to recover, especially with the hated Steelers next on the schedule.
Alas, that means that no matter what happens against Pittsburgh, we’ll have almost an entire month between wins: Cincinnati bludgeoned the Raiders on November 3, and the Steelers game will be on December 1. there will be eight more days of pain until the Stripes have a chance to win a Monday Night Football meeting in Dallas. There’s no way out of this, because a) it’s the Cowboys and b) there’s an alternate show special featuring The Simpsons scheduled for this game, so we’re stuck in prime time.
Given how this season has gone, even Bart Simpson feels sorry for the Bengals. Maybe This This is the only way to summarize the 2024 campaign.
Robert Weintraub leads Bengals coverage for Cincinnati Magazine and has written for the New York Times, Grantland, Slate and Deadspin. Follow him on Twitter at @robwein. Listen to it on The Mo Egger Show at 3:30 p.m. every Thursday at 5:20 p.m.