The Bengals are running out of time to save the season, find the icing on the cake

On By Littum

game

BALTIMORE – Cincinnati Bengals tight end Tanner Hudson banged his head — not violently, but despondently, in that frustrated way — twice against the metal cage that served as his locker in the visiting team’s locker room at M&T Bank Stadium.

No better image could capture how he and his teammates felt after another one-possession loss, one that makes the team’s quest to reach the postseason that much more of an “uphill one,” as Joe Burrow put it.

“Yeah,” the Cincinnati quarterback said of the 2024 season, “this one has been frustrating.”

The Bengals were 2 yards from a clean slate, a 5-5 record and another rung up what will be the crowded ladder that is the AFC playoff picture — with a real chance to defeat one of the best teams in the league , a division rival, on the road.

Instead, Burrow threw high to Hudson on what would have been the two-point conversion with 42 seconds left. A night that started with aggression and ended with more of the same resulted in a Baltimore Ravens 35-34 victory on “Thursday Night Football.” In the process, the Bengals wasted a historic game from wideout Ja’Marr Chase, who torched the depleted Ravens secondary — playing without safety Kyle Hamilton in the second half — for 11 catches, 264 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Burrow completed 34 of 56 passes for 428 yards and four scores.

However, the defense couldn’t carry over the momentum from the first half, allowing Lamar Jackson and the Ravens to score four consecutive touchdowns to close out a game Cincinnati once led 21-7. Running back Chase Brown’s fumble that put Baltimore up a short field at 21-14 was an example of the Bengals outside of Burrow and Chase doing their teammates a disservice.

Taylor had been aggressive all night as the Bengals started the game going for a fourth-and-goal attempt from Baltimore’s two-yard line. The referees whistled Ravens cornerback Brandon Stephens—one of 11 against Baltimore for 81 yards—for a defensive holding penalty, and Brown scored on the next play. Cincinnati finished 2-for-4 on fourth down, and the two misses came on Burrows’ deep throw to Jermaine Burton in single coverage; neither was particularly close to completion.

“We’ve got to find a way to close these games out,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “We had our opportunity. We got down there, went for two, and it just didn’t work for us.”

Fighting back from 1-4 to 5-5 would indicate the erasure of the dismal start to the Bengals’ campaign. Instead, being 4-6 means they can’t forget it.

“We have a good football team. Our record doesn’t show it yet. There’s still time. This team is going to hang around. We’re going to be there eventually,” Taylor said. “This is a tough one because you’re right there and it felt like (you) let it slip away.”

In three of their losses, the Bengals have demonstrated that they can hang with the class of the conference — the Kansas City Chiefs and Ravens — and lost those matchups by a combined five points.

“It’s a shame to lose to those guys,” Chase said.

He added: “I think we just have to find a way to finish. Every loss we had, we didn’t finish.”

A 37-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 27 is the only Bengals loss of the season by more than six points.

“Look at our losses, they’re pretty much one-possession losses outside of that Philly game,” cornerback Mike Hilton said. “It’s certainly frustrating.”

Neither Bengal was interested in using the absence of a penalty when tight end Mike Gesicki was crushed or contact was made with Burrows’ helmet on the two-point attempt as an excuse. Starting left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. was out again, as was wide receiver Tee Higgins. With Burrow and Chase, the Bengals have one of the most explosive offenses in the league – twice they scored on the first play of the drive, and Chase’s four touchdowns against Baltimore this year came from 41, 67, 70 and 70 yards away.

“Elite. The best. There’s no other explanation,” Gesicki said. “They were incredible. It’s funny how no. 1 (Chase) pretty much stays open all the time. It’s crazy.”

Burrow had 13 hits – certainly with that number of dropbacks – and was sacked three times by Nnamdi Madubuike.

The Bengals finished 8-for-16 on third down and entered the contest with the third-best rate in the NFL (46.9%). Every time the Bengals and Ravens entered the red zone, they scored a touchdown.

The Bengals’ defense contained Derrick Henry and the Ravens’ rushing attack, but couldn’t make Jackson uncomfortable after forcing five punts in Baltimore’s first six drives of the game. Cam Taylor-Britt appeared to pick off Jackson with about five minutes left immediately after the Bengals had tied the game at 28, but he couldn’t control the ball before it hit the ground. Cincinnati lost the turnover game 1-0.

“We had a chance to close it out. We just didn’t. Came back to bite us,” Hilton said. “One of those tough losses.

“In those critical moments, we had to find a way to get a turnover or get out of bounds.”

Since Burrow’s arrival in 2020, the Bengals have been a team that typically wins the close games during their struggling years (essentially when Burrow is healthy). Now Burrow wonders if the previous teams had an intangible quality that doesn’t exist in this group.

“In recent years, we have hit the opportunities,” he said. “This year we haven’t. The guys just have to make a play to close these games out. And we haven’t.”

The next time the Bengals play is back in prime time, next Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. They have a Week 12 bye and finish the season with the Pittsburgh Steelers (twice), Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos on the schedule.

Taylor was convinced his team was better than 4-6, and all the players agreed with him. They also know their record matters at this point in the season.

“I think your record is what your record is and you are what your record is,” Burrow said. “So we’re a 4-6 football team right now. It’s definitely going to be an uphill battle to get back to this. I like the guys we have in the locker room. I like the coaches we have .”

What’s particularly troublesome for the Bengals is having Chase and Burrow play at that level and still own a sub-.500 winning percentage.

“Yeah, that’s crazy to say,” Chase said. “I would never in a million years expect to play this well and (Burrow) play this well and still have a record like this.”

It’s the type of one-in-a-million season the Bengals hoped to avoid in 2024. But that’s the reality they’ll be dealing with for the next 10 days.