Joe Burrow is having MVP season. The Cincinnati Bengals are wasting it

On By Littum

Joe Burrow is the best. So is Ja’Marr Chase. Burrow-to-Chase works great.

It doesn’t matter. The Cincinnati Bengals waste it. They squandered it in Thursday night’s soul-crushing 35-34 loss in Baltimore. They’ve wasted it all season. It’s a damn shame.

You better believe it now: The Bengals’ 2024 season is lost.

Not even top performing Burrow-to-Chase can save this Bengal team. Burrow and Chase got the preseason Super Bowl hype memo. But few others in the franchise did. Burrow and Chase have a killer instinct. But few others in the franchise do.

Burrow says the window to win a ring is his entire career, but it appears to be closing. Perhaps the window has already closed for the group that led the Bengals to the Super Bowl and back to the AFC Championship game in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.

Burrow passed for 428 yards and four touchdowns in his return to Baltimore, where he suffered a season-ending injury last November. Chase caught three of those TD passes in a 264-yard performance. The Bengals have won games like this the past three seasons. They won a lot of games when they scored a lot of points in recent years. The Bengals have scored more than 30 points five times this season, but they have just two wins in those games.

Because the talent around the superstars in the locker room is not what it was the last three seasons.

Because the leadership and accountability are no longer there.

Because the defense cannot stop good teams. The Bengals squandered a 14-point lead in the second half.

And because coach Zac Taylor continues to make head-scratching decisions in key moments.

The Bengals were up 21-20 early in the fourth quarter and had the ball Ravens‘ 34-yard line. They needed two yards for a first down. Burrow threw a deep pass on third down. Incomplete. He threw a deep pass on fourth down. Incomplete. Why take the trip home there? Twice? The Ravens continued to take the ball right down the field and went up 28-21. It made you want to throw your can of beer at your TV.

The Bengals had so much success in the first half, methodically moving the ball down the field, running the clock and keeping Lamar Jackson off the field. They didn’t in the second half, and those play calls on third and fourth down were inexcusable.

Think about this: Taylor’s play calling may have cost the Bengals a sweep of the Super Bowl contending Ravens this season. Remember, the Bengals ran the ball up the middle three straight times for a paltry three yards and settled for a 53-yard field-goal attempt in the overtime game against the Ravens at Paycor Stadium last month. The field goal was not good. The Ravens took over and kicked a game-winning field goal two plays later.

That’s not what we were sold. We were told that if Burrow is healthy and plays like Joe Burrow, then the Bengals would be Super Bowl contenders. He’s healthy and he’s playing like an MVP. And the Bengals have a 4-6 record and still haven’t beaten a decent team, let alone a contender.

This must be annoying for the long-suffering Bengals fans who thought seasons like this were in the distant past and might not happen again for a long time. It’s hard to accept this lost season, especially since the Burrow-to-Chase remains one of the best shows in the NFL.

Hard to accept that a story down the stretch could be about how high the Bengals will pick in the 2025 draft and who they will take. What a waste.

Contact columnist Jason Williams at [email protected]