Bengals are running out of time to save the season, find the finishing touches

BALTIMORE – Cincinnati Bengals tight end Tanner Hudson hit his head — not violently, but despondently, in a frustrated way — twice against the metal cage that served as a 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, a loss that makes the team’s quest to reach the postseason much more of an “uphill climb,” as Joe Burrow put it.

“Yes,” the Cincinnati quarterback said of the 2024 season, “this was frustrating.”

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

Instead, Burrow threw high to Hudson about what might have been the provisional two-point conversion with 42 seconds left. An evening that started with aggression and ended with more of the same resulted in a Baltimore Ravens win 35-34 about “Thursday Night Football”. In doing so, the Bengals squandered a historic play from wideout Ja’Marr Chase, who torched the depleted Ravens secondary with a play without safety Kyle Hamilton for 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 could not carry over the first half momentum and allowed Lamar Jackson and the Ravens to score four straight touchdowns to close out a game that Cincinnati once led 21–7. Running back Chase Brown’s fumble that set up a short field for Baltimore to make it 21-14 was an example of how the Bengals outside of Burrow and Chase did little to please their teammates.

Taylor had been aggressive all night, as the Bengals started the game with a fourth-and-goal attempt from the Baltimore two-yard line. The officials 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 Burrow’s deep shots to Jermaine Burton in single coverage; neither was particularly close to completion.

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

Fighting back from 1-4 to 5-5 would point to erasing the Bengals’ dismal start to the campaign. Instead, the fact that they are 4-6 ensures that they cannot forget it.

“We have a good football team. Our file does not yet show this. There is still time. This team will stick around there. We will be there at the end,” Taylor said. “This is a tough one because you’re there, and it felt like (you) let that one slip away a little bit.”

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

“It sucks 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 October 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 definitely frustrating.”

None of the Bengalis were interested in using it the absence of a fine when Mike Gesicki was mauled or as an excuse, contact was made with Burrow’s helmet during the two-point attempt. 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: They scored twice on the first play of the drive, and Chase’s four touchdowns against Baltimore this year came from 41, 67, 70 and 70 yards out.

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

Burrow had thirteen hits – that’s bound to happen 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 game converting at 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 on 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 tied the game at 28, but he was unable to control the ball before it hit the ground. Cincinnati lost the turnover battle 1-0.

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

“In those critical moments we had to find a way to get turnovers or get off the field.”

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

“Over the last few years we have taken advantage of the opportunities,” he said. “We didn’t do that this year. Guys just have to make plays to close out these games. And we didn’t do that.”

The next time the Bengals game is back in prime time, next Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. They have a bye Week 12 and end 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 every player agreed with him. They also know that their record at this point in the season means something.

“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 will definitely be an uphill battle to get back into this. I love the guys we have in the locker room. I like the coaches we have.”

What’s especially difficult for the Bengals is that Chase and Burrow are playing at that level and still have a winning percentage below .500.

“Yeah, it’s crazy to say that,” 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.”

That’s the kind of one-in-a-million season the Bengals were hoping to avoid in 2024. But it is the reality they will face over the next ten days.