news

Bengals beat in frustration after Chargers suffered another one-score defeat

Vaseline November 18, 2024

LOS ANGELES – Joe Burrow rode on the back of a golf cart, head bowed to the ground as he was driven to his final, sad, inexplicable post-game news conference.

With the 34-27 loss to the Chargers still fresh, he took slow steps toward the podium, where he would have to reflect on another night when a dominant performance was lost from him.

He didn’t change his stance when the cameras started rolling. He didn’t feel like putting on a happy face.

The days of hiding reality are long gone.

Burrow looked defeated. Knocked down by falling back for another 50 steps and the punishment that comes with it. Beaten by a night where 356 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions weren’t good enough. Defeated by a season in which he averaged 308 yards per game with 18 touchdowns and two interceptions in seven losses.

Joe Burrow speaks to the media after week 11 in LA. https://t.co/ShH7aexKWu

—Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) November 18, 2024

Beaten because he has to be perfect, while his defense bleeds for thirty minutes and his kicker misses not one, but two go-ahead field goals.

Burrow spoke softly, searching for answers that were fleeting and repetitive. His face told the same story after the game as it did during a long walk to the sideline after the last failed possession or as he stared blankly into space as the defense gave up three consecutive touchdown drives.

Defeated by loss.

This is the most frustrating season of his life. Point.

Why?

“I think it’s pretty obvious,” he said.

He beat himself up for missing a go-ball and pass to Ja’Marr Chase late in the game.

“We’re not a good enough team to … our margin for error is small,” Burrow said. “I have to make those plays. We all have to make those plays.

GO DEEPER

Chargers outlast Bengals with JK Dobbins’ late TD in 34-27 win: Takeaways

The plays on the way to the most heartbreaking 4-7 in history are now piling up like rubble. There’s Tanner Hudson raising his hand to celebrate early against New England. There’s fourth-and-16 in Kansas City. There’s Terry McLaurin’s deep ball against Washington. Failed game at home against Baltimore. There are 35-34 in Baltimore. And now wide left of 51 and 48 in Los Angeles.

These post-game moments, these questions, these answers, these speeches would erode anyone.

“It’s sickening how these games end and how we feel every week when we leave the field,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “The feeling I got when I have to talk to the team in the locker room after all these endings this year.”

Taylor leaned on his personality of positivity and belief even as the odds became more dire. He rejected the idea of major changes being necessary, despite the repeated blows to the gastrointestinal tract.

“It comes down to one play in every game,” he said. “Why would you make a big, large-scale change? That’s just panic to me. That’s not what we’re about.”

Stars and experienced players in the locker room were not polished and did not hide their emotions.

Tee Higgins, who returned from a quad injury and posted 148 yards on nine receptions with a touchdown, used the word finish repeatedly. It slipped into almost every answer.

“Honestly, I don’t think we need to change anything,” Higgins said. “We’re playing really good football… I don’t know what it is. We just have to wrap up. That’s the word. That’s the word for the week. Finish the damn game.”

Word spread about conversations with Chase, as his frustration over these losses was also too great to hide.

When asked what it means to him to finish games, he turned his attention to the head coach.

“How should I do it?” Chase said. “I don’t know. Ask Zac. Ask the coaches. Don’t ask me. It’s not my job.”

Chase was venting now.

“I play football on the field,” he said. “I don’t call plays for us. So I can’t really do anything.”

Ja’Marr Chase leaves the field after the Bengals’ 34-27 loss to the Chargers. (Sam Greene / Imagn Images)

Just as Burrow looks more defeated every week, Chase seems closer to disappearing completely. This tasted like an appetizer. A sample platter of coaches, himself and kicker Evan McPherson were put under the heat lamp.

“He knows how to make those kicks,” Chase said. ‘That’s why we paid him that money. To make those kicks in crunch time.

There is no hiding place for anyone. Certainly not on the sidelines when the NBC cameras caught Germaine Pratt yelling at Cam Taylor-Britt for the latest communication error that landed him on the bench.

There was Trey Hendrickson with his helmet off, yelling at the sideline and punching Taylor’s arm away as he blew past him to the sideline.

“You play with an edge,” Hendrickson said. “Everyone should do that. I love Zac. He’s a great head coach. He has done a lot for me as a person. I love him. He plays with the same intensity and fire as I do.”

Two minutes into the game with Trey Hendrickson. pic.twitter.com/VliLoTWy5m

— Joe Danneman (@FOX19Joe) November 18, 2024

Which brings this back to Burrow, besieged and increasingly broken. The playoffs are technically still on the table, but like everything else in the aftermath of Sunday’s loss, even Burrow is struggling to hide the waning confidence that this team has the run they keep talking about.

“I guess we’ll find out,” he said. “I’m not happy with where we are now. I don’t think anyone is.”