close
close

first Drop

Com TW NOw News 2024

    • Joe Burrow is having an MVP season. Cincinnati Bengals wastes it
    news

    Joe Burrow is having an MVP season. Cincinnati Bengals wastes it

    Vaseline Posted on

    Joe Burrow is at his best. That includes Ja’Marr Chase. Burrow-to-Chase works wonderfully.

    Doesn’t matter. The Cincinnati Bengals are wasting it. They squandered it in Thursday night’s crushing 35-34 loss in Baltimore. They wasted it all season. It’s a damn shame.

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

    Even the best performing Burrow-to-Chase can’t save this Bengals 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 spans his entire career, but it seems to be closing. Perhaps the window has already closed on 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 during a 264-yard performance. The Bengals have won games like this the past three seasons. They won a lot of games in recent years when they scored a lot of points. The Bengals have scored more than 30 points five times this season, but have only two wins in those games.

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

    Because the leadership and responsibility are no longer there.

    Because defense can’t 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 at key moments.

    The Bengals led 21-20 early in the fourth quarter and had the ball at the 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 go there for the home run? Twice? The Ravens continued to take the ball 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 by methodically moving the ball down the field, running the clock and keeping Lamar Jackson off the field. They didn’t do that in the second half, and those play calls on third and fourth were inexcusable.

    Think about this: Taylor’s play-calling may have cost the Bengals this season to beat the Super Bowl-contending Ravens. Consider that the Bengals ran the ball up the middle three straight times for a measly 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 no good. The Ravens took over and scored a game-winning field goal two plays later.

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

    This must be maddening 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 Burrow-to-Chase is still one of the best shows in the NFL.

    Hard to accept that a storyline down the line 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]

    Vaseline
    View all posts

    You Might Also Like