A few strides from Cincinnati’s dressing room door, the Bengals wide receiver, his helmet hanging from his lowered left hand, his voice suddenly raising, said three words that every teammate, every person in the stands and anyone who knows fundamental football was thinking:
“One (expletive) stop!”
The Cincinnati Bengals – whether the barometer is this season’s stat sheet or the league’s history book – have the worst defense in the NFL. And Sunday’s final-seconds fiasco highlighted that with exclamation point certainty.
The Bears amassed 576 yards of offense, the second-most Chicago has had in a game in 59 years!
Add that to the 502 yards and 39 points the New York Jets, one of the league’s worst offenses, rang up on the Bengals the Sunday before; and the 396 yards and 31 points Pittsburgh got the game prior and your calculator will sound like a pinball machine:
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Three games: 1,474 yards and 117 points.
For this now 3-6 season, Cincinnati is giving up 426 yards a game – worst in the NFL.
According to NFL senior researcher Dante Koplowitz-Fleming, the Bengals are the first team in the Super Bowl era to give up 500 yards and at least 38 points while managing no takeaways in two consecutive games.
The Bengals are taking that into their bye week and after that the schedule gets tougher with games on the road at Pittsburgh, suddenly-revived Baltimore and Buffalo and home dates with New England and Baltimore again.
The team that entered the season thinking another Super Bowl run was possible now will be hard pressed to win seven games.
Unfortunately, the defensive ineptitude is eclipsing what should be the feel-good story in the league right now.
Joe Flacco, the 41-year-old quarterback unwanted a month ago by the lowly Cleveland Browns, has come into Cincinnati, put a juke step on Father Time and those naysayers up north who traded him, and been sensational.
He has filled the void left by Joe Burrow, out since game two with a toe injury, and his well-intentioned, but not ready for prime-time replacement Jake Browning.
In the three games Flacco has started for the Bengals – including a win over Pittsburgh just five days after walking in the door – the 18-year veteran has played the best football of his career.
He’s thrown for 1,254 yards and 11 touchdowns. Sunday was his first-ever 400-yard passing game and he did it by gritting through an injury that would have sidelined other quarterbacks.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Late in the Jets’ game, he was sacked and severely strained the AC joint in his right throwing shoulder. He managed to practice only part of one day last week and yet he had a whopping 47 pass attempts – completing 31 – against the Bears.
“What Joe Flacco did for us this week you’ll never forget,” said head coach Zac Taylor. “He could barely lift his arm this week and he’s willing to go put himself out there for a bunch of teammates he’s known for three weeks.
“I’m sure he’s going to be in a ton of pain tomorrow and we’ll give him 10 days off (with the bye week) and see if he can come back and do it again.”
Bengals center Ted Karras echoed those thoughts:
“(Flacco) is a grinder. He’s a future Hall of Famer. The guy goes out there – you should see his frickin’ AC, it’s crazy – and throws for what 500?....475?
“C’mon Man, you can’t ask for more than that from your Q. What a great addition to this team.”
But, thanks to the ineptitude of the defensive unit, its subtraction erased all that great addition.
And that was never more evident than on the play that gave the Bears their victory.
‘Make one play’
Flacco seemingly had pulled off a miracle, erasing the Bears’ late game 14-point lead with two touchdown passes in 49 seconds.
He completed a 23-yard TD pass to tight end Noah Fant and then connected with Tee Higgins (who had two earlier touchdown catches) for a two-point conversion.
After the Bengals recovered an onsides kick – thanks to the muscle and savvy of veteran linebacker Oren Burks – Flacco then threw a nine-yard scoring strike to Andrei Iosivas with 54 seconds left.
On the sideline, Karras told his offensive mates: “Sit down, this one’s not over.”
He seemed to know what everyone else would quickly find out.
After Bears quarterback Caleb Williams scrambled 14 yards on a third-and-10 situation from his own 28 with 35 seconds left, he then passed over the middle to rookie tight end Colston Loveland who was surrounded by three defenders.
Make that three Bengals players ... there was no defense.
Bengals safety Jordan Battle simply rammed into Loveland with his shoulder and then fell to the ground.
Fellow safety Geno Stone grabbed the tight end, but then spun around him like he was a kid twirling around a Maypole.
The third cornerback, Josh Newton, was two steps behind and never could catch the 6-foot-6, 241-pound Loveland who completed the 58-yard touchdown play with 17 seconds left.
According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the Bengals missed 15 tackles for an additional 133 yards Sunday, including 35 on Loveland’s TD.
The team entered Sunday’s game with 94 missed tackles for 645 yards – both stats leading the NFL.
That prompted Chase’s exasperated: “One (expletive) stop!”
It was a sentiment that rippled through this team afterward and though some will try to tell you otherwise, you can see fractures in this team’s unity and resolve.
Ever the public optimist, even Taylor was flummoxed when he entered the media room after the game.
“I can’t believe it,” he mumbled to no one in particular. “I can’t believe it. The game was right there and all we have to do is make one play.”
Running back Chase Brown was of the same mind – but more profane – as he stood at his locker:
“Finish the (expletive) play! Just end it. Just end the (expletive) game!
“Play up to your standards when it’s your opportunity to strap somebody up or make the (expletive) tackle or whatever it is…Do it!”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
A few stalls away Ja’Marr Chase finally had enough of the questions about the defense:
“I’m getting tired of y’all asking me about defensive stops. I’m an offensive player … Ask the defense about that.”
The media would have, but just as they were AWOL on the field, most of the defensive guys were a no-show in the dressing room afterward.
Several either hid in the training room or somewhere else. A couple exited the dressing quarters as fast as they could get their clothes on.
Many of those who did show up refused comment.
I didn’t witness this because I was talking to Flacco in another room, but some media members reported at least a couple of defensive linemen standing at their locker and laughing as they dismissively told inquisitors, “I’ll catch you on Monday.”
I wouldn’t count on it. They couldn’t catch anybody on Sunday, so why would Monday be different?
‘The guy is tough’
One defensive guy who was stand-up was Burks, who is new to the team this year after his first seven seasons in Green Bay, San Francisco and then last year in Philadelphia, where he won a Super Bowl ring.
Not only did he recover the onside kick, but he made a crushing block that helped spring Charlie Jones who opened the game for the Bengals with a 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
As he talked about trying to turn things around after this collapse, Burks used Flacco as an example:
“The guy is tough. The guy has been playing in the league a long time and there’s a reason why.
“He came in today off that AC (injury) and showed how much he’s committed to giving his best.
“For the rest of us, we need to look at that. That should inspire us to give a little more.”
Across the room Karras was asked what, as a captain, could he do to keep the locker room from fracturing.
“I’m not going to say anything to anyone right now,” he said. “I’ll let everyone be raw in their own heads.
“We’ll let the city do the finger pointing. I’m sure there’s enough to go around.”
There should be some finger-pointing.
This isn’t all on new defensive coordinator Al Golden, though his plan has been a flop.
Part of the problem now is the hip injury to premier pass rusher Trey Hendrickson, who missed offseason workouts and most of training camp in a contract dispute. He ended up getting a $29 million deal for this season but becomes a free agent next March.
There’s talk the Bengals may finally be amenable to trading him before the 4 p.m. November 4 deadline, to get some prime picks for next season’s draft.
As for the here and now, Taylor said he’d try to find the solution from the guys he already has on the roster. While he does that he said he’d try to keep at bay the “energy vampires” – guys who suck the life out of a team by splintering it into us versus them camps.
That’s easier said than done Ja’Marr Chase earnestly admitted:
“I’m just trying to stay positive, but I don’t know. I’ve never been in this situation. I don’t know how to handle it.”
He wouldn’t have had to Sunday if someone had heeded his words and made:
“One (expletive) stop!”
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