A win against the Titans gives fans hope, but the path to the playoffs is complicated
The Bengals held a convincing lead late in the 4th quarter of their game against the Tennessee Titans, and Cincinnati’s quarterback was delivering another stellar statistical performance. But Joe Burrow was not happy. And he let his coach, Zac Taylor, know about it.
Cameras caught Burrow on the bench in a heated exchange with Taylor who was crouched down facing Burrow and appearing to deliver words of encouragement to his quarterback. Expert lip reading wasn’t required to notice the multiple expletives that the Cincinnati signal caller was hurling in his coach’s direction. “F**king embarrassing,” he said. “We sucked today.”
With the holidays around the corner, this edition’s playlist is oriented on Christmas music. Given Burrow’s feelings, we know where to begin…
“But I’ll have a blue, blue, blue, blue Christmas.”
“Blue Christmas” by Elvis Presley
As they have all year, the 2024 edition of the Cincinnati Bengals did not rise to meet Burrow’s high expectations in the Titans game. Though the Bengals prevailed 37-27 on the road at Nashville, the affair was not pretty.
The Titans and Bengals combined for 10 turnovers and 26 penalties, the first time this century that dubious combination has occurred in an NFL game. Even Burrow was error prone, throwing for 2 interceptions—including on the game’s second play—and fumbling twice.
Burrow did throw for 271 yards and 3 touchdowns including a scintillating effort on the game’s first touchdown in which he avoided a pass rusher then scrambled—holding the ball in the pocket for over 9 seconds before throwing the ball back across his body to Chase Brown for the score.
The Titans victory was the second consecutive win for the Bengals, keeping their slim playoff chances still mathematically alive. Despite all the bounces and finishes that haven’t gone their way this season, the Bengals have a 12.5% chance of making the postseason. They need many things to unfold their way to sneak in the back door.
What makes Burrow, Chase and other Bengals fans feel blue this Christmas is the wasted brilliance of their star players this season. Against Tennessee, Burrow set a new Bengals franchise record for touchdowns in a season (36) besting his previous team record from 2022. The Titans game was the sixth consecutive game in which Burrow has thrown at least three TD passes—becoming just the fifth player in NFL history to ever accomplish that. He continues to lead the NFL in passing yards (3,977) and touchdowns.
Joe’s counterpart, Ja’Marr Chase, remains on track for the league’s receiving triple crown—pacing the NFL in receptions (102), yards (1,413) and touchdowns (15). Chase is on pace to break Cincinnati franchise records in all three categories and is enjoying one of the finest individual seasons by a wide receiver in NFL history.
These are the two most statistically significant single seasons in Bengals history—yet Cincinnati is likely to be sitting at home in the postseason. Over the last few months, you can see the frustration in Joe’s facial expression and body language. Burrow is clearly discouraged that the organization is not meeting their obligation to provide the supporting cast that he needs to win.
“We Three Kings of Orient are.”
Against the Dallas Cowboys, Taylor made a decision to send out Burrow, Chase and Tee Higgins as the captains for the pregame coin toss. The Bengals prevailed 27-20, helped by a bounce that finally went in the Bengals’ direction as the Cowboys mishandled a punt return in the game’s final two minutes. Burrow and Chase had exceptional games under the national spotlight of Monday Night Football. So, against the Titans, Taylor sent out the same three captains to the coin exchange. Another victory followed.
The foundation of Cincinnati’s success in this era of Bengals football has been the trio of Burrow, Chase and Higgins. In what could be their final season together with Higgins potentially entering free agency this offseason, the three kings of Bengals football have rallied around one another and advocated publicly to remain together.
“I’m confident that I think we’re going to be able to do what it takes to bring Tee back,” Burrow stated at a press conference this past week. “I know that I’m going to do what it takes to get him back, and so is he. We’ve had those talks.”
Chase also spoke publicly about Higgins returning to the Bengals. “Yeah, 100% I feel he deserves to be here. He wants to be here, but at the end of the day, that’s not in my control. I hope he can stay, and we keep this going.”
A few days following these comments from Burrow and Chase, news emerged that Tee had left his agent, David Mulugheta, to sign with Chase’s agent. It’s no secret that Mulugheta’s agency has a poor relationship with the Bengals front office, so this news potentially represents a positive turn in the ability to re-sign Higgins.
Chase himself still needs a long-term deal from the Bengals, having failed to get one prior to the start of the season. Given Ja’Marr’s historic numbers this season, Chase’s price tag will only increase from what the Bengals could have paid him before the season. Penny wise, pound foolish has oftentimes been the Bengals modus operandi.
At least for now, the Bengals three kings are applying pressure on the Bengals front office that they want to remain together in Cincinnati for the long term. To quote Chase, “We have built chemistry this long, chemistry with Joe, so the chemistry is there already. It’s all about how they want to play it.”
“It’s the most wonderful time of the year.”
“It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” by Andy Williams
The stretch run at the end of the regular season and into the postseason is one of the best times of the year on the sports calendar. And though the odds are long, 12.5% still means there’s a chance for Cincinnati to sneak in. Here’s what needs to happen.
- The Bengals need to win their final 3 games of the season against the Browns, Broncos and Steelers to finish the season 9-8.
- The Miami Dolphins have to lose one more game. Miami closes with games against the 49ers, Browns and Jets.
- The Indianapolis Colts have to lose one more game. The Colts have a very favorable final stretch with games against the Titans, Giants and Jaguars—all games the Colts will be easily favored to win.
- The Denver Broncos OR the Los Angeles have to go 0-3 to close the season. The Chargers have games against two of the worst teams in the league (New England and Las Vegas) remaining, so the Chargers path seems less likely. The Broncos close their season against teams that are either fighting for a playoff spot or have qualified for a playoff spot: Thursday night at the Chargers, at the Bengals and at home versus the Kansas City Chiefs.
This is a huge week. Bengals fans need to be rooting for Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers to beat the Broncos on Thursday night. If the Bengals can defeat the Browns this weekend, that would set up a huge head-to-head clash against the Broncos the following weekend.
Hope for the postseason still exists, but it may take a miracle. We need to believe, Bengals fans. After all, this is the holiday season. This is the time of the year where it’s important to have belief and the season when miracles happen. Who-Dey?!
Jon Bunch is an avid life-long Bengals fanatic. Raised in the 740. West Pointer, Army and Iraq War veteran. Passionate evangelist of the Who-Dey spirit. @WhoDeyBunch
