Bengals season ends with sadness, but not without bright spots along the way
As the year 2023 was drawing to an end on New Year’s Eve, so were the Cincinnati Bengals’ improbable playoff chances.
In a year filled with adversity—in a season in which the team had to overcome the loss of “one of the best players on planet Earth” (as Zac Taylor called Joe Burrow)—the Bengals still had an opportunity to keep their postseason hopes alive. The Bengals would have to win on the road against the defending Super Bowl champion, the Kansas City Chiefs, to stay in contention for the playoffs. Undrafted backup quarterback Jake Browning would have to out-duel the greatest quarterback in the league, Patrick Mahomes.
The odds stacked against them, the Bengals battled and persevered as they’ve done all season. The Bengals led the Chiefs 17-13 at halftime. They had an opportunity to further extend their lead on their first drive following halftime, but Joe Mixon was stone-walled on 4th & 1 at the 6-yard line. Despite three consecutive drives that produced zero points, the Bengals still had a final chance to tie the game and keep their season alive in the closing minutes. Browning trotted onto the field with 2:59 remaining, needing to engineer a 75-yard drive to produce a touchdown and two-point conversion.
Ultimately, Browning was sacked on four of his last nine drop backs on the Bengals’ final possession. As Browning’s final miracle heave sailed incomplete to Tee Higgins on a 4th & 27, the game came to an end and the sun had set on the Bengals’ chances at the postseason.
The conclusion was something that long-time Bengals fans have become all too familiar with: A sad ending, which is not too dissimilar from some great films in cinema that leave us exiting the theater with a feeling of sadness. One such notable film is Dead Poets Society, the 1989 coming-of-age drama starring Robin Williams and directed by Peter Weir. Dead Poets tells the tale of how one unorthodox English professor, played by Williams, inspires his students at an elite boarding school through the teaching of poetry. Dead Poets is an incredibly well written and imminently quotable film that celebrates the triumphs of great teachers and even pushes us to take stock of our own lives.
Most Memorable Scene:
We will eventually get to Dead Poets’ ending, which is clearly among the movie’s most memorable scenes. For me, the best scene is the prep school boys’ introduction to their new teacher, Williams’ John Keating.
Keating confuses his students by asking them to leave the traditional confines of the classroom and step into the hallway. Keating begins by suggesting his students refer to him as “O Captain, My Captain”—which is taken from a Walt Whitman poem—and his first lesson is about “Carpe Diem,” which is Latin for “Seize the Day.”
He then asks his students to peruse the old photos of past Welton Academy students and see the similarities between themselves and these students from days gone by. “Did they wait until it was too late to make from their lives even one iota of what they were capable of? Because you see, gentleman, these boys are now fertilizing daffodils.”
Keating asks the boys to lean into the photos to hear the ghosts’ whispers then reiterates “Seize the day boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” The scene is an incredible introduction to Williams’ character and sets the tone for the journey both the students and us, as movie-goers, are about to embark on under Keating’s inspiring tutelage. It’s a scene that lingers long after the movie because it even challenges us, as viewers, to consider if we are making the most of our limited times on Earth.
Jake Browning has certainly seized the day. Like Keating’s teachings, Browning’s play has continued to inspire.
One memorable play against Kansas City that typified Browning’s scrappy demeanor this season came on the Bengals’ final touchdown. On 3rd and goal at the doorstep of the goal line, Browning play-actioned to Mixon then bootlegged to the right. The play was designed for Browning to connect with Tight End Mitchell Wilcox who was running a drag route in the endzone. Wilcox was covered by KC defenders, so Browning decided to barrel ahead himself. Facing three Kansas City defenders directly in his path, Browning tucked the ball, absorbed a hit then spun around backwards to find paydirt and eventually the communal embrace of his teammates. It was another gutty play by Browning that demonstrated his willingness to scratch and crawl and do whatever’s necessary to help his team succeed.
Runners-Up: Trey Hendrickson’s strip sack of Mahomes set up the Bengals in good position for their second touchdown and 17-7 lead. Keating’s command to rip out the introduction to their poetry textbook is a great lesson about teaching his students to think for themselves and why the study of poetry is so important. “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
Best Performance
Jake Browning again. Browning got off to a hot start, engineering points on the Bengals first three possessions. He finished 19/33 for 197 yards and a touchdown. Browning used his legs effectively as well throughout the game picking up 32 yards rushing including four scrambles that resulted in first downs and the previously mentioned rushing touchdown.
After the failed 4th and 1 conversion in the red zone to start the second half, Browning and the Bengals lost their rhythm. Some of the credit goes to the adjustments made by Kansas City at half time as Browning found himself under duress for most of the second half. Browning still managed to pick up some long crucial first downs in the game’s waning minutes when he didn’t have defenders pulling him down. The mystery “intentional grounding” call late in the game was also a killer for Browning and the Bengals. Still, it was another good and gritty performance by this revelation of a back-up quarterback. Through these last seven weeks, Browning has definitely made his mark and solidified his opportunity for a longer career in the NFL.
In Dead Poets Society, Robin Williams is also a revelation. Williams had already enjoyed a prosperous career as one of entertainment’s pre-eminent funny men on the stand-up stage, television set and movie screen. But Dead Poets represented Williams’ first foray into real drama. The director, Weir, still gives Williams his opportunities to improvise and add his frenetic, fast paced energy to certain scenes yet, ultimately, Williams’ performance is wisely understated. Given so many well written lines and monologues to deliver throughout the film, Williams crushes it with each opportunity. The role of Keating led to an Academy Award nomination for Williams and opened the door for him to take on more dramatic roles.
Runner-Up: There was uncertainty at the beginning of the season if he’d even return this year, but Joe Mixon has been so important to the Bengals’ offense this season and his performance against Kansas City—which included a touchdown—is another example. Robert Sean Leonard’s turn as Neil Perry, the student who discovers his passion for acting thanks to Keating, was also terrific.
Best Quote
When asked about the team’s future, Zac Taylor replied “extremely bright…not every locker room is like this in the league.” We should take solace in that. It was a sad ending knowing there will be no postseason this year but we need to remember that there remains hope for the future. The biggest reason for optimism being the return of our Captain.
Back to Dead Poets Society and its ending. Earlier in the film, Keating had encouraged his students to look at things from a different perspective. To emphasize this, he stands on top of his desk “to look at things in a different way” then asks each of his students to do the same.
Without giving too much away for those who haven’t seen it, Keating is eventually dismissed by the school administration towards the film’s end and Keating’s English class has been taken over by the school’s conformist head administrator. Upon returning to collect his belongings in the midst of class, Keating is saluted by his students with an emotional sendoff. The students stand upon their desks as a gesture to Keating and an act of defiance to their administration, while calling out in appreciation to their beloved teacher “O Captain, My Captain.” It’s a sad yet hopeful ending. Much like this season for the Bengals.
Joe Burrow will be back in 2024. “O Captain, My Captain.”
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
