Martin Rogers
FOX Sports activities Insider
Probably the most painful factor concerning the Cincinnati Bengals’ season up to now isn’t Joe Burrow’s tortured calf muscle. It’s … the whole thing.
Assemble incorrect mistake, the restriction being suffered by means of celebrity quarterback Burrow is on the root of a lot of what’s falling aside for the Bengals, who slipped deeper into the mire on Sunday with a 27-3 walloping by the hands of the Tennessee Titans.
However there’s extra to it than that, as a brandnew truth turns into cloudless for a staff that was once satisfied to consider the usual family trust that it was once inching nearer and nearer to a Tremendous Bowl name.
By no means thoughts a run in the course of the playoffs; this can be a workforce that can want a critical turnaround ahead of it might probably even get started interested by nonetheless enjoying in deep wintry weather, sitting because it recently does on the bedrock of the AFC North.
“Not if we keep playing the way we are,” Burrow mentioned, when requested concerning the Bengals’ postseason potentialities. “We know we have the capability of being a playoff team, but that’s so far into the future.”
Neither Burrow nor his proper decrease leg will have to shoulder the whole thing of the blame, but it surely has nonetheless been strikingly noteceable to look how restricted his effectiveness has been, particularly when in comparison to how issues have long gone because the get started of his NFL profession.
Thru 4 video games, he’s averaging simply 4.8 yards in keeping with struggle and is hitting on simply 28.9 p.c of throws 10 yards or additional downfield. Cincinnati’s cumulative 49 issues via 4 video games is the franchise’s lowest overall since 2002.
On Sunday, Burrow threw for 20-of-30 for 165 yards, starting the sport with a power that ended in a in particular wary grassland purpose struggle related the purpose layout, next produced simply 84 overall yards from the upcoming seven drives.
Nearest life brings a probability to start out a revival, at the street in opposition to the Arizona Cardinals, however looming immense at the horizon is a late-October/early-November stretch that can see clashes with the San Francisco 49ers, the Buffalo Expenses and the Baltimore Ravens within the field of 4 weeks. Issues wish to get well, and briefly.
“I would say whenever you’re 1-3, you’re going to be frustrated,” Burrow mentioned. “You’re going to be angry. You’re going to be wanting to win games. And we haven’t been. We weren’t close to winning the game. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
When Burrow went i’m sick harm all the way through coaching camp on Jul. 27, there wasn’t anything else in the way in which of an everlasting sense of gloom. It appeared again next that the Bengals’ momentum, carried ahead from their slender defeat within the AFC Championship and a surging end to latter season, was once unstoppable. Unquestionably, Burrow would come striding again with a vengeance, signal a report assurance and all can be neatly.
Handiest a type of issues has came about.
Adam Amin and Mark Schlereth on Titans’ notable protection, what the Joe Burrow trauma way for Bengals
The repercussions are still being felt, and it is clear that a whole different vibe was set in motion that day. The problems are manifold, and they are compounding. No part of the Cincinnati overall game has much in common with the end of last season.
The highly-touted receiving unit is disjointed, with Tee Higgins now injured, Tyler Boyd strugglingto find his peak form and Ja’Marr Chase severely displeased, offering a postgame soundbite that left some unclarity as to what, or who, he was mad at. “I’m open,” Chase said, “I’m always (f***ing) open.”
As for the defense, the vaunted unit that was supposed to be resilient enough to keep them in the mix by stifling and restricting and at the very least slowing down the opposition? That hasn’t shown up either.
“Nothing was good enough,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “This is unacceptable.” Special-teams mistakes have crept in, too, and an overwhelming lack of confidence appears to have taken over.
The Bengals get a little more leeway than other teams, because of recent history. Last season, don’t forget, began 4-4 before a relentless run that teased a return to the Super Bowl. The previous year, when Cincinnati did reach the biggest game of all, began 5-4.
But this feels worse.
The problems here don’t have the look or feel of teething troubles, and nor do they look confined to the simple need to get Burrow back to full health.
Somewhere along the way, the dynamism, belief and ruthlessness that defined the Bengals last season has become lost.
Unless it is found again, and quickly, the 2023 Bengals story is going to go down as an unexpected one — for all the wrong reasons.
Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the day by day e-newsletter.
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