Since Joe Burrow came to town, we’ve learned to expect a few kinds of Bengals defeats. Excruciatingly close losses at the gun. The defense refusing to do its part in shootouts. The occasional stinkeroo traceable to Burrow’s physical impairment.
But Sunday’s pathetic no-show against the Ravens, a 24-0 whitewash that officially eliminated Cincinnati from playoff contention, was a new, and scary, experience. For the first time in Burrow’s career, he seemed disinterested in playing, and most of his teammates followed suit. Was it a continuation of his appearance on In Treatment, when he mused to the media in “what’s it all about” language? Was it Sunday’s deep freeze, one of the coldest games in Paycor Stadium history? The uncleared seats in the building? The long lines at the entrance gates? The overnight shift from fiery Sagittarius to more placid Capricorn?
Anything is possible, given how utterly unenthusiastic Burrow and the Bengals seemed in playing their detested rivals, whom they’d hammered in a seemingly tide-turning Thanksgiving night game two weeks earlier. From misdiagnoses at the line of scrimmage to poor throws to his buddy Ja’Marr Chase (who played his worst game in stripes), Burrow looked more like Akili Smith or David Klingler than the franchise quarterback we know and love and he’s paid to be.
I began to make up lurid scenarios in my mind to explain it all. Were the thugs who burgled Burrow’s home last December demanding blackmail for the return of some priceless item, like the Batmobile? Had he reached out to Ryan Day, the Ohio State head coach who recruited Burrow to Columbus and was his QB coach before Joe transferred to LSU, to gauge his interest in taking over the Bengals job and been rebuffed? Did the Ravens pull an old Lawrence Taylor move and send escorts to the Bengals team hotel Saturday night? Anything is possible after that “performance.”
To his credit, Burrow owned the horror, rightfully pointing the finger at himself for the wretched afternoon. Hey, no player is perfect—even Patrick Mahomes, who somehow had a worse day than Burrow, saw his team eliminated as he was carted off the field with a torn ACL. The man I’ve called Atlas repeatedly in this column for his ability to hoist the entire franchise (and city) on his shoulders is allowed to feel the weight on occasion. Especially as he must wonder whether the Bengals can pull themselves out of this nosedive before crashing to Earth.
That’s fodder for a later column. We still have three long weeks of a regular season to finish first. That begins Sunday in Miami, where the Bengals will encounter hot and humid conditions that should feel delicious after the Arctic chill in Cincinnati. They’re also facing a backup quarterback. Tua Tagovailoa, who might well be the Bengals QB had they pulled out that memorable overtime game in South Beach back in 2019, has been benched, $212 million contract extension be damned, after a brutal Monday night performance in Pittsburgh. His replacement is rookie Quinn Ewers, a familiar name around here due to his brief spell at Ohio State, where he took two kneel-down snaps before transferring to Texas. (By contrast, fellow transfer Burrow is a through and through Buckeye.)
As I have long bemoaned in this space, Cincinnati has a deplorable track record of making rookie and backup QBs look like All-Pros when facing the Bengals, only to regress to their natural awfulness subsequent. Justin Fields was a notable example earlier this season. So while Ewers being good longterm is unlikely, there’s no reason he can’t look good against this Bengals defense, which has shown occasional signs of improvement and is no longer historically awful but remains last in the NFL by DVOA.
The game should come down to whether or not Miami’s rushing attack, held to 63 yards by Pittsburgh but still sixth in the NFL by DVOA, runs free against Cincinnati’s 30th-ranked rush defense, regardless of the fact that the Bengals will assuredly stack the box and dare Ewers to beat them with his arm.
Of course, there is a more existential question at play: Should the Bengals really try to win at all? That starts with playing Burrow. Zac Taylor, whose job may very well ride on the results of these next three games (even with the secret “extra year” on his contract having been revealed this week by Paul Dehner Jr. in The Athletic), announced that Burrow will indeed start the final three games. The risk/reward factor is on its face insane—almost worse than playing Burrow in the exhibition season. Imagine the consequences if, Yahweh forbid, Burrow gets hurt once more playing out the meaningless string. The franchise might not ever recover.
Then there is the draft to consider. It’s not as clear cut as it was back in 2019, when the team almost cost themselves Burrow by beating Miami. (I vividly remember screaming at the TV in anguish as Cincinnati pulled off a miracle comeback before losing in OT.) A late-season win streak now would push the Bengals out of the top 10 and the chance to draft an impact defender like Caleb Downs, also from the OSU football factory. That’s more of a fan thing than a player/coach thing, of course, but always worth considering in an otherwise lost season.
After the events of the last week, the Bengals desperately need a mojo reset internally and externally. Beating the lifeless Fish as well as Arizona and Cleveland in the coming weeks (and you thought we have it bad in Cincinnati) won’t get national pundits to cease their ridiculous “Burrow is on his way out of Cincinnati!” campaign. But as Don Draper put it, if you don’t like what they’re saying, change the conversation.
Victory, while ultimately net-neutral at best and potentially a long-term negative, will at least dispel the suffocating malaise choking the life out of the franchise at the moment. There is no connection between late-season results and the win-loss record the following year, but if a few dubs lift Burrow out of his Camus-like search for meaning in an indifferent universe, then they’ll be worthwhile.
My God, is it horrible to be thinking this way, when just a couple of weeks ago we were calculating odds of a comeback run to the division title? But here we are. Life comes at you fast, as the kids say, and nowhere is that more true than in the NFL.
Robert Weintraub heads up Bengals coverage for Cincinnati Magazine and has written for The New York Times, Grantland, Slate, and Deadspin. He guests on Mo Egger’s radio show every Thursday in the 4 p.m. hour. Follow him on X at @robwein.
Facebook Comments