It’s been a few days now, so has everyone recovered from Saturday? In a wild and woolly game for the ages, Cincinnati somehow rallied to best the Vikings 27-24 in a must-have overtime thriller, keeping their playoff hopes alive while burgeoning the Legend of Jake Browning. It’s a shame former Jets mediocrity Browning Nagle ruined the “Browning Rifle” nickname, for Jake has certainly earned it over the past three weeks.
To fully recap what transpired at Paycor last Saturday would require a column three times longer than what I’m delivering. It’s enough to note that the Bengals trailed 17-3 against a Vikings defense that had gone 29 straight drives over 14 quarters without surrendering a touchdown, then hit paydirt three times in a row to force overtime. In the extra frame, Cincinnati won by stopping a pair of “Tush Pushes” on the cusp of field goal territory and connecting on a highly unlikely third down pass to Tyler Boyd to set up the winning field goal.
Browning somehow managed to crank his amazing story up a notch in the game. He spread the ball around to a fault, as 11 different players caught passes and nine caught at least two passes—the first time that’s happened in franchise history. He stepped up and made some “wow” throws, pushing the ball downfield against Minnesota’s “moving cow” defense designed to confuse and cause hesitation. The screen game that destroyed Indianapolis wasn’t a factor, so Jake and the coaches went elsewhere. It took a while and Browning had some bad plays, including an ugly third quarter interception. But he kept his cool and kept firing, a trait we prize in that “other quarterback” we’re used to watching, Joe Burrow.
Browning had help, of course. The Bengals ran a couple of what I call “whatever” plays—the defense can have the perfect call and execution, but the play works anyway because the offensive player snickers “whatever” and does his thing regardless. Of course, the incredible Tee Higgins touchdown to tie the game late fell into this category. That goes down with the Jerome Simpson front flip as among the most insanely athletic moves ever seen in a Bengals (or anyone’s) game.
Higgins looked like the Alien queen or a Giant Squid when he mossed a defender and whipped his Plastic Man arm around and over the pylon for six. With Ja’Marr Chase out thanks to an injured shoulder, it fell on Tee to at last become El Hombre in an otherwise disappointing, injury-hit season. And he certainly came through.
The TD before that also qualified, a Joe Mixon run where he took Ivan Pace Jr.’s best shot in the gap on fourth and goal, bounced off, and got in the end zone. Pace was obviously still pissed about it after the game. And Browning and Higgins would have connected on yet another “whatever” in overtime but for blatant—and uncalled—pass interference. Cincinnati won, fortunately, and this week’s example of horrible refereeing in a season full of it became a non-issue.
There was a lot of talk in the wake of the game that it was among the best regular-season Bengals game ever. Not sure I’d go that far myself, but of course these things are personal. For example, I highly value a 37-36 win in 2018 over the Falcons in Atlanta, when Andy Dalton found A.J. Green for a touchdown with seconds to play, because it was the first Bengals game I saw in person with my son. I’ll never, ever forget the hug we shared at the final gun. Likewise a 38-31 victory over the Steelers in December 2005, which happened to take place on my wedding day. (The marriage itself more closely resembled the subsequent playoff game the following month, the Carson Palmer Nuked Knee Game, but that’s another column.) And the 50-24 win over Dallas (featuring a 22-0 first quarter!) back in 1985 that came on the same day I visited Syracuse University for the first time, a place that would eventually become my alma mater, also is near and dear if otherwise forgettable.
Alas, there were some other takeaways from Saturday’s game. That includes the injury to Chase, who will be out this coming Saturday (yes, again!) when the Bengals visit Pittsburgh and perhaps far longer, and the possible end of D.J. Reader’s career in stripes. Reader, Cincinnati’s best defender this season by a mile, went down with a torn quad, the second time he’s suffered that nasty injury. He’ll be fortunate to be ready to go for the start of 2024, and it remains to be seen if Cincinnati—or any team—signs him to a new deal after he becomes a free agent at the end of this season.
Going forward without Reader and with a decimated secondary will make any miraculous 2021-style Bengals run difficult, if not impossible. But in the short-term, the Chase injury is harder to overcome. Cincinnati’s defense, even with Reader at his run-stuffing best, hasn’t stopped anyone this year. They’re 26th in Defensive DVOA and 29th against the run.
Ty Chandler of Minnesota was just the latest back you’ve never heard of to pierce the Bengals defense for enormous chunks. Cincinnati needs to win via the offense against their final three opponents, and not having Uno out there will make that task more difficult.
Cincinnati has won back-to-back games at Pittsburgh, and a win Saturday would match the most consecutive wins there in franchise history (three), set by the Boomer Bengals in the late 1980s. Despite the injuries, the Bengals are favored (-2), a rarity over the years when it comes to games in Western PA; this is just the eighth time ever.
It’s not like the Bengals don’t have experience playing and winning in Pittsburgh without Chase—heck, they did it just last year, the fabled “We’re the Big Dogs!!” game when Cincinnati put up 37 points and demolished the overmatched Steelers, who actually played some good offensive football that afternoon. Even with third-string quarterback Mason Rudolph at the helm for the Steelers, at this point the Bengals defense can’t be trusted to completely stop anyone, so a rerun of that game may be coming.
The O-line is the key element this weekend, as it usually is when facing Pittsburgh. The line was atrocious in the loss to the Steelers in Browning’s starting debut four weeks (years?) ago. Since then, they’ve played much better.
Guard Cordell Volson in particular has improved, at times dramatically, and that’s boosted the offense. The other four guys are veterans with an established level of play, but CV didn’t have that resume. He was the wild-card, and early in the season it seemed he was going backwards, at times dragging the rest of the line down with him. But he’s rocketed up the past few games.
Part of being a young player, especially one without top prospect pedigree, is uneven play, so it’s A) not surprising and B) still possible he backslides once more, especially with the defenses ahead of him. Volson was execrable against Pittsburgh a few weeks ago; even an average game from him, and the line in general, should be enough to improve Cincinnati’s chances of victory.
The Bengals are basically in playoff mode and have been since Jake Browning became a thing. Regardless of whether they can make the actual postseason, these past three games have been an enormously fun facsimile. Even if no remaining games approach the win over Minnesota, given where we were in November it’s truly a blessing to be this entertained.
Robert Weintraub heads up Bengals coverage for Cincinnati Magazine and has written for The New York Times, Grantland, Slate, and Deadspin. Follow him on Twitter at @robwein. Listen to him on Mo Egger’s show on 1530AM every Thursday at 5:20 p.m.
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