Seldom have I felt as confident about a Bengals victory as I did before the Stripes took the Paycor field on Sunday against Arizona. Multiple factors played into this, in no small part the fact that as bad as you think Cincinnati has been this year they’re light years removed from Arizona’s horror show. Whatever else was happening, it was still Joe Burrow vs. Jacoby Brissett.
Of course this feeling was justified, as Cincinnati ran the execrable Cards out of Ohio with a 37-14 win that wasn’t that close. The Bengals, as everyone could see coming a mile down the road, are finishing strong once again, “sending ’em home happy” as has been their wont lo these many years, improving to 6-10 on the season with one last string to play out against Cleveland on Sunday. The last two weeks Cincinnati has won by a combined 82-35 score.
The question with these late-season pushes of good play, as ever, is “What is real?” How much of the defensive improvement is real, and how much is a function of playing backup quarterbacks on losing teams? How much of the offensive line excellence we saw Sunday can be sustained? And how often, for the love of God, will Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, and Tee Higgins play in a full game together?
Let’start with the last one first: We need no convincing that when 1-5-9 are out there together it’s the Greatest Show on FieldTurf. There was a talking point coming in that Chase hadn’t hit the griddy, aka scored a touchdown, since October 16, a long stretch that didn’t really reflect his play. So of course Burrow immediately got Uno into the paint, Chase scoring on a tackle-breaking bubble screen, a play that was pure athletic talent and will.
“I didn’t even know what celebration I wanted to do,” Chase said. “That’s how I know I haven’t been in there in a minute.”
He scored again in the third quarter on a painfully easy slant at the goal line against a practice squad corner named Darren Hall. Chase is now the first player in NFL history with at least 80 receptions, 1,000 receiving yards, and seven TD catches in each of his first five seasons. Pretty, pretty good.
Burrow went over 300 yards passing (305, to be precise) for the 28th time in 76 career starts, which matches Andy Dalton on the franchise charts. (Red needed 133 starts to get there.) JB carved up the Cardinals’ injury-plagued defense like a Christmas turkey, tossing to 11 different receivers in what felt essentially like a practice.
Of course, his signal throw came late in the third quarter, when Burrow hit reserve swing tackle Cody Ford, who was split out wide on the perimeter, for a 21-yard reception, the big fella showing soft hands to grab the ball and then looking like a runaway Ford SUV as he trucked down inside the five-yard line. On the radio Dan Hoard likened Ford to a “wooly mammoth,” which seemed accurate enough—must have been to tackle those guys back in the Neanderthal Football League.
With this play the Bengals clearly signaled their draft intent this spring. They will undoubtedly be selecting gargantuan Alabama tackle Kadyn Proctor, who caught a key pass against UGA this season for the Tide…
I’m joking, but it will be interesting to see what happens in the draft if a top tackle presents himself when Cincinnati is at the podium (an unlikely development, perhaps, but possible). That’s because the O-line, ironically enough in a season defined by another Burrow injury on a sack, has rounded into shape and is playing excellent ball. Amarius Mims in particular looks to have taken the leap on the right side, with a string of strong games in a row now. Dalton Risner has provided the stability longed for at right guard, and rookie Dylan Fairchild on the left side deserves to be on All-Freshman teams with his play—he’s quieted everyone who ridiculed Cincinnati for both picking him and plugging him in right away. With veteran center Ted Karras and left tackle Orlando Brown solid and signed for next season, this will be the starting five entering 2026, and for the first time in recent memory the Bengals and their fans can feel pretty good about the blocking.
That’s not to say improvements can’t be made. I’m sure Cincinnati will be looking ahead to replacing Brown, in particular. But the double-team powers and pulling moves on Sunday were things of beauty, a joy forever, as Chase Brown went for 101 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the ground. Samaje Perine added a short score and a decleater block on a blitz pickup. Sure, this was against a Cards team down to backups to the backups, but proof of concept has been there for weeks now.
So has the defensive pickup, albeit it remains far more modest. The Much-Maligned Unit (MMU) has now risen past the Cowboys and Jets into 30th place in defensive DVOA, hardly great stuff. But given they were dead last midway through the year, it’s a tremendous leap forward. Most fans will only remember the tragicomic attempt at a tackle on Arizona’s lone non-garbage time score, more fun from the bottom-feeding law firm of Stone, Battle, and Carter. But that was an outlier, frankly, along with Trey McBride being force-fed targets so he could break the tight end reception record with 119.
Overall, the defense, in particular the run defense, has been gaining steam over the past couple of months—since the bye week, really. Arizona (hardly a good rushing attack, to be fair) was held to 42 yards on the ground and never established a thing. Meanwhile, Shemar Stewart got his first sack, a milestone moment for the embattled, finally healthy rookie. With Myles Murphy continuing to settle in and look like a true first-round draft choice, you could certainly squint on Sunday and see the makings of a solid front four anchored by Stewart and Murphy.
On the back end, similarly, Dax Hill’s move back to boundary corner, with Jalen Davis in the slot, has stabilized the coverage unit. It’s difficult to synchronize these things when it comes to young players coming of age together, especially in a volatile position like cornerback. When it works, like it did in Philly last year, you can win it all. It took Leon Hall and Johnathan Joseph a while before it came together back in the 2010s—and then JJ left in free agency. Injury, inconsistency, and the vagaries of NFL life have made it hard for Hill and fellow young Wolverine alum D.J. Turner to develop simultaneously. Now, for the first time, it may just be happening—in time for Hill to potentially make big dollars after he plays out his 2026 option year.
To be clear, the defense still needs work in the offseason, but the “Clean house!!” crowd is quieter these days. For one thing, turning over eight or starters simply isn’t possible, not with the money being distributed to the offense. Secondly, the development, stunted and fitful though it’s been (even Demetrious Knight was strong Sunday), are good signs throughout. The unit is still in desperate need of an aircraft carrier inside, a replacement for Geno Stone at safety, another rush end, etc. But the results over the last few weeks are encouraging in that the Bengals have shown they have some pieces and not just potential “building blocks.” NFL defenses rely on the 10-15 snap specialty players as much as the 50-snap starters. It would appear the team has some of both on hand.
This Sunday, I have no doubt Myles Garrett, who has 15 of his career 124.5 sacks against the Bengals, more than any other team, will set the single-season record he was denied by Pittsburgh’s turtling last weekend. Burrow should just let him have it early, then go about the business of attacking Cleveland’s tough pass defense. This was the season’s opening game a million and one years ago, recall, when all we cared about was a strong start in September. How things have changed! Cincinnati won 17-16 when our man Joe Flacco tossed two picks and the Browns missed a couple of key kicks. I wouldn’t be surprised if another grind-fest was in the offing, with Cincy pulling out a late win and once again “sending ’em home happy.”
The Bengals haven’t lost a regular season finale since 2021, which came against Cleveland while resting their players for the postseason. This game has only draft status at stake—which is when the Bengals are historically at their best, after all.
Happy New Year everyone!
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.
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