PITTSBURGH – It’s over.
The Cincinnati Bengals, after a 34-12 defeat at Acrisure Stadium, were ejected from the realistic playoff picture like Darnell Washington tossing Barrett Carter into another dimension.
They are 3-7, three games back of the Pittsburgh Steelers with seven to play. They are about to face Drake Maye, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Jackson again over the next four weeks.
Ja’Marr Chase and others were unabashedly referring to this Sunday as a must-win game. This final chance to right the wrongs. The math said they could stay alive if they won.
Instead, they played losing football. Again. Turnovers, missed opportunities, confusion and collapses.
Yeah, the standings gave hope before Sunday. The eyes told a different story. For those paying attention, it’s been over. This football team has never been good enough. It was just a matter of time before the math would reflect it.
What a shame. What a waste.
The AFC North gave them a gift this year. It delivered a rare chance. Hell, the entire AFC did. The NFL has never felt this wide open in late November. What an opportunity it would have been to have Joe Burrow returning for the stretch run in his prime with Chase and Tee Higgins by his side, without the traditional powers in firm control. They could have potentially delivered another AFC North title.
Instead, the Burrow injury happened, the Jake Browning stint bombed, the defensive plan became a dumpster fire and the New York Jets-Chicago Bears double debacles will go down in Bengals lore as an eternal microcosm of the 2025 team.
“Our whole lives come down to game day performance,” center Ted Karras said. “We are judged on 17 of them. This team is yet to put a complementary one together.”
Players said the right things in the aftermath of Sunday’s loss. There’s plenty of ball left. They are professionals who must keep coming to work. Focus on winning next week against the New England Patriots.
“You feel all the losses,” coach Zac Taylor said. “You feel them all. They eat at you. You know, we’re working like crazy to make sure that this doesn’t happen. It happened today. It’s disappointing. Our option is to come back tomorrow and keep fighting and find a way to get a win.”
The bottom line is that over the final seven games that will mercifully end this wasted season, everyone involved is playing and coaching for the right to keep doing so in Cincinnati.
This entire defense must be blown up. The players are not of professional quality. If things go right with young players down the stretch, and you’re being generous, you could say there are three or four worth building around. Cornerback DJ Turner is the only lock. Throw cornerback Dax Hill and any young players that start to click down the stretch into the mix.
Defensive coordinator Al Golden once said at Notre Dame, “The window to your soul on defense is how well your defensive backs tackle.”
Geno Stone getting trucked while giving half-efforts and Jordan Battle missing tackles for two years is a window to the Bengals’ defensive soul.
“I think we did a better job today,” Stone said after the game. “Overall, we played better.”
Yes, the Bengals didn’t give up over 500 yards of offense or 250 rushing yards, so technically, they did play better. That bar is lower than the Bengals’ chances of making the playoffs. This was also against Mason Rudolph, Kenneth Gainwell and a team that hadn’t crossed 225 yards of offense the last two weeks.
Just like after the loss to the Bears, there was no fire from the defense. It barely feels like it matters to many of them. That’s the deeper root of the problem.
It matters to Carter, who called the tackling “horrible, it needs to be better at all levels.” But one guy with the right attitude might not be good enough to hang in this league, judging by the early returns, another batch of which were on display in big plays and touchdowns given up to the Steelers.
In the first half on Sunday, the defense did force three consecutive punts for the first time since Week 4. Then, in bad-club fashion, the offense stagnated with three punts of its own, with quarterback Joe Flacco coming back to reality and turning it over for Steelers scores twice.
“We can’t get momentum,” receiver Tee Higgins said, speaking to the broader frustration of the last two years. “We lose it.”
The offense picked a terrible time to snap back to reality, but this conversation will still be about the other side of the ball.
The defense has a remarkable way of getting worse as the games progress. They again went into the second half needing a stop. Instead, the Bengals allowed two long Pittsburgh scoring drives totaling 10 points, 27 plays, 156 yards and 13:38 off the clock. They didn’t force a punt and, for a third straight game, failed to create a turnover.
Their 3.06 points allowed per drive in the second halves of games this year is the worst by any team this century. They’ve allowed touchdowns on 40 percent of second-half drives, the worst this century by three percent!
“During the second half, those two possessions we just got to get them on the ground,” Taylor said. “There’s a lot of opportunities. We’ve got to get them on the ground. Working like crazy. Talking like crazy. We’ve just got to show up.”
No personnel changes to help with tackling are coming on defense, Taylor said after the game.
His ability to pull this team — including the defense — through this ugliness will be part of what becomes a deep evaluation of Taylor and this coaching staff at season’s end.
The same will be said for de facto general manager Duke Tobin and a personnel department that failed to deliver better players to this defense for three years running.
The patience level of arguably the most patient ownership in the NFL will be tested.
Nobody can say for certain where those decisions will go next, but the findings will be fascinating. The facts of those conversations aren’t fully formed yet. Performances put on tape over the next seven weeks that show this lost team can regain direction will have an impact, even if they don’t mean much for the standings.
Everything that happens from this point forward will be about those evaluations and where this inevitable rebuild goes. We’ll waste time talking about Burrow’s return for meaningless games or what other historical marks of futility this defense can manage, but they will merely be to feed the news cycle.
It’s mock draft season now. It’s free-agent analysis time. It’s building blocks and pride dominating the locker room conversations.
Despite rare opportunities at every turn this year, for the 2025 Bengals, it’s over. And it’s a shame. What a waste.