Bengals Defer to Winning

Never win the toss and choose to kick off again, OK?

It’s time to stop deferring. Permanently. No more winning the toss and giving the other guys the ball. Time to live for today, time to stop playing and thinking football like an ultra-conservative. Life’s about taking chances, yeah?

What’s the saying on the refrigerator magnet? Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. If it’s good enough for Hallmark, it’s good enough for me. As Bengals tackle La’el Collins noted after Cincinnati’s 27-12 win over the NY Jets Sunday, “I think we ought to take the ball every week.’’

Of course they should. Zac Taylor’s best decision came before the kickoff, when his team won the toss and decided to receive. I’ve never understood why deferring became standard thinking in the NFL.

The Bengals have a very good offense. Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase are lit fuses in your hands. And you want to defer to the other team’s offense to begin the game? Even the word sounds wrong when the subject is football. Football is about aggression and swagger and brute force. Forget taking “what the defense gives you.’’ Take what you want.

Football is not about letting the other guys score first.

The dictionary defines “defer’’ as “postpone, put off, shelve, table.’’ Why would anyone want to limit this offense that way? “Defer’’ is one syllable removed from “deference.’’ Deference is defined as “respect and esteem due a superior.’’ The Bengals are going to give deference to. . . the New York Jets?

Even the reasons given for deferring are weak. We want the ball to start the 2nd half. Yeah, why? Do you have the perfect crystal ball telling you that you’ll be leading by 21 at the break?

I have argued against deferring as long as I’ve argued against not going for it on 4th down. Only in recent years have NFL coaches come around on the once-radical notion of actually using all four of the downs God and Vince Lombardi gave them. Maybe now they’ll dump deferring, too.

The Bengals won the game before the game, with the coin toss, then went on to demonstrate why. They took the ball and slammed to a 75-yard attitude romp. Joe Burrow went 8-for-10 for 85 yards and a TD. That set the day’s tone and provided the confidence the previously sputtering offense needed.

It told the still-bad Jets that this Sunday would not be going their way.

Three more consecutive scoring drives later, the Bengals led, 20-6. You could suggest that they’d have done the same had they not taken the opening kickoff. But you don’t know that. Four scores in a row, you know.

Please, Zac, make deferring ancient history, like punting on 4th-and-short.

The W Sunday was an exorcism of sorts. The Bengals needed it as much for their collective psyche as for their place in the standings. The coaches needed to retain the players’ belief in them. All responded, in a show that looked satisfyingly like the last few months of last season.

Burrow was on it. When he had time, he tore up the Jets back seven, with intermediate throws to Tee Higgins and Tyler Boyd. He went deep successfully, too. When Burrow didn’t have time, he created some. On at least three occasions, his twinkle toes in the pocket bought precious milli-seconds and kept him from getting blasted.

It’s only a little blasphemous to say St. Joe looked a lot like a young Ben Roethlisberger, more dangerous after avoiding the rush than before.

Meantime, Trey Hendrickson had an All-Pro month in one day. Three turnovers forced, 2.5 sacks even while playing with a bum shoulder. Hendrickson wasn’t the only reason Jets’ recycled QB Joe Flacco was bad. But he was the biggest one. And yeah, Flacco looked every bit of his 106 years.

Miami is in Cincinnati Thursday night, unbeaten and fresh off a win over Super Bowl favorite Buffalo. The Men will see their first big-time quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa. We shall see.

For now, no more deferrals, OK? They are passive and weak and suggest an unacceptable lack of confidence. Win the toss, take the ball. The rest will take care of itself.

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