Bengals Play Defense, Too

Ten Things: Shutdown show keeps Bengals rolling

Tough day for the Barrow kid. Maybe his calf is worse than we thought.

Good thing they took him out in the 2nd half Sunday. He has the bye week to get his game back.

Wait. You’re telling me that Joe Barrow. . .

His name is Burrow.

. . . played all four quarters? That was him in the last 12 minutes of the 2nd quarter and the whole 2nd half?

OK, numbskull, crush that empty tall boy with your forehead and say hello to Sam Hubbard, Trey Hendrickson and B.J. Hill. They’d be happy to introduce you to their special Geno Smith Treatment.

The Bengals beat Seattle Sunday without Burrow’s brilliance, against a playoff-quality team. On the rare days when Burrow’s sun doesn’t shine, the defense and its Captain Courageous, Lou Anarumo, are capable of making the difference. It’s what very good teams do.

That’s the half-full way to look at it.

What’s the other way, Johnny Positive?

That Seattle’s good-not-great D found a secret-sauce way to tame the Cincinnati lion. The first two Bengals drives were so textbook, the pages of Zac Taylor’s game plan should be over-nighted to Canton. Perfection is impossible in the NFL. If it weren’t, perfection would look like those initial TD marches.

Then. . . nothing.

After Cincinnati went up 14-7 with 12:20 to play in the 1st half, the offense left the building. You can be certain SF coaches will be wearing that how-to video for the next 14 days.

But that’s a problem for a week from Sunday. As the (mindless) experts say, “It’s hard to win in this league.’’ So let’s discuss Ten Things about the W.