Ten Things: Bengals Finish With a Shrug
The Browns absolutely did not care. How much should Bengals fans?
A first and last FreeForAll Monday, Ten Things division. Enjoy the wrap-up from 31-14. I hope it’s better than the game.
Team Glass Half Full had a fun day on the last Sunday of football this year for the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals B-slapped the Browns, 31-14, dominating start to finish, finishing over .500 with reason to dream about next year.
Team Glass Half Empty shrugged.
No playoff consequences, nothing but pride and videotape on the line. The Browns could not have cared less. They played a game that was an affront to football, sports and life in general.
Lasting memories of the 2023 season center on loss. The loss of Joe Burrow, the loss of footing atop the AFC North. Mostly, the loss of opportunity. I make fun of players, coaches and broadcasters who often note how hard it is to win in the NFL.
Hard? If it’s so hard to win in the NFL, how come half the contestants manage it every week?
Maybe what they mean is more existential and long-term. Maybe what they intend to say is, “Winning long-term is hard.’’ There is no doubt about that. Injuries, free agency, egos and luck all conspire to make sprinting through open windows of opportunity an almost random proposition.
A very good QB can limit the random-ness, but not eliminate it. The NFL is the most random sport in the world.
By the middle of the 2nd quarter, Bengals up 21-0, me terminally bored, I decided to look at the roster of the 1988-89 Bengals that lost in Super Bowl 23. I wanted to know the ages of the best players. Unlike today, teams then had a chance of staying together longer than a few years.
I was stunned at how young that team was. Boomer Esiason, NFL MVP, was 27. His best receivers were Eddie Brown and Tim McGee, 26 and 24.
The line had Anthony Munoz in his prime at age 30 and Max Montoya the elder statesman at 32. None of the other three O-line starters was older than 28.
The defense had three Pro Bowlers: 24-year-olds Eric Thomas and David Fulcher and 28-year-old Tim Krumrie. Only Reggie Williams (34) was nearer the end than the beginning.
Seemed like a team primed for an extended pleasant future. But we know how random futures can be in the NFL. Three years later, the Bengals were 3-13. After going 9-7 in ‘90, the Men went 15 years without a winning season.
You can celebrate the blowout of a purposely inept Browns team that at one point in Quarter 2 had as many yards —24 — as the Bengals had points. You can cheer the professionalism of the home team, specifically a guy like Mixon. The Bengals did their best to run Mixon off last offseason, to the extent they cut his pay.
Mixon had a 100-yard rushing game, completed a 1,000-yard rushing season and scored 2 TDs. That’s a guy who can look in the mirror and be proud of whom he sees.
The whole team made it plain they did, in fact, have something for which to play. Good-on-’em.
But the fact that this team was even playing for pride — and not playing dead, like the Browns — spoke to the larger issue of missed opportunity. The Bengals got worse in a year they were supposed to get better. Meanwhile, Cleveland and Pittsburgh overcame similar injury issues, with less overall talent.
How can you harbor Super dreams when you finish 1-5 in your own division?
In the Lost Decade, several seasons seemed to end happily. In the last game, the bad Bengals beat some team they shouldn’t have and all the fans went home smiling. The following season, the Men reverted to familiar awful-ness.
This game wasn’t those games, but the bell of missed chances rang just as loudly. It’s not hard to win in the NFL. It can be damned easy, when your opponent offers its B team, and even those guys have trouble staying awake. The Browns performance embarrassed the league.
It’s hard to sustain winning, though. Very hard. In that respect, 2023 was no different for the Bengals than 1988.
Now, then. . . Ten Things about Bengals 31, Browns 14.
I’m harping on this, I know. But I swear (1) the league office should look into the Browns attempt at winning on Sunday. It was bad enough they started a QB, Jeff Driskel, who was nine days removed from the AZ Cardinals practice squad. Bad enough they sat nine defensive starters, (2) Myles Garrett included. Bad enough that Garrett was caught on camera on the Cleveland bench, literally trying to keep his eyes open.
It was this: Late in the 2nd quarter, Cleveland had the ball down 24-0, 1st down at its 25. In theory, the game was not out of reach. The Browns plowed away with consecutive, clock-eating runs. They made no attempt to call timeout, even though they had two left. The Bengals called timeout to stop the clock with 1:09 to go.
In other words, (3) Kevin Stefanski was not interested in having his offense attempt to compete. Or maybe he was just convinced his offense couldn’t compete. Either way, it was inexcusable.
The play-calling was (4) in give-up mode all day. The horizontal passing game on 3rd-and-18. The execution? Four false starts. The tackling? Limited. The Browns played an August football game. “A lot like a preseason game’’ one of the CBS guys noted.
Cleveland verily fair-caught the game. I understand teams have earned the right to rest certain players this time of year. That doesn’t mean teams should look like they’re (5) tanking for the top pick in April. This is a 5th-seeded playoff team, not the 2019, 2-14 Bengals. And as we noted in This Space last week, even the ‘19 Bengals were highly competitive late in the season and still managed to win the JB Sweepstakes.
Meantime, (6) Joe Mixon might have extended his career with that effort Sunday. It likely won’t be here, but the dude earned forever respect this year, for the way he played the game.
(7) Tyler Boyd seems gone. That near-fact seemed to affect the way he played Sunday. Tee Higgins sat out and (8) Andre Iosivas showed us why anyone thinking the Bengals have Tee’s replacement already on the roster should think again.
(9) Who did the most with the least in the North? Hint: It wasn’t Cincinnati. I’d vote for Pittsburgh, but the Browns are in the photo. The Ravens lost their stud running back and their left tackle in Week 1, and never lost a step.
(10) Your take. Methinks my summation was not great, but still better than the effort the Browns put forth. Which ain’t sayin’ much.
Glad I wasn't one of those fleeced apprx. $100 to be there. Think of all the Champion sweatshirts that would buy at SteinMart. The ugliest thing Bengal-wise was the way Dax Hill and Turner got beat by Driskel late in the game. Hill's a liability. Bengals really need to go get a decent safety and corner in the offseason if they truly have Super Bowl aspirations. A better TE, running back, kicker, and receiver are on the list, too.
Plus note: all 4 teams in AFC North finished above .500. This is a first in the modern post merger era. This sez, arguably, that the Bengals actually had a pretty decent year, especially with the loss of Burrow for most of it. I don't feel that negative. After starting 1-3, they went 8-5. The 3 point losses to Houston and Baltimore hurt. Maybe Taylor will have next year's team ready out of the gate and realize the first games count as much as the last ones. And maybe Burrow will make it thru a camp finally. Not betting on either.
Cleveland found a good experienced replacement QB for Watson. The Bengals rolled the dice with Plummer. As good as he was in spots, Browning was no Flacco. Once again the Bengals got beat where they always do: in the front office, in the brains dept. They react to change and crisis in glacial time. They continue to be woefully short of vision, insight, and the ability to adjust and change on the fly at the very top of this organization. Their stubbornness is almost criminal.
I was happy to see that the Team came out to play with nothing to win but their own self pride, and to give their fans a happy ending to a sad tale. This was enough to secure their BITS (butts in the seats) on ticket sales next season, along with the return of Joe Burrow. I say thanks for the effort and for not slumping around looking like losers as from days of yore. They continued to spur each other on like the brothers/men they have become. Worst part for me was sitting through Joe Buck's continuous draw on the word "aaannnnnnddd" without taking a breath to explain in detail each and every movement and detail about what each and every player did, or had meant to do..... or should have done. Egad! Let us watch the game and have our own thoughts. I'm not impressed with his continuous knowledge of each and every biography of each and every player and what they meant to do based on their past performances.
Go Bengals! And for this Season, GO BILLS, on behalf of my daughter and her love of Buffalo! Best comment last night on Bill's game came from Collinsworth with his comparison of Josh Allen to a young John Elway. Learning to get out of his own head and to let the game come to him with the electricity it produces as it excels.