The Bengals do, in fact, own the Chiefs

At least for the moment

The Bengals don’t own the Chiefs. It’d be crazy to say something like that.

The Kansas City Chiefs have the best offense in football, led by the best quarterback in football, the odds-on MVP who can do anything and everything, especially with a game on the line.

The Bengals are a nice, little team. Fun, entertaining. That kid Burrow is pretty good. Didn’t they make the playoffs last year?

No one Here is surprised to see Burrow 3, Mahomes 0 in 2022. No one in the Republic of Cincinnati — capital of Flyover Country — does not know that the Bengals have taken down the almighty KCs three times in a year.

The experts are a little slow on the uptake. Kinda like the KC pass rush Sunday. Not. . . quite. . . on top. . . of things.

Maybe now, Peter King will mention the Bengals in between the beer and coffee paragraphs. Everyone else will act as if they already knew the Bengals were capable of this. Uh-huh.

Gonna be a whole lotta revisionist thinking happening this week.

Bengals 27, Chiefs 24 re-wrote the script, but only for those who weren’t paying attention. After all, the Bengals don’t have Patrick Mahomes. “They’re going to be a tough out’’ in the playoffs, Tony Romo decided. That wasn’t early in the game, or even when the Chiefs assumed a 24-20 lead. It was when the Bengals were running out the clock.

They’re going to be a tough out.

Yeah.

Or as my pal Stacy Mitchart texted me from Nashville right after the game, “HELL. YEAH.’’

Because the NFL is the NFL, the Bengals could lose to the Browns next week. So anything we say here has a shelf life of six days and change. But this is true today: Bengals-Chiefs is one hell of a rivalry and, well, the Bengals are the better team. They own the Chiefs. That’s undeniable at the moment.

Decent chance they’ll play again next month.

Without further ado. . .

TEN THINGS. . .

1. A certain Head Mobster suggested in This Space Friday that defense would decide this game. Specifically, one defensive play. He was wrong about that.

   It was two defensive plays. Germaine Pratt made the first one, stripping the ball from Travis Kelce, then recovering the strip. KC was up 24-20 at the time and had the momentum, having rallied from 3-14. Kelce is as dependable as breathing, a future HOFer. He doesn’t fumble. Until he did.

2. Joseph Ossai made the second decisive defensive play, sacking Mahomes on 3rd-and-3 from the Bengals 33 with just under four minutes to play. The Chiefs and the Inevitable Mahomes had driven from their 25 and looked poised to tie the game, at least. The sack was pure effort by Ossai, who chased Inevitable halfway to Colerain Township before catching him by the ankles.

3. Harrison Butker’s 51-yards-at-worst FG try suddenly became 55 yards. He missed it right, which. . .

4. Set the stage for the More Inevitable Joe Burrow to ice the game by throwing a cool dart to Tee Higgins on 3rd-and-11 for a first down that sealed things.

5. Is there any reason to believe Burrow is any less formidable than Mahomes?

6. Is there anyone believing what he’s seeing from Samaje Perine? The man is like those birthday candles that spontaneously re-light after you blow them out. KC could not match his physicality. His mates definitely matched his mentality.

7. Zac giveth and taketh away. Trying the inside handoff to the wideout on 4th down from the Chiefs goal line was way too cute and equally ineffective. The design of that TD where Chris Evans was wide open at the goal line (when does that ever happen?) was a thing of beauty. Not sure who gets credit/blame, but next time give the ball to Perine at the 1.

8. Mahomes has issues solving the Bengals defense, even as it looked on Sunday a lot like it did last year. Burrow didn’t have issues figuring out the KC defense. Extra-large props to the O-line. Burrow was rarely touched and often had several minutes to pick and choose receivers.

9. A few weeks ago, the Bengals were just hoping to snag a wild card. Conventional wisdom had them no better than 4th in the AFC and if you were crazy about the Miami Tuas, maybe 5th. Now, Miami just got crushed in SF, Baltimore is full-bore mediocre and the Bills are just trying to keep up. The crystal ball is having a panic attack.

10. This year’s 8-4 is miles better than last year’s 7-5, at least this week. Better line, better defense, another year of poise and confidence for players and coaches. Only Philly is playing as well right now as Cincinnati is.

11. Subject to change, yes, but right now, these are the good old days for Bengals football.