With Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase leading way, Bengals running out of time to save season

BALTIMORE – Cincinnati Bengals tight end Tanner Hudson banged his head – not violently, but despondently, in the frustrated way – twice against the metal cage that served as his locker in the visiting team’s changing room at M&T Bank Stadium. 

No better image could capture how he and his teammates felt after another one-possession loss, one that makes the team’s quest to reach the postseason that much more of an “uphill climb,” as Joe Burrow put it. 

“Yeah,” the Cincinnati quarterback said of the 2024 season, “this one has been frustrating.” 

The Bengals were 2 yards from a clean slate, a 5-5 record and another step up what will be the crowded ladder that is the AFC playoff picture – with the real chance of defeating one of the best teams in the league, a division rival, on the road. 

Instead, Burrow threw high to Hudson on what would have been the go-ahead two-point conversion with 42 seconds remaining. A night that started with aggression and ended with more of the same resulted in a Baltimore Ravens 35-34 win on “Thursday Night Football”. In the process, the Bengals wasted a historic game from wideout Ja’Marr Chase, who torched the depleted Ravens secondary – playing without safety Kyle Hamilton for the second half – for 11 catches, 264 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Burrow completed 34 of 56 passes for 428 yards and four scores. 

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The defense, however, could not carry over momentum from the first half and allowed Lamar Jackson and the Ravens to score four consecutive touchdowns to close out a game Cincinnati once led 21-7. Running back Chase Brown’s fumble that set up a short field for Baltimore to make it 21-14 was an example of the Bengals outside of Burrow and Chase doing their teammates little favor. 

Coach Zak Taylor had been aggressive all night, as the Bengals started the game by going for a fourth-and-goal attempt from the Baltimore two-yard line. The referees whistled Ravens cornerback Brandon Stephens – one of 11 against Baltimore for 81 yards – for a defensive holding penalty, and Brown scored on the next play. Cincinnati finished 2-for-4 on fourth down, and the two misses came on Burrow deep shots to Jermaine Burton in single coverage; neither were particularly close to being completed. 

“We’ve got to find a way to close out these games,” Taylor said. “We had our opportunity. We got down there, went for two, and it just didn’t work out for us.” 

Battling back from 1-4 to 5-5 would indicate the erasure of the dismal start to the Bengals' campaign. Instead, being 4-6 makes them unable to forget it. 

“We’ve got a good football team. Our record doesn’t yet show that. There’s still time. This team is going to hang in there. We are going to be there at the end,” Taylor said. “This is a tough one because you are right there, and it felt like (you) kind of let that one slip away.” 

In three of their losses, the Bengals have demonstrated they can hang with the class of the conference – the Kansas City Chiefs and the Ravens – and lost those matchups by a combined five points. 

“It sucks losing to those guys,” Chase said.

He added: “I think we just got to find a way to finish. Every loss we had, we didn’t finish.”  

A 37-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 27 is the lone Bengals loss of the season that has been by more than six points. 

“Look at our losses, it’s pretty much one-possession losses outside of that Philly game,” cornerback Mike Hilton said. “It’s definitely frustrating.” 

None of the Bengals were interested in using the absence of a penalty when tight end Mike Gesicki was mauled or contact was made to Burrow’s helmet on the two-point attempt as an excuse. Starting left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. was out again, as was wide receiver Tee Higgins. With Burrow and Chase, the Bengals have one of the most explosive offenses in the league – twice they scored on the first play of the drive, and Chase’s four touchdowns against Baltimore this year came from 41, 67, 70 and 70 yards away. 

“Elite. The best. There’s no other explanation,” Gesicki said. “They were incredible. It’s funny how No. 1 (Chase) gets that wide open all the time. It’s crazy.” 

Burrow took 13 hits – bound to happen with that number of dropbacks – and was sacked three times by Nnamdi Madubuike.

The Bengals finished 8-for-16 on third down and entered the contest converting at the third-best rate in the NFL (46.9%). Every time the Bengals and Ravens entered the red zone, they scored a touchdown. 

The Bengals’ defense contained Derrick Henry and the Ravens’ rushing attack but couldn’t make Jackson uncomfortable after forcing five punts in Baltimore’s first six drives of the game. Cam Taylor-Britt appeared to pick off Jackson with about five minutes remaining immediately after the Bengals tied the game at 28, but he couldn’t control the ball before it hit the ground. Cincinnati lost the turnover battle 1-0. 

“We had a chance to close it out. We just didn’t. Came back to bite us,” Hilton said. “One of those tough losses.

“In those critical moments, we got to find a way to get a turnover or get off the field.” 

Since Burrow’s arrival in 2020, the Bengals have been a team that typically wins the close games during their contending years (essentially, when Burrow is healthy). Now Burrow is left wondering if those past teams had an intangible quality that doesn’t exist in this group.

“In past years, we’ve hit the opportunities,” he said. “This year, we haven’t. Guys just got to make plays down the stretch to close these games out. And we haven’t.” 

The next time the Bengals play is once again in prime time, next Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. They have a bye Week 12 and finish the season with the Pittsburgh Steelers (twice), Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans, Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos on the schedule. 

Taylor was adamant his team was better than 4-6 and every player agreed with him. They also know their record means something at this point in the season. 

“I think your record is what your record is and you are what your record is,” Burrow said. “So, we’re a 4-6 football team right now. Certainly going to be an uphill battle to get back into this thing. I like the guys we have in the locker room. I like the coaches we have.”  

What is particularly troublesome for the Bengals is to have Chase and Burrow playing at that level and still own a sub-.500 winning percentage. 

“Yeah, it’s crazy to say that,” Chase said. “I would never in a million years expect me to play this well and (Burrow) to play this well and still have a record like this.”

That's the type of one-in-a-million season the Bengals were hoping to avoid in 2024. But it's the reality they will deal with for the next 10 days.