The Bengals' 2024 NFL season is lost. Will Cincinnati win at home?

If you still believed that the Cincinnati Bengals could turn their season around in the last weekend of October, then unfortunately your dream is over.

Go ahead and write the Bengals' 2024 season obituary after Cincinnati's embarrassing 37-17 loss to Philadelphia on Sunday. If you want, you can save it to run at the end of the season. However, no updates are required.

A season that began with Super Bowl expectations was shattered on a whiteout afternoon at Paycor Stadium.

With most franchises, you're now starting to wonder if people are going to lose their jobs. That's not how the Bengals' culture of complacency works. So we have to ask ourselves how a 3-5 team will react from now on. It has the potential to get ugly. Maybe not as ugly as they were in the 1990s and early 2000s, but this team appears to be on the verge of collapse.

“There’s no blame,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “We have to take responsibility, players and coaches. We are better than our record suggests, but your record is what your record is.”

In the space of two months, the Bengals have gone from preseason Super Bowl hype to questioning whether they will even win a home game this season. How can anyone seriously believe that the Bengals will turn things around if they enter November without a home win? They have played good and bad teams at home and are still 0-4 at Paycor Stadium.

It should be clear to everyone by now – even the ever-optimistic costume-wearing fans – that the Bengals haven't done nearly what's necessary to try to be one of the AFC's best teams. They made themselves comfortable. Meanwhile, Kansas City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Houston, Buffalo and others improved.

The Bengals have a superstar quarterback, an all-world receiver and not much else. It will take more than Joe Burrow and Ja'Marr Chase to be consistently successful and stay in the AFC's elite class.

“We’re not good enough,” Burrow said. And to make his point, the quarterback repeated, “We’re not good enough.”

I wrote about what was going on with the Bengals after they lost at home to the Ravens on October 6th. To recap: The Bengals haven't done much to improve since their loss in the AFC Championship Game in January 2023. Wheels trust Burrow to do everything. The front office mentality: Burrow took them to a Super Bowl so he could do it again.

That's not how it works. The league is too good. There are too many teams that are actually committed to sustainable excellence. The Chiefs, Ravens, Steelers, Bills, Texans and many other AFC teams are consistently good at evaluating talent in the draft. These franchises have much larger scouting departments. These franchises are also willing to spend money.

Meanwhile, the Bengals' defense has deteriorated since the winning streak of the 2021 and 2022 seasons. The front office's repeated allegations about defensive players in the draft have caught up with the Bengals. They weren't willing to spend enough money on repairs.

Even high-profile teams must at least have a competent running game to balance things out. In the Bengals' case, taking the pressure off Burrow could really help. But the Bengals continue to sputter at this position from the front office onwards. They can't rely on their running game to get even a yard in critical situations.

The Bengals faced a must-win third-and-1 with 1:26 left in the third quarter. They were at their own 39-yard line and trailed 24-17. Zack Moss was stuffed in the middle for no gain. The Bengals tried on fourth down. Instead of lining up and overwhelming the Eagles, Burrow threw a pass behind the line of scrimmage to Chase. He was tackled for a two-yard loss.

The Eagles moved the ball six yards and kicked a field goal to take a 10-point lead. Game over.

It was one of two pieces that summed up Sunday. Damn, that summed up the entire season.

The other came earlier in the third quarter. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts dropped back to pass. He had as much time as he needed to throw a 45-yard bomb to DeVonta Smith for the go-ahead touchdown. Hurts isn't known for his passing skills downfield, and defensive lineman Jordan Battle has had time to get used to the ball. But he didn't and the ball landed nicely in Smith's arms in the end zone.

The game exposed two recurring problems for the Bengals: their defensive line lacked a pass rush and their secondary was disorganized.

Guys, defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, one of the best in the business, can't mess around with subpar players. And we will continue to see these problems for the rest of this lost season.

Contact columnist Jason Williams at [email protected]

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