There really isn’t much to say about yesterday’s unforgivable loss to Cleveland that hasn’t been said already.
It doesn’t matter how much talent is on the roster. Despite having a Sunday-night game next week against the Steelers, the Cincinnati Bengals aren’t ready for primetime.
They have lost their last two games to teams with a combined record of 1-8 at the time they played the Bengals. Browns QB Brandon Weeden has looked like an NFL-caliber quarterback in two of his six games — a 34-27 loss to Cincinnati in Week 2, and a 34-24 victory over the Bengals yesterday. Note the common denominator.
There have been no significant injuries that have plagued the Bengals in the two losses. They had their top-line secondary on the field for the first two times in the last two games. Andy Dalton had the same offensive line that carried him to three straight victories in Weeks 2-4. He’s had the same receivers and the same running back.
But the Bengals can’t convert third downs. TE Jermaine Gresham dropped three passes yesterday, two of them on third down. The other was on second down and would have gone for big yardage just like his 57-yard touchdown catch.
The Bengals knocked Browns RB Trent Richardson out of the game and then couldn’t stop the guy he was drafted to replace, Monterrio Hardesty.
Trailing 27-17 with eight minutes left, Andy Dalton threw a Carson Palmeresque pick-six that made the deficit insurmountable.
Does anybody believe this team can beat the Steelers, who will have had 10 days of rest? Cincinnati has beaten Pittsburgh at home only one time in the Marvin Lewis era. That’s a 1-9 record against the Steelers at PBS in nine years. What evidence is there to suggest it won’t be 1-10 a week from today? What would make you think the Bengals won’t be contemplating a losing record and a three-game losing streak for an extra week while on the bye?
This is absolutely deplorable. There is no excuse. Good teams don’t lose to bad teams — certainly not at home like they did to the Dolphins a week ago. Mediocre teams do that. Bad teams do that.
Cincinnati should be 5-1 going into the big showdown with the Steelers and looking to take the next step. Instead, they are 3-3 and trying very hard to deny the truth: this season is over.
It’s another year of looking at all that talent on the roster and trying to figure how they didn’t make the playoffs.
Who Dey Herald 