CINCINNATI — Four weeks into the season, the Bengals are starting to repeat themselves. The details change, but the same problems keep finding new ways to show up.
Cincinnati lost another game Sunday that it had every opportunity to win. The offensive line had problems protecting Joe Burrow, penalties repeatedly made life more difficult, and the Bengals spent much of the afternoon overcoming mistakes of their own making.
There was some good mixed in, particularly from a roster stretched almost comically thin at a couple of positions. But after a 22-17 loss to Jacksonville dropped Cincinnati to 2-2, this edition of The Good, the Bad & the Ugly feels a little like the broken-record version.
Unfortunately, we have discussed some of these things before.
The Good: Depth
If there is one genuinely encouraging thing to take from Sunday, it is that Cincinnati’s depth held up remarkably well considering what happened to the roster.
The receiver room was already thin before kickoff. Andrei Iosivas is on injured reserve, and Colbie Young was inactive with a knee injury. Then Ja’Marr Chase left in the second quarter with a concussion, and Tee Higgins exited late with an adductor injury.
By the end of the game, Burrow was trying to lead a game-winning drive with Dohnte Meyers and Mitch Tinsley as his primary wide receivers. Tinsley had rejoined the Bengals only days earlier after spending time on Houston’s practice squad, while Meyers entered the season much further down the depth chart than Cincinnati ever intended him to be.
They still made plays. Meyers finished with seven catches for 82 yards, while Tinsley made several critical receptions late, including a 29-yarder on Cincinnati’s final possession. With Chase gone and Higgins unavailable for part of the fourth quarter, the Bengals still moved the ball to the Jacksonville 12 with a chance to win.
The safety room faced a similar problem. Bryan Cook and Kyle Dugger were both inactive, leaving Cincinnati relying heavily on P.J. Jules and Russ Yeast alongside Jordan Battle.
There are certainly plays everyone in that secondary would like back, but Jacksonville finished with only 323 total yards, and Trevor Lawrence threw for 227 yards and one touchdown. Considering how depleted Cincinnati was on the back end, that group held together pretty well.
Nobody wants to rely on third- and fourth-string players for extended stretches, but injuries are part of football. Sunday gave Cincinnati at least some evidence that when those players are needed, the bottom of the roster can hold up.
The Bad: Orlando Brown Jr.
Here we are again.
Orlando Brown Jr. had another uneven afternoon protecting Burrow’s blind side. He was called for offensive holding late in the third quarter, wiping out a Burrow scramble and putting Cincinnati into a third-and-16 situation.
One penalty does not define an offensive lineman’s afternoon, but this is becoming more concerning because it is no longer an isolated performance. Brown has had rough moments throughout the first month of the season, and Cincinnati cannot afford for its highest-profile offensive lineman to be part of the protection problem.
Burrow threw the ball 54 times Sunday, and when an offense becomes that dependent on the passing game, the tackles have to hold up. There are going to be pressures, and there are going to be difficult matchups. Nobody expects Burrow to stand in a perfectly clean pocket on every dropback.
But Brown has not been consistent enough through four games. Too often, Burrow has had to move, speed up his process, or take a hit before the play has a chance to develop. At other times, the result has simply been a sack.
Orlando has to be better, and that’s really all there is to say.
The Ugly: Penalties
If this section feels familiar, that is because it should.
The Bengals committed 11 penalties for 108 yards Sunday. Eleven penalties for 108 yards.
The mistakes came from everywhere. There was a delay of game on the opening drive, holding penalties on offense, a defensive pass interference call, a too-many-men penalty, facemask penalties, and special-teams mistakes. Dylan Fairchild had a holding penalty wipe out a Samaje Perine touchdown in the second quarter and later was called for another hold during Cincinnati’s fourth-quarter comeback attempt.
Brown’s hold contributed to another stalled drive. Boye Mafe’s facemask penalty added 15 yards to a Jacksonville possession that eventually became the touchdown that put the Jaguars ahead 22-10.
These are not harmless penalties happening in garbage time. They are wiping out touchdowns, extending drives for the other team, creating long-yardage situations, and giving opponents free yards in games Cincinnati keeps losing by narrow margins.
Last week, we talked about penalties. The week before that, we talked about penalties. Guess what we are talking about again?
At some point, repeatedly calling something “correctable” stops being enough. Cincinnati is four games into the season. The Bengals are talented enough to survive some mistakes, but they are not talented enough to keep donating yards and possessions every Sunday and expect to beat good football teams.
The most frustrating part is that Cincinnati still had a chance to win despite all of it. Despite the injuries, despite two interceptions, despite the protection issues, and despite giving away more than a football field in penalty yardage, the Bengals were at the Jacksonville 12 in the final minute.
Chase Brown was stopped one yard short on fourth down.
One yard in a game where Cincinnati gave away 108 of them.
If that isn’t ugly, I don’t know what is.
