Bengals’ defense may sabotage any chance they have to overcome their latest slow start

Cincinnati officially has a huge problem on their hands. The Bengals find themselves at 1-4 after the first quarter of the season, which greatly hurts their chances of making the playoffs. This franchise is no stranger to slow starts, having overcome 0-2 records the past two seasons to finish above .500, but this is a different level of self-inflicted issues.

The offense has largely returned to form, scoring 38 points with several big plays against the Baltimore Ravens this week, but the defense has fallen toward one of the worst units in the NFL. Against a quarterback the caliber of Lamar Jackson, their defensive effort just wasn’t going to cut it — and the Bengals may well struggle to overcome their defense for the rest of the season.

According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the Bengals rank 30th in expected points allowed per play (0.10) on defense this season. They haven’t done a good job keeping that side of the ball stocked with talent since they made it to the Super Bowl a few years ago against the Rams, and now find themselves in a spot where they can’t stop a nosebleed, much less a two-time MVP quarterback. The Bengals have allowed 32.3 points per game over their last four games, which includes a 24-point effort by the Panthers, who just got smothered by the Bears this past weekend. It doesn’t matter how many 50-yard touchdowns Burrow can throw to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, if they can’t stop anyone on the other side they will continue to lose games.

That’s what actually had to make this loss so frustrating for Bengals fans. The offense went back to what it’s expected to be against a Ravens defense that just held the Bills to 10 points last week. Burrow was playing with confidence again, Chase and Higgins were dominating the Ravens’ coverage and the offensive line held up well enough given the amount of times that they threw the ball. But it just didn’t matter because the Bengals’ defense was knifed through with ease by the Ravens…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-07 21:20:07

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