Regardless of the Bengals’ emotions, the loss to the Chiefs shows they can still be among the NFL’s best
KANSAS CITY, Missouri — Joe Burrow stood on a podium in the bowels of Arrowhead Stadium with a dejected look of disbelief and the tone of nursing an open wound of defeat.
“As frustrating as it’s been for me,” he said of the Bengals’ 26-25 loss to the Chiefs, unable to even explain why. “I’m going to need a couple days to figure that out.”
Probably because the Bengals spent most of Sunday looking like the better team than the back-to-back Super Bowl champions, a week after they looked like a much worse team that was projected to go at the top of the draft.
Joe Burrow speaks to the media after Week 2 in Kansas City.
—Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 15, 2024
In the defensive corner of the small locker room, rookie seventh-round pick Daijahn Anthony sat outside his locker room, still wearing part of the uniform he wore for the second regular-season game of his life. His look was similar.
In his locker was a necklace his grandmother had given him, next to a phone he had used earlier that day to record video of the field. He looked around in awe at the building where he would play for the first time.
Instead of reflecting on that moment of gratitude, he was wallowing in guilt over a pass interference penalty on fourth-and-16 that turned a win into a loss in what is arguably the best rivalry in today’s competition.
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On the other side of the defensive line of lockers stood Ja’Marr Chase. After nearly a half hour of quietly getting ready and not talking to reporters, Chase stood up for two minutes to deliver one-sentence answers, soaked in the frustration of a game, month and year that had far too many complications for the usually jovial star receiver.
He responded curtly that he didn’t want to talk about an outburst toward an official who continued to use “abusive language,” according to referee Alex Kemp, which ultimately earned him an unforgivable 15-yard penalty in the decisive moments of the fourth quarter.
“I don’t like to lose,” Chase said.
Ja’Marr Chase was asked several times about the unsportsmanlike penalty and said he didn’t want to talk about it.
Referee Alex Kemp did so in the group report.
He calls it ‘insulting language towards a match official’.
Full explanation: photo.twitter.com/ZFxjUFCyIJ
—Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) September 16, 2024
Wherever you looked after the game, you could feel the emotion. Raw, unfiltered feelings of all kinds.
“We know what it comes down to, it’s going to be us and them,” safety Vonn Bell said. “It’s an emotional environment.”
These games are what they conjure up. Bell stood in this exact spot after an AFC Championship Game loss to Kansas City, knowing this could be his last run with these teammates and his last shot at the Super Bowl.
Anthony was sitting just a few feet away from a locker room where Joseph Ossai was also complaining about a penalty — with B.J. Hill next to him on defense — that led to a game-winning field goal by Harrison Butker in 2022.
Adding to the intensity was reality. That history of three straight losses to Kansas City, a third straight 0-2 start to the season and the Week 1 debacle that inexplicably made the Bengals the butt of jokes on national networks.
There is, however, another reality at play.
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They executed a game plan that should have been enough to topple the champions. Kansas City needed a scoop-and-score fumble and a fourth-and-16 prayer to avoid going 1-4 against Burrow.
They reminded the league of what Chase said earlier this week, when he called the Bengals the team to beat in the AFC.
“We have to act like it, we have to play like it,” he said then.
They did.
They shook up Patrick Mahomes, and at times, memories of the 2021 AFC Championship Game, where he made uncharacteristic turnovers and poor decisions, surfaced. Akeem Davis-Gaither stepped in front of a pass intended for Travis Kelce for an easy interception. Cam Taylor-Britt made a leaping one-handed catch for another. They turned a first-and-goal from Mahomes’ 2 into a field goal. Trey Hendrickson benched rookie Kingsley Suamataia and beat everyone in front of him en route to two sacks and three drawn penalties that sent the Bengals into fourth-and-16. It seemed to be the culmination of their return to being the Achilles’ heel for the Chiefs’ invincibility.
HOLY 😱 What an INT by @CamTaylorBritt_!
📺: #CINvsKC on CBS/Paramount
📱: photo.twitter.com/f7r9MeCGIv— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024
“We showed everyone what we’re made of,” Taylor-Britt said. “We got a chance to show our true spark.”
After a week of nervous talk about Burrow’s wrist and hesitation, he hit his new weapon, rookie Jermaine Burton, on a beautiful 47-yard go ball. He showed how he could use three tight ends as real weapons in an offense with more versatility than ever in his career, connecting with them 14 times for 151 yards. They were a potent answer to the Double-Chase defense. An oft-criticized offensive line kept Burrow clean enough, including holding the ball for 4.2 seconds as Andrei Iosivas broke loose on fourth-and-goal for his second touchdown.
“I thought I played quick and decisively today,” said Burrow, who said it was the best pitch he had felt since his wrist injury last season.
That’s 2 TDs for @AndreiIosivas!!
📺: #CINvsKC on CBS/@paramountplus photo.twitter.com/0ZZGQZu1oq
—Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 15, 2024
They scored on six of nine true possessions, only twice on three-and-outs, and did it without Tee Higgins, who appears primed to return next week.
Coach Zac Taylor showed aggression and variety in his game plan, moving from under center to two and three tight ends and finding explosives from under middle and up top. He showed aggression on fourth down, and his team rewarded him for it.
Considering the car crash filmed against New England last week, this was a crucial return to the team they were meant to be and be reckoned with in January.
“I’m really proud of the way we fought,” Taylor said. “Disappointed that we lost, it’s an emotional loss for us. But at the same time I like the way our team is mentally and how we fought away from home against a really good opponent.”
Moral victories are like dirty words around a professional athlete. They play to win, they expect to win. Moral victories are for losers.
The mere mention of it, especially from a team that has already been there and expects to play again in late January and February, raises suspicions.
“In this league, it’s all about winning,” left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. said. “That’s the biggest stat. Starting 0-2, that’s never a good feeling. I can’t necessarily say I sink my teeth into moral victories.”
Players may not like them and they rarely have a place. Brown is right, careers are built and ended by the end result. Yet there is room for much more nuance in week 2.
The season will be long and the Bengals have done this before, now 0-2 for the third straight season. In the last five seasons, only two teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-2, one of them being the 2022 Bengals who saw their season end here at Arrowhead.
Sometimes you have to strip away the emotion and see the logic. In September, you have to do that even more. The Bengals have played championship-caliber games against championship opponents. They seem more than capable of repeating their odds-beating past.
The result may be hard to swallow if you watch for long periods of disbelief, suffocating guilt, or overflowing frustration, but that’s the truth that will inevitably matter when you view this game in the bigger picture.
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“I feel s— hurt,” Taylor-Britt said. “We’re back to square one, 0-2. Every year I’ve been here, it’s the same. We always find a way to bounce back and come together and win.”
Once they let their emotions run free, they will realize that Sunday has proven that they are in an excellent position to do so.
(Photo: Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
