In what was supposed to be a gimme at home (at least perception wise), the Cincinnati Bengals put up a lackluster and embarrassing effort in losing at home to the New England Patriots 16-10 in their season opener. This is the 3rd straight season where the Bengals lost their opener, now going 1-10 in weeks 1-2 under head coach Zac Taylor. 

This one, however, is the definition of embarrassing, listless, pathetic, disgraceful, and inexcusable. 

From the start, the Bengals played as if they had no sense of urgency on all three phases (offense, defense, and special teams).  For a team that gave up the most yards per play last season, Sunday afternoon wasn’t any different as the Patriots punched it down their throats for 170 rush yards. This comes from the intentional negligence from the Bengals organization to the “Bengals Community” to address the need to fill the defensive tackle that saw both Larry Ogunjobi and DJ Reader leave during free agency the past two years. They decided to go the draft route by drafting Kris Jenkins to filled a void, but he was sidelined with a thumb injury for this game.

Offensively, the Bengals had a “we’ll take what’s given” approach because they barely had any big plays down the field, given the offensive weapons they had on the field.  A dropped TD by Mike Gesecki and a fumble by Tanner Hudson as he had a sure touchdown before it was punched out by Patriots safety Kyle Dugger. Starting QB Joe Burrow went 21-29 for 164 yards, but only average 5.7 yards per attempt, which is just inexcusable for a QB the Bengals made a giant investment in through the remainder of the 2020s decade. The lone bright spot, if any, was Zack Moss getting 63 total yards and the teams lone TD on their “good” offensive drive of the entire game.

With their giant week 2 match-up at Kansas City coming up against the defending Back-to-Back Super Bowl Champion Kansas CIty Chiefs, the Bengals will have their work cut out for them after being just outright lifeless and pathetic on Sunday afternoon. While everyone in the “Bengals Community” were so fixated and obsessed on an “all orange” scene in Cincinnati, they seemed to blatantly ignore the real issue, which was the actual play on the field. 

The performance spoke for itself on Sunday. Time to be serious or face another year of missing the playoffs.

Photo Credit; Bengal’s Wire, Cincy Jungle, Sports Illustrated