Week 13:”"I'll come out and say it was a sloppy game all the way around” -Taylor

Sunday's game was a wild roller coaster of emotion.  From both teams going on 20+ point runs and 7 total turnovers, this game had plenty of ups and downs.  The Bengals ended up losing by 19 points but the final score doesn’t even touch on the true story of this game.  Before the game even started the Bengals were down two starting offensive linemen.  Riley Reiff and Trey Hopkins were both going to be replaced by very inexperienced linemen.  Testing the depth of this group and talent level of the replacements.  The injury bug didn’t end there with Logan Wilson and Chidobe Awuzie being knocked out of the game.  But the most concerning injury was the injury to Joe Burrow who dislocated his pinky.  Luckily for Bengals fans this seems to be the least concerning injury for the team.  The moral to this story is a long list of injuries, 4 turnovers, and some poor coaching decisions lead this team to lose a very winnable game.  

Zac Taylor had his worst performance in his coaching career.  Four major moments really stood out.  The first was the preparation with his offensive line.  The team had to know that Trey Hopkins and Riley Reiff would be out for this game. Their replacements were a rookie and a player with 200 career snaps as a backup.  With this information Taylor failed to properly scheme protections for the offense.  The unit allowed 6 sacks, one being a sack fumble, and 11 total quarterback hits.  It's one thing to lose a player during the game and failing to plan properly, it's another to have a full week.  Protection seems to be a downfall of Taylors planning, with long developing routes and inexperienced offensive linemen, something will need to change soon.  The second moment came in the first quarter when Logan Wilson, the Bengals starting middle linebacker, was on punt coverage.  He ended up getting hurt on the play and the initial thought is he will be done for the year.  Why is your starting middle linebacker on punt coverage, there has to be someone else on this team who can play that role.  Maybe lose one of the 5 running backs on the active roster for an additional linebacker.  You don’t see any of the starting offensive weapons on special teams, so why is your star linebacker?  The third moment and maybe the worst moment was after the first TD for the Bengals.  The Bengals were down 24-6 and needed to go for 2. Zac Taylor called the wrong play and needed to call a timeout.  He then changed the play again after the timeout and his indecisiveness led to a delay of game and a missed extra point.  Taylor himself called this inexcusable and it's hard to dispute this.  Poor coaching like this cannot appear if this team is expecting to make the playoffs.  The fourth moment came right at the end of the first half.  The Bengals were down 24-13 with an opportunity to take a shot to the end zone.  With 10 seconds in the half Joe Burrow ran up to the line to spike the ball.  Taylor, nervous about leaving too much time on the clock told Burrow to run out the clock instead of taking a shot for another TD.  Taylor played scared and it showed.  You had the opportunity to make the game 24-20, after being down 24 points. How do you not count your blessings and allow your star Quarterback and receivers to try and make a play.  To Taylors defense the offense didn’t have their best games and a lot of inexcusable plays that put the team in the position it was.

The Bengals offense had four turnovers against the Chargers and 3 of the 4 were inexcusable.  The first turnover was a strip sack which lead to Burrow dislocating his pinky, that one is passable.  The other three were crippling and ultimately the reason the Bengals lost.  The first which is counted as an interception was a perfectly thrown 40 yard pass to Chase.  The play was a sure fire 70 yard TD.  But Chase had to bobble the ball, his eighth drop of the year, leading to an interception.  At this point in the game.  The Bengals would have been down 9-7.  Instead the Chargers got the ball at mid field and scored leading to a 16-0 defect.  This isn’t the first issue with catching passes for Chase this season.   As stated previously Chase is now up to 9 drops this season and has caused 3 interceptions.  Luckily for Chase his lapse in concentration isn’t the only problem.  The second poor turnover was Joe Mixon’s fumble.  The Bengals had worked their way back to being down 24-22, and were driving.  Joe Mixon then fumbled the handoff, the ball bounced once, directly into a Chargers hands which lead to a Chargers TD.  The Bengals were about to take the lead and quickly went down 31-22.  This was the fatal blow to the Bengals.  The energy in the stadium felt like a deflated balloon at this moment.  Luckily for the Bengals there was 13:43 left in the fourth quarter at this moment.  The last poor turnover happened with 8:07 left in the fourth quarter when the Bengals were down 38-22.  The Bengals were on the Chargers 10 yard line and about to score.  Joe Burrow threw a pass that was forced leading to an interception.  Burrow played phenomenally given he had a dislocated pinky and a poor offensive line, but at this point in the season Burrow is 3rd worst this season in interception rate.  Plays like this are the reason why.  Burrow could have run the ball this play for a 3 yard gain allowing two more chances to score.  Instead he tried to do too much and squandered the last remaining chance to mount a comeback.  All three of these turnovers are the reason why they lost.  They were all poorly timed and inexcusable.  If you want to make the playoffs and you think you are a real contender then this can’t happen.  

The Bengals now sit at 7-5, 2nd in the AFC North and currently 7th in the AFC.  With five games left this season how will the Bengals finish.  The main concern currently are the injuries to the five Bengals starters.  If they can come out relatively unscathed then things should be okay.  They still need to win at least three of their remaining games to make the playoffs. I think their best bet is to win the division which they currently sit one game behind the Baltimore Ravens.  Bengals fans shouldn’t lose faith in this team. This team has a ton of confidence in themselves and you should too.