Courtesy of the Bengals on X: https://x.com/Bengals/status/1843042927586713630

by Chris Ball

Loveland, Ohio – Bengals fans have had to watch in agony as two of Joe Burrow’s seasons came to terrible ends due to injuries. In 2020 it was several torn knee ligaments against Washington in week 11. Last year it was yet another week 11 injury, this time a season-ending ligament tear in his wrist. But if there is one thing that the Bengals quarterback knows how to do, it is battle back to be even better.

Burrow returned in 2021 to throw for over 4600 yards and guide the team to their first Super Bowl in decades, which they were one play away from winning. He led the NFL in completion percentage (70.4%) and yards per attempt (8.9). Cincinnati was 10-6 that year and Burrow won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award.

But his comeback tour in 2024 is even more awe-inspiring. He leads the league in touchdown passes (12) and quarterback rating (113.6) and he’s second in completion percentage (72.3). Burrow is also excelling at throwing the ball downfield as he also is front of the pack when it comes to passes of over 40 yards.

It’s a testament to how well both Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase are playing in that Burrow is also the highest graded quarterback on passes over 10 yards. He boasts a 94.9 rating on such throws:

There’s little doubt that Burrow is seeing the field better than at any point in his career. But there are other components to it. He has the best-performing offensive line that Cincinnati has seen in recent memory. He has fully healthy weapons on the outside in Chase and Higgins. The Bengals’ running game is more consistent and explosive than in prior years.

Take all of that and you get a Bengals team that is 7th in total offense and 6th in yards per play. The one thing that Joe Burrow does not have, to all of our sorrow, is a serviceable defense. As you can see from the chart below, the Bengals are near the top of the league in offensive expected points added. On the other hand, their defense is near the bottom in that same metric.

Cincinnati is 26th in yards per game allowed (365.4), 18th in passing allowed (214.0) and 30th in rushing allowed (151.4). They are fourth worst in the NFL in scoring percentage, in that their opponents score points on almost 50 percent of their drives. By contrast, in 2022 the Bengals had the 7th best defense in yards per game, on route to 12 regular season wins.

What it all seems to add up to is a giant missed opportunity. The 2024 Cincinnati Bengals have a bevy of offensive weapons. They are young, they are healthy, they are talented, and they are absolutely motivated. The effort, focus, and execution is present at every level: blocking, running, tackling, and receiving.

But without a defense to back them up, Cincinnati’s offense can only do so much to win shootout after shootout. When a game comes down to who has the ball last, sometimes you just don’t have enough firepower to get the job done. It was what we all saw on Sunday against the Baltimore Ravens. Joe Burrow was amazing, Ja’Marr Chase was electric, and Tee Higgins hauled in first down catch after first down catch.

Burrow has talked previously about how he has to be “perfect” in order to win games. While that’s a near impossible task for any NFL player, especially at the quarterback position, it’s unfortunate to say that he’s not far off in his messaging. With a defense as porous as Cincinnati has at the moment, nearly flawless games (like the one we saw against the Ravens) aren’t even good enough to come away with a victory, as patently unfair as that is.

In the NFL, where windows of success can slam shut so quickly, it is absolutely criminal to waste a MVP year from Joe Burrow simply because a defense fails to show up game in and game out.

That being said, there is a chance for the defense to play better and gain confidence. Before the Bengals head to Baltimore in week 10 for a rematch against the Ravens, they face the Giants (20th in yards per game), Browns (dead last at 32nd), and Raiders (24th). They also square off against the Eagles who have the 8th rated offense, but who are reeling at the moment. Those are legitimate chances to turn the defense around and find success, which Lou Anarumo can hopefully build upon before facing Baltimore again. The season is not over yet, and Trey Hendrickson, Cam Taylor-Britt, and the rest of the Bengals’ defense can make that very clear by making a statement, starting with Sunday Night Football against Daniel Jones and the New York Giants.

If Joe Burrow can come back from prior struggles to set the league on fire, why can’t the Bengals’ defense?

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Christopher Ball is a longtime Loveland resident and an attorney. He graduated from Loveland High School in 2003 and was a member of the football team before going on to become a coach’s assistant at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. He has been following and rooting for the Reds and Bengals since the early 1990s and has been through the many ups and downs that fandom has wrought over the years.

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