They scored 42 points yesterday and still lost. They scored 38 the week before and still lost. That is not a fluke. That is not a bad beat. That is a structural collapse with big money attached to one side of the roster and nothing left over to stop opponents from walking down the field like it is a pickup game.
Let me start with the obvious facts so nobody can spin this into something softer. The Bengals lost to the Chicago Bears 47 to 42. The Bears finished with 576 yards. Joe Flacco threw for 470 yards and four touchdowns in relief and nearly pulled off a miracle. Two weeks earlier the Bengals lost 39 to 38 to the New York Jets. The Bengals are 3 and 6 and have now lost six of seven games without Joe Burrow. Scoreboards do not lie. Numbers do not lie. This team is hemorrhaging on defense and the offense is tired of playing janitor for the whole building.
The defense is not just bad. It is historically bad.
Let’s be clear on how ugly this is. You do not give up 576 yards at home in a game and then shrug and blame a single fluke drive. This is not a single bad series. This is a pattern of missed tackles, blown assignments, and personnel choices that left the roster thin and exposed when injuries hit. The Bengals entered the Bears game ranked among the NFL’s worst in total defense and they looked every inch of that ranking Sunday.
Opponents are moving the ball at will. Chunk plays are happening every down. Rushing lanes open up like they are staffed by a travel agency. The team is failing at fundamentals and situational football. Fourth quarter defense has been a fantasy for this group. When your receivers are yelling for “one stop” in the tunnel after the game, you have moved past coaching excuses and into cultural rot.
The offense is doing everything it can and still getting buried.
This is the maddening part. The offense has not been the problem. It has been the only thing keeping this franchise from looking like a freefall. With Burrow out the unit plugged in Joe Flacco, and Flacco played like he was back in 2010. He shredded the Bears for 470 yards and four touchdown passes. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins combined for massive yardage. Charlie Jones opened the scoring with a 98 yard kickoff return. The offense put up 42 points and lost.
That sentence should terrify any Bengals fan who still believes this team can coast on offensive brilliance. You cannot outscore your own defense forever.
Locker room tension is real and loud.
After the game Ja’Marr Chase lost patience on his walk back to the locker room. He said what every viewer was screaming at their TV. “One f—— stop.” Running back Chase Brown backed it up saying the defense needed to finish the damn game. That kind of public frustration is a signal. Elite teams do not let their stars air grievances like that in public and keep winning. Either the group snaps together or it splinters. Right now the locker room looks closer to splintering.
Money talks and the books are whispering to the defense to take a hike.
This roster is top heavy. Joe Burrow’s contract is massive. Ja’Marr Chase got a huge extension. Tee Higgins got paid. Those are investments you make when you believe a championship window is open, but they have consequences. Cap space is finite. When you spend big on your offense and hand out long deals to splashy names you leave less margin for a defense that needs starting-caliber players and veteran depth more than it needs a gadget rotational piece.
Put numbers behind that. Burrow’s extension is a five year, $275 million deal with roughly $219 million guaranteed. Ja’Marr Chase signed a four year, $161 million extension. Tee Higgins signed a four year, $115 million deal. Trey Hendrickson’s cap hit sits north of $25 million after reported restructuring. Those are real dollars and real constraints. When the ledger is weighted with those figures you do not have a lot of flexibility to patch a defense that is missing tackles and collapsing late.
Hendrickson is the obvious trade candidate and your most valuable defensive asset.
Trey Hendrickson remains the most tangible defensive asset on the roster. He generates pressure, wins his matchups, and is tradeable. Fans will scream if you move him. I get it. He matters. But if the front office refuses to turn that asset into multiple starting defenders, you will get more seasons like this.
The argument for keeping Hendrickson is emotional and defensible. The argument for trading him is pragmatic and possibly necessary. If the Bengals want a defense that can tackle, stop third downs, and survive injuries they have to create cap and asset mobility. That means risk. That means pain. That means trading a beloved edge rusher if the return is real starters or a high pick and not just minor bench pieces.
Roster construction equals lazy budgeting in expensive clothes.
You can build a championship roster with stars on one side. The Chiefs do it with Patrick Mahomes and a deep supporting cast. The trick is balance and planning. The Bengals paid for splash plays and then skimped on the rest. Depth, reliability, and tackling technique do not buy themselves. They are acquired through the draft, through shrewd free agent deals, and through not paying inflated market rates to marginal role players just to keep stars happy.
If Chase wants more paydays for offensive crew, fine. But that also means he should be part of the ask to structure deals that give the front office latitude to pay for defense. Advocate for a system that keeps your big receivers and still signs veteran defenders. Do not act surprised when the cap bites.
Burrow being out is a compounding disaster not the root cause.
Yes Joe Burrow is arguably the best quarterback in football when healthy. He is expensive and hurt. His contract is guaranteed which leaves the team carrying that financial weight whether he plays or not. That pushed the Bengals into emergency mode when he went down. The team moved for Joe Flacco and watched Flacco perform admirably. Flacco is a stopgap who has delivered and put the offense on his back. But even Flacco’s renaissance does nothing to fix the defense’s inability to stop a tailback or hold a third down in the fourth quarter.
So yes, Burrow’s health matters. But the defense was bad before this string of injuries and it will still be bad after unless Cincinnati stops pretending it can paper over fundamental problems with highlight catches.
Concrete moves that change the trajectory
Keep Burrow, Chase and Higgins. I am not trading the offense’s core unless you find a mountain of value that directly replaces the production you lose. Those three are the reason this roster has a window. But then be ruthless everywhere else.
Trade Hendrickson if the return is real starters or a high pick. Use his market value to sign immediate-impact defenders who tackle. Do not take pennies for him. Demand quality pieces.
Draft for defense like your season depends on it. Prioritize immediate-impact defenders who tackle. Get a nickel corner who can cover and hit. Invest in a safety who can patrol the middle and tackle reliably. Stop drafting for upside and start drafting for immediate competence.
Restructure and rework contracts to smooth cap hits. Use restructures, void years, and practical cap engineering so you can buy the defense without crippling the offense. Have honest conversations with players about long term plans. If the front office refuses to engage in realistic cap management you will keep watching offenses score 38 and 42 points and still lose.
Hold the coaching staff accountable. If tackling fundamentals are not fixed in short order make changes. That is not mean. That is realistic. You cannot let a unit continue to fail at the basics and expect the record to look pretty.
Stat-driven inserts to add bite on publish
Add a small table that readers can screenshot. Show points scored versus points allowed this season, the two games in question highlighted. Add third down defense ranking and red zone defense percentage. Add fourth quarter points allowed. Those numbers make the argument visual and undeniable.
Add a compact contracts table. Show Burrow, Chase, Higgins and Hendrickson with yearly cap hits for 2025. People understand money. Show the math and the trade offs.
Final truth
This roster has a Super Bowl core on offense and a backyard band on defense. That will get you highlight reels and depressing standings. The offense is carrying the team right now and the players are tired of doing that job alone. Ja’Marr Chase saying “one stop” in the locker room was not theater. It was a test. The front office can answer that test with trade action, better cap moves, and immediate defensive investment or keep pretending this is a fixable coaching hiccup.
If they do not act the next two seasons will be a slog. If they trade Hendrickson and draft and sign defenders who tackle they might salvage the window without gutting the offense. This is not about firing feel-good statements and doing PR. This is roster surgery, budget honesty, and culture change. Do that or accept the decline.
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