No Joe Burrow.
Tee Higgins battling nagging injuries.
The defense doesn’t have the same bite it had over the last couple of years.
All of these single turds have merged and congealed into the massive sewer clog that is the 2023 Cincinnati Bengals season. They sit at 5-6 heading into a Week 13 Monday Night Football matchup against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are favored by more than a touchdown.
The Bengals being the underdog will likely be a common theme for the rest of the season, based on ESPN’s Football Power Index. Without Burrow and with a defense that can struggle to get off the field at times, ESPN has the Bengals sitting 22nd in the NFL, which is behind every team they play to close out the season.
The two closest teams to them, according to ESPN, are the Colts (6-5) and the Browns (7-4). The Bengals face the Colts next week in Cincinnati, and they play the Browns in Week 18, also at home.
Obviously, there are upsides to being the underdog. As a fan, winning is a little more fun when your team is the underdog. Also, if the Bengals do lose every game, they’ll have a top-10 pick, and the last time you gave Joe Burrow a top-10 pick, it ended up being Ja’Marr Chase, and the Bengals went to the Super Bowl.
Here’s what’s going to happen. The Bengals are going to lose more than they win, but in a game in which they’re expected to lose, they will rock out, and we’re going to have a lot of fun watching them spoil the end of the season for someone else.
Kinda like when this happened:
Remember how much fun that game was?
Winning it didn’t get us anything, it was just fun to watch. So sit back and enjoy the show!
Just Saying.
