It's time to hit the panic button for the 2024 Cincinnati Bengals

The 2024 Cincinnati Bengals were the last chance for a Super Bowl with the trio of Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Expectations were huge after training camp when Burrow finally entered the regular season seemingly completely healthy. Then Chase had to sit out. Higgins missed the first two weeks with a hamstring injury. While the first game against the New England Patriots wasn't great thanks to a great defensive strategy, the offense looked good against the Kansas City Chiefs and was really top-notch again in Monday night's loss to the Washington Commanders.

No matter how good the offensive may it seems like the defense is letting them down at every turn.

It's time to hit the panic button for the 2024 Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals defense is bad.

Historically bad.

Lou Anarumo came to Cincinnati with Zac Taylor in 2019 and the first two seasons were rough. In 2019, the Bengals had the worst run defense, fourth-worst total defense and seventh-worst scoring defense. In 2020, they had the fourth-worst run defense, seventh-worst total defense and 11th-worst scoring defense.

It looked like they had it under control in 2021 and 2022. Burrow has these narratives that he's carried by his defense thanks to those two seasons. In the playoffs up until that Super Bowl loss, those narratives had a little bit of merit.

Last year, the defense took a step back and got worse as the year went on after DJ Reader's injury, then Reader didn't re-sign with Cincinnati because he committed the cardinal sin of being on the wrong side of 30.

At prime time, there was a scandal against the Commanders.

Jayden Daniels was expected to be a good rookie quarterback. He didn't win the Heisman Trophy last year for nothing. He looked like LSU's Jayden Daniels (and that “easy college offense”) and the Bengals looked like Florida. Daniels rushed for 372 yards and three touchdowns through the air in that game and added 234 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

Bungle in the jungle

There have been some very, very ugly losses in the history of the Cincinnati Bengals.

The 38-33 loss to the Commanders is not at the top of the list, but it is right up there.

Burrow and the offense were almost unstoppable. The Bengals' franchise quarterback completed 29/38 passes for 324 yards and three touchdowns. Ja'Marr Chase caught six passes for 118 yards and two incredible touchdowns. Higgins looked as good as ever with three catches for 39 yards and Andrei Iosivas scored again with five catches and 52 yards.

The running game was physical, with both Chase Brown and Zack Moss contributing in a big way. Brown led the way with 62 yards on just seven carries, while Moss collected 52 yards on 12 carries and scored the final touchdown to give the Bengals the slightest chance.

However, the defense was as weak as possible.

Daniels finished the game 21/23 for 253 yards and three touchdowns through the air. He had more passing touchdowns than incomplete passes. To make matters worse, the problems with mobile quarterbacks persisted, and he led his team with 39 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.

Star Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin hurt the secondary with only four catches, but managed 100 yards and scored the game-winning goal in the fourth quarter.

Statistically, the Commanders didn't really stand out. Aside from Daniels and McLaurin, they had some good days.

Still, they didn't punt. Washington tried two fourth downs and converted both. They converted on five of nine third downs.

The defensive line was unable to do much at any point in the game. Trey Hendrickson made a massive sack on first and long in the fourth inning… and the Commanders scored on fourth down.

Injuries in the defensive tackle room certainly played a role. But that room was healthy in Week 1, and Rhamondre Stevenson tore through it like a hot knife through room temperature butter.

Who is Dey NOT?

Do the Bengals have correctable problems? Yes. Does the offense look like it can score against anyone? Yes. Does it matter if the defense allows five touchdowns and a field goal on six drives? No!

Casual fans will look at this game and blame Burrow, which objectively is incredibly lame. He could have played better, especially on those field goal drives. But he put the offense in scoring position on all six drives. Evan McPherson missed his first sub-50-yard field goal since 2022, and they couldn't make up for it with a two-point conversion.

In NFL history since 1920, the record of teams that finished the game without turnovers and punts and scored at least 33 points was 112-0.

Now they are 112-1.