Cincinnati Bengals: 3 Reasons for loss vs. Bears in Week 14

1. Abysmal Effort

Really, this is where everything starts and ends for Cincinnati in this game. A team that was absolutely dominating the AFC’s best team for at least half of their previous contest just a week earlier doesn’t lose like this to a team fighting only for top draft positioning if they are actually trying to win.

This isn’t to say they were trying to lose, of course. Depending on who you ask, it may be worse than that however: they gave up.

ESPN’s Katherine Terrell said it best, “It feels like the Bengals left everything they had on the field Monday night. Just not the same team”.

When someone suggested that’s how they’ve been all year, her rebuttal on the matter was cogent:

Even their quarterback agreed with the assessment. Yes, the team had injuries. Yes, their replacements were for the most part a combination of bad and inexperienced. Yes, that loss to Pittsburgh must have been demoralizing.

None of that excuses the complete lack of energy put forth by these guys. Though the odds were damaged immensely by the Pittsburgh loss, this team still entered this game with playoff chances. Winning out was both necessary and unlikely (past this game, Cincinnati still plays at Minnesota, vs Detroit, and at Baltimore), but 9-7 was attainable with their talent if they played hard an caught some breaks at the right times; this year, 9-7 has a great shot at a wild card bid.

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Instead, the team gave zero effort and gave up 482 yards of offense to the NFL’s 30th-ranked unit. Maybe after the Pittsburgh loss, they just had nothing left. Regardless, this officially crushes any miniscule hopes which remained. Nothing to do now but play out the string, hope nobody gets hurt, and figure out who will (and won’t) be around for 2018.