Cincinnati Bengals: Takeaways from big loss in Week 7 vs. Chiefs

Let’s look back at the Cincinnati Bengals blowout loss in Week 7 to the Kansas City Chiefs and observe some notable takeaways from the game.

Things have not gone well for the Cincinnati Bengals recently. Just two week ago, they were flying high, holding a 4-1 record and the best record in the AFC North. Ever since making a comeback against Miami though, things have gone about as bad as possible.

They got battered and bruised against their hated rivals from Pittsburgh in Week 6, with a final back-breaking drive by the Steelers handing them their seventh-straight defeat in matchups between the two.

Though there were injury worries which were going to affect them against Kansas City, however, there had to be some hope that the team would put up a fight against possibly the best team in the AFC to prove they belong among the elites in the conference.

It didn’t even take a full half of the game to show that this team might be much worse than once believed. Whether this was just a standalone terrible matchup or a sign of fatal flaws being put on full display is still to be determined, the Chiefs blew apart Cincinnati in every facet of the game on their way to a 45-10 victory.

Here are some notable takeaways for the Bengals following the ugly defeat.

Tight End Decimation

Injuries hit every team, but every year we do see a few teams get completely decimated at certain positions to the point that they struggle to even get a healthy body suited up. That’s happening to Cincinnati at the tight end position this year. Eifert is obviously out for the year again with yet another devastating injury, but he is not the only casualty on the depth chart.

Longtime backup Tyler Kroft has a broken bone in his foot. It’s taken away multiple games from him already, and it could be weeks until he has any chance to return to the field. Backup Cethan Carter didn’t even make it to the season before going to IR. In this game against Kansas City, another backup (Mason Schreck) went down and had to get taken off on a cart.

Here’s what’s left at tight end: C.J. Uzomah, Matt Lengel and Moritz Bohringer.

Uzomah is a long-time backup on this team, but while he has some decent athletic traits he has never had that turn into good performances but a few times in his career to this point. He’s on pace for career highs across the board, but those numbers aren’t all that impressive, to be honest.

Prorate his stats so far over 16 games and he’ll have about 39 catches, 421 yards, and five touchdowns. He’s also had plenty of injury issues of his own: he’s been active for just 36 of a possible 55 games, with various ankle and shoulder injuries affecting him the past two years.

The other two have even less going for them. Lengel has been on four teams in three years, with just two catches, 22 yards and a touchdown to his name in his career. Bohringer is best known for being a semi-interesting draft pick by Minnesota in 2016 (strictly because he was a foreign prospect), barely even counts as a tight end (he has most often been characterized as a wide receiver), and has never been for a regular season game in two years.

These injuries don’t leave Cincinnati with much from a talent perspective at the position, but it also damages their gameplan. Ever since Eifert went down, the team has seen both their overall ceiling on offense drop and their consistency falter mightily. It isn’t only about Eifert though.

While he’s a great player at the position, both Kroft and Uzomah have each shown enough in spurts to allow the position to be a key part of the attack. With just Uzomah left now, however, the team may need to rapidly change the design of their attack for the rest of the season if they want to be successful.