The Cincinnati Bengals have gone from 2-0 and feeling like they had a grip on things to 2-2 and staring at a much shakier picture after back-to-back losses to the Steelers and Jaguars. Next up is Week 5 against the Miami Dolphins, one of the league’s five winless teams, and the assignment is simple: the Bengals should win.
Of course, winning over a team that can’t win only tells you so much.
Sunday’s loss brought a pile of familiar problems back into focus, starting with tackling. That’s not new.
It was a problem last season, the season before that, and it has followed the Bengals through multiple defensive coordinators without getting solved. Jordan Battle, in particular, had a rough day.
The defensive front did hold the Texans’ running backs under two yards per carry, but the Steelers and Jaguars had far more success on the ground, and with the secondary already banged up, Al Golden can’t afford his defensive backs to be the first men into contact.
The pass rush at least showed a little more life than it did in Pittsburgh, though that’s a low standard. It was better, and that’s about as much praise as it earned.
Up front, Orlando Brown Jr. continues to be a serious issue. Josh Hines-Allen drove him back into Burrow, got a hand on the quarterback as he threw, and the result was an interception.
Brown has been a problem all season, and the situation isn’t improving. There may not be an easy answer sitting out there, but the Bengals need to change something before Burrow takes a shot he doesn’t bounce back from.
Amarius Mims, meanwhile, keeps looking like one of the best right tackles in the NFL. Moving the tackles around doesn’t sound like the fix either, because that could just create new problems on both sides. Better to have one tackle holding up than two spots turning into fires.
Burrow’s day was uneven at best. The first interception is tough to pin on him, but the second one?
Ugly. Add in the interception that got wiped out by a penalty, and it was clear he didn’t have one of his sharpest performances.
The Bengals are also waiting on the health front. Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins both need to be ready to go this weekend, and if they aren’t, the silver lining is that Cincinnati has only one game before the bye, which would give them more recovery time. Higgins’ injury feels especially concerning because groin and adductor issues have a habit of hanging around.
The hit on Chase was flat-out unacceptable. His head being twisted around was bad enough, but the extra drive into the ground while he was falling and defenseless was exactly the sort of play the NFL says it wants out of the game. Ventrell Miller should be fined and suspended.
The offense never really found a run game, even with Chase and Higgins stretching the defense. Chase Brown did provide some help as a receiver, catching 11 passes for 71 yards, and the short passing game helped paper over the lack of rushing production. Still, it would be a lot nicer if the Bengals could actually run the ball when they need to.
Dohnte Meyers gave them a little spark, especially when he had room to work after the catch. If Chase and Higgins are both healthy, Meyers could turn into a dangerous slot option against the zone looks defenses keep throwing at Cincinnati.
But the bigger question hangs over the whole offense: how does a group with Burrow, Chase and Higgins finish a game averaging just 7.9 yards per completion, with a long gain of only 29 yards?
Then there was the decision on the opening drive. Facing fourth-and-two at their own 44-yard line, the Bengals lined up as if they might go for it, then took a delay of game and punted. For an offense with one of the best quarterbacks in football, the best wide receiver in the league, and arguably the best wide receiver duo in the NFL, Zac Taylor choosing the punt there said plenty.
Absolutely gutless football from Taylor.
One more ugly trend keeps showing up too: the leading receiver for the Texans, Steelers, and Jaguars against the Bengals was a tight end. That part, apparently, never changes.
So here the Bengals are, balanced on the edge of a knife. They’ve shown enough good to make you think there’s a real team in there somewhere, but they’ve also shown plenty of bad.
Worse, when they’ve run into teams that know how to win, they’ve folded. If this is just a team that beats losing teams, the schedule might still leave room for a playoff spot, but it won’t be enough to win the division or make any real January noise.
There is still a path. A win over Miami would get them to the bye at 3-2, with a chance to get healthy and clean up the mess. If that happens, maybe they can come out of the break and start building something real.
But the other version is sitting right there too: another 2-2 start that turns the rest of the season into a grind of must-win games. That’s a brutal way to live, and it leaves almost no room for error.
Four weeks in, it’s hard to say who the 2026 Bengals really are.
Are they the 2-0 team that looked like it had finally found some defense and might take control of the AFC North?
Or are they the team that has since gone 0-2, can’t tackle, can’t run, can’t protect Burrow’s blind side, and suddenly looks all too familiar?
Now they have to show us which one it is.
In Other News...
Rex Ryan Just Sparked A New Bengals Debate Around Joe Burrow
The Bengals have been leaning on Joe Burrow and the passing game to carry the offense, and early in the season the running game has not done much to ease that load. It is the kind of imbalance that can work when the quarterback is humming, but it also puts extra pressure on the passing attack to stay sharp every week.
Rex Ryan recently put that familiar issue back in the spotlight, warning that a team built almost entirely around the pass can run into trouble if it never finds a steadier ground game. For Cincinnati, the concern is not whether Burrow can produce, but whether opponents will start selling out against the pass and force the Bengals to answer with a rushing attack that has not yet shown enough consistency. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Suddenly Have A Receiver Debate Fans Cant Ignore
The Bengals receiver room has suddenly become a talking point again, and not in the way they would prefer. With Tee Higgins and JaMarr Chase both dealing with injuries, Cincinnati is staring at a familiar problem at the exact moment the offense can least afford it, which is why the idea of adding another wideout has started circulating around the team.
Marvin Harrison Jr. is the name getting the most attention in that conversation, thanks to his talent and the kind of fit he would represent in Cincinnatis passing game. It is still only speculation, but the discussion says plenty about where the Bengals are right now: thin at receiver, under pressure to keep the offense afloat, and suddenly in the middle of a debate fans did not see coming. [Read more 🡒]
Former Bengals Star Sounds Alarm On A Problem Burrow Can't Escape
Through the first five weeks, the Bengals offense has been under a familiar kind of stress, and former receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh says the pressure is coming from a spot Cincinnati cannot afford to ignore. He pointed to opponents working the left side of the offensive line to get after Joe Burrow, a problem that has helped disrupt the rhythm of an attack that is still trying to find its footing.
Houshmandzadeh also flagged trouble covering tight ends and noted Burrows two interceptions as costly plays in a season where every mistake seems to carry extra weight. With Miami and Baltimore next on the schedule, the Bengals are staring at a stretch that will test whether those issues can be cleaned up quickly or whether they keep following Burrow from week to week. [Read more 🡒]