Bengals’ defense may sabotage any chance they have to overcome their latest slow start

Cincinnati officially has a huge problem on their hands. The Bengals find themselves at 1-4 after the first quarter of the season, which greatly hurts their chances of making the playoffs. This franchise is no stranger to slow starts, having overcome 0-2 records the past two seasons to finish above .500, but this is a different level of self-inflicted issues.

The offense has largely returned to form, scoring 38 points with several big plays against the Baltimore Ravens this week, but the defense has fallen toward being one of the worst units in the NFL. Against a quarterback the caliber of Lamar Jackson, their defensive effort just wasn’t going to cut it — and the Bengals may well struggle to overcome their defense for the rest of the season.

According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the Bengals rank 30th in expected points allowed per play (0.10) on defense this season. They haven’t done a good job keeping that side of the ball stocked with talent since they made it to the Super Bowl a few years ago against the Rams, and now find themselves in a spot where they can’t stop a nosebleed, much less a two-time MVP quarterback. The Bengals have allowed 32.3 points per game over their last four games, which includes a 24-point effort by the Panthers, who just got smothered by the Bears this past weekend. It doesn’t matter how many 50-yard touchdowns Burrow can throw to Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, if they can’t stop anyone on the other side they will continue to lose games.

That’s what actually had to make this loss so frustrating for Bengals fans. The offense went back to what it’s expected to be against a Ravens defense that just held the Bills to 10 points last week. Burrow was playing with confidence again, Chase and Higgins were dominating the Ravens’ coverage and the offensive line held up well enough given the amount of times that they threw the ball, but it just didn’t matter because the Bengals’ defense was knifed through with ease by the Ravens offense.

Baltimore went an astonishing 10 of 15 on third-down attempts in this game, averaged 6.8 yards per play and only had one penalty that turned into a first down for them. The Ravens also gained 520 total yards, earned 30 first downs, and had a red zone efficiency (touchdowns per possession) of 83.3%, according to TruMedia. They were just cruising up and down the field doing whatever they wanted.

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Jackson threw for 345 yards and four touchdowns, and Derrick Henry trampled the Bengals defense as well en route to 92 yards and a touchdown on the ground. The Ravens should remain one of the best offenses in the league, and they still have another game to play against the Bengals this year. There’s no reason to think that Baltimore won’t be able to score at will the second time they play, barring injury.

By the standards of expected points allowed per play, only the Jaguars and Rams have been worse than the Bengals defense from an efficiency standpoint. Nobody is expecting those teams to be contenders at the end of the day, but unfortunately this is the tier of teams the Bengals find themselves in at this point in the season. They have so many holes from defense to linebacker to secondary play that there isn’t even a quick fix or solution that they can find at the trade deadline that will get them back to where they want to be. This is a multiyear process unless some of their younger players develop at a rapid pace this season.

Buckle in, Bengals fans. This season might just be a long one. The offense will give them a chance in any game, but it’s not even fair to ask them to score 40 week in and week out just to have a chance to win a game. Good offenses like the Commanders and Ravens aren’t going anywhere and right now those games just appear to be too hard for this defense.