To that end, I got the impression some people believed the Bengals were not that far from being in New Orleans seeing as how they lost all those close games and still almost made the playoffs anyway.
Well, the Bengals weren’t that close. Maybe they were close to the Chiefs, actually, since one of them was great in close games and the other was not, but neither was nearly as good as the Eagles (who pummeled the Bengals in the regular season) when all was said and done.
Hope was the plan for KC most of the season, and they ran out against the best team in the league.
Will the Bengals take heed?
Takeaways and random thoughts:
1. Two years ago I wrote how the Chiefs were the blueprint for the Bengals because they have a great QB and a talented, young (therefore cheap) defense.
Perhaps the Eagles are an even better example because they are just good at every position!
Then again, that might actually be the Bengals plan, to be honest. They just haven’t executed it nearly well enough the past three years after great offseasons back to back in 2020 and ’21.
They don’t want to get leveraged against the cap by paying too much to a few studs at the top of the roster, but then they’ve ended up losing too many good players because of an unwillingness to stretch the budget here and there.
I get the justification, and all around depth is important, but sometimes it takes dudes who just make a difference like Jesse Bates. Andrew Whitworth and DJ Reader also fall into this category.
2. Like the Chiefs but not the Bengals, the Eagles successfully retooled their defense through the draft in recent years.
That includes a raft of talented young defensive linemen to replace a front that was good for years but had older players age out.
Philadelphia had two rookies starting and playing well in the secondary (Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean) last night, and DeJean returned an interception for touchdown.
Meanwhile, Cincinnati’s recent DB draft picks have floundered more than flown, but that’s not all…
3. Philadelphia also has defensive coordinator who is legitimately good at his job most weeks rather than just occasionally.
Bonus: Vic Fangio can actually coach young players, apparently, if you wondered if that was possible after watching the Bengals defense decline over the last three years despite using a lot of draft capital on that side of the ball.
Then again, Fangio putting Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in a blender in front of 100 million people is ironic because that is the one thing Lou Anarumo could do, but Fangio is a guy who has proven it over multiple stops. He even pioneered the current prevailing top-down style of defense in the NFL, which is tailored to stop teams like the Chiefs and Bengals but also works against teams who have bad quarterbacks (another departure from recent times in Cincinnati).
4. At the end of the day, the Eagles are more the Anti-Bengals than anything like the Chiefs.
Jalen Hurts is an effective quarterback, but he also benefits from playing with the best running back, best offensive line and best defense in the league.
The Eagles were first in the league in rushing attempts and last in pass attempts. That’s good for the league because it proves there is more than one way to build a winner, but I’m sure the Bengals won’t be making any changes as a result.
I guess the Eagles winning is not unlike if the 2015 Bengals had not lost Andy Dalton to injury and gone all the way with him at the controls. That team was loaded everywhere, and Dalton had by far his best season as a result, but they also never recaptured that magic.
5. The Bengals are still in good position to bounce back.
Don’t get me wrong: I am not pessimistic about Cincinnati’s chances to get back to and even win a Super Bowl soon.
The league is always going to be driven by parity, they have another weak schedule coming up, and they still have Joe Burrow.
Get in the tournament and see what happens, flaws be damned.
While I don’t really like the Bengals’ chosen style of play, I would rather have the quarterback to build around than trying to thread the needle the other way, but it is interesting to see the latter actually work.
The Chiefs’ dynasty proves a great quarterback can keep his team near the top even when things are faltering around him, but being blown out on the biggest stage also laid bare the consequences of failing to keep the roster in top-top shape.
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