The Bengals are now 1-4 for the season, with all the optimism and hype around them as Super Bowl contenders have long dissipated. Now one cannot help but feel bad about Joe Burrow, whose 392 yards and 5 TD performance wasn’t enough to earn his side a victory against the Ravens. Finger-pointing will begin after a tough loss, and Richard Sherman, who broke down the defeat, criticizes the defense.
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Like the previous four games, everything went through Burrow, and he yet again delivered a faultless and near-perfect performance. However, it wasn’t enough for the Bengals in the end.
During the recent episode of the Richard Sherman podcast, the former Seahawks CB believes that alarm bells should now be ringing in Cincinnati and it’s time to panic. He gave Burrow his flowers, highlighting the unbelievable numbers behind his exceptional performance.
“When you play this well offensively, talk about the numbers and give Joe Burrow a ton of credit. I have to praise him just as highly as I criticize him when he plays well. He was 30-39, 392 yards, five TDs- career high and 1 interception. It doesn’t get better than that. Those are video game numbers.”
Sherman noted that in previous seasons, the Bengals’ slow starts were mostly due to their offense, which eventually found its rhythm as the season progressed. However, this time around, the issue isn’t the offense. The Super Bowl winner criticized Cincinnati’s defense, calling them out for not stepping up and delivering like they did in past seasons.
The defense has been giving up points and yardage, struggling to make plays, and looking disorganized. They’ve faced challenges throughout the season, far from their usual standard.
However, they are performing well within their capacity after losing a lot of player personnel.
The Bengals don’t have the personnel to make an impact
During the same segment of the podcast, Sherman highlighted the loss of player personnel as the reason for the underperformance of the Bengals’ defense. They don’t have players like they used to have during the early season of Burrow, to change or do things differently.
He believes as long as the defense continues to falter, strong displays from the offense won’t matter or make a difference, especially against big teams like the Ravens, Texans, etc.
“Just not looking like the defense that caused a lot of chaos and created turnovers and created havoc on their way to a Super Bowl, early in Joe Burrow’s career. They are not making the changes that are necessary. They don’t have the personnel.”
The Bengals had a chance to win through a field goal, but the holder fumbled the snap, making it difficult for McPherson to kick the ball properly. He ended up missing the crucial field goal. But that’s beside the point. The defense gave up 41 points. They are already overperforming, given the players at their disposal.
The defense through the first four weeks ranked 15th overall, giving up 326 yards of total offense and 12 TDs. However, the problem lies in their primary, which gave 145 yards on the ground before the Ravens game.
Another cause of concern is their rushing attack, which has been nonexistent for most of the game, solely relying on the passing talents of Burrow. They are 1-4 now and can kiss the playoffs goodbye because only 5.6% of teams that have started the year with this record in the Super Bowl era have made the postseason. They take on the Giants team full of confidence and are coming off a convincing win over the Seahawks.
