Painfully Predictable: Sunday's Loss To Texans Easy To See Coming

If the Cincinnati Bengals needed a wakeup call, they got it loudly at Paul Brown Stadium this past Sunday. For five weeks, the Bengals have been flirting with disaster. Sunday, they found it. There was no fourth-quarter miracle. There were no Cardiac Cats.

And it’s easy to see why.

·        The league’s leading rusher (Cedric Benson) only managed 44 yards against the league’s sixth-worst run defense.

·        Both tight ends fumbled the ball away on critical possessions.

·        A red-zone interception killed the last drive.

·        Multiple dropped passes forced punts.

·        Two drives were short-circuited by penalties.

·        Missed tackles led to multiple big plays and touchdowns.

In the Bengals’ defense, losing DE Antwan Odom and DT Domata Peko on the first series severely hampered what the defense was able to do.

But that doesn’t explain away the poor tackling or the inability to generate first downs. Plain and simple: The Bengals were not ready to play on Sunday.

You’d like to believe this was an aberration, that Sunday’s flop was just a hiccup. But this has been happening all season.

·        Against Denver, the offense didn’t show up until the last drive.

·        At Green Bay, Carson Palmer kept the Packers in the game by throwing two interceptions that resulted in touchdowns.

·        Against Pittsburgh, the Bengals waited until the second half to get going.

·        At Cleveland, they fiddled around until there were four seconds left in overtime to win.

·        At Baltimore, they went six consecutive series without a first down.

This time, there was no magic. The hole was too deep before the Cardiac Cats tried to dig out. The mistakes were too many.

The Bengals are standing at a crossroads. Will they shake this off, wake up from their doldrums, and finally play a complete game? Or have we seen the best Cincinnati is capable of this season? If it’s the latter, this season is going to end on the couch for the playoffs again.

It’s time for the Bengals to get serious about winning football games. That means playing four quarters of football. All the talent is there.

But, as has so often been the case in recent seasons, the execution (and perhaps the will) is lacking.