Cincinnati Bengals MIGHT HAVE the WORST DEFENSE EVER | Bengals Lose to Bears 47-42

Cincinnati Bengals MIGHT HAVE the WORST DEFENSE EVER | Bengals Lose to Bears 47-42

The 2025 Cincinnati Bengals defense legitimately has a good shot to go down as the worst defense in NFL history. Let’s break it down. You are Locked on Bengals, your daily Cincinnati Bengals podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. What up Bengals fans and welcome to another episode of the Lockdown Bengals podcast. I’m Jake Liscoco. He is James Renee and we are part of the Lockdown podcast network here on Lockdown Bengals. Your team every day covering the Cincinnati Bengals going back to 2016 through the lows and the highs. a Super Bowl run and whatever it is, we’re seeing this year from a defense that is truly the worst that I have ever seen the Cincinnati Bengals field and could go down as the worst all time, if not one of the worst all time as things are still trending in the wrong direction, getting much worse after we thought they might have found something approximating the bottom against a terrible Jets offense. The Bengals lose. They draft to 3 and6 heading into their bye-week. They lose 47 to 42 and Joe Flacco goes for 470 yards passing. Doesn’t matter. Seven different receivers catch the ball for 20 plus yards. Doesn’t matter. The Cincinnati Bengals defense when they did get stops had penalties that erased those stops. Just terrible. I I am out of words, James, for how bad this defense is. I have stats that we can reference and I’ll get to those, but I have no words for how truly repugnant this Bengals defense is. Yeah, pathetic joke. I I I think I joked I think I joked last week like, “Oh, yeah, they couldn’t tackle me.” No, they can’t tackle me. They can’t tackle anyone. They It’s an embarrassment is what it is. and and we could talk about blame and all the highlevel stuff and h how the roster’s built and all of those things, but like fine, they’re not the best run defense in the world and they’re not going to get after the passer. Can you tackle a backup running back? Can you not let a rookie tight end, who I was super high on pre-draft, score not just his first, but his second touchdown uh I in in his career, his NFL career, and do it when you just bring him down to the ground. Like I that that’s what’s wild to me is like the basic the most basic thing that is so simple that isn’t X’s and O’s based. It has nothing to do with like scheme or like it’s it’s just as simple as and sometimes it it comes down to the the person, but it’s simple as a I’m going to get you down because it’s my job to get you down and that’s it. And and I can’t believe that they can’t even do that. Like that’s such a basic thing. All right, you’re within arms reach. I’m going to make sure that you don’t get past me. Like that’s such a simple thing. And of course there are times when you have missed tackles, but for it to be this thing that’s over and over and over and obviously I’m referencing the the game-winning touchdown. Like that should have been impossible for Jordan Battle to let that happen. Like impossible because of the situation, because of what they’ve been through, because of all of those things. He should have been willing to scratch claw, face mask, uh horse collar, like anything like anything possible to not let Coleston Leland score. That’s what he should have done because that’s an issue that they’ve had. And so that’s one of many. Look, I I I cannot believe that they I mean, if they could just be competent, competent tackling team that does a few things, okay, on defense, they’d be five and four right now and they would have won three straight and the offense would have scored 80 points in two weeks and Joe Flaca would have put up 42 in a careerhigh with AC joint sprain and everyone would be they would be one of the the toasts of the league right now where they’re right there with Pittsburgh even with Lamar coming back for Balt right there with Pittsburgh in the AFC North and instead it’s like all right well you you have the the one side of it where I think the offense they’re like well what what the heck can we do and you have Chase Brown saying we finish the bleeping game and he’s right finish the bleeping game after you score 15 points in like a minute of real time minute of game time, excuse me, to to basically it felt like the football gods were going to give the Bengals a gift after they blew it last week and give them a chance. And the defense said, “No, we’re that bad, Jake.” They said, “No, sorry football gods. We’re so bad that you’re not going to be able to give us this win because we’re that bad.” That’s how it felt. And a few hours after the conclusion of that game, that’s how I feel. I think you’re right. They had a point in this game was crazy to me out of many things. We’re going to be saying that a lot today. Crazy. Yeah. Unbelievable. There was a point in this game where they could have had stops on three out of four Bears drives to start the game. Yeah. But they get an illegal contact penalty on a third and 10 sack. Yep. Would have gotten the Bengals off the field. Pretty bad call. Whatever. You put yourself in a position where they can throw the flag because you contacted the receiver downfield. You get a missed field goal attempt from Kyro Santos. But you’re off sides. Chicago goes for it on fourth down. Scores a touchdown. Scores a touchdown on both of those drives after you could have had punts and then the Bears miss a field goal graciously. So that could have been three stops for the Cincinnati Bengals defense early in the game. After that, nothing. They force one punt. Is that right? one punt which Charlie Jones caught on the three yard line running toward his own pylon line. Were there two punts getting one? There’s there was two punts because there was one on the the Bears after the interception on their goal line that they that they That’s right. Two punts. One of them I thought was a garbage time punt. I’d already recorded our postgame short like man this defense is the worst. And then they have that miracle. They they score a quick quick touchdown. They recover an onside kick because a Bears player couldn’t get out of the way and kick the ball. And the Bears fans watching the game probably think, “Man, here we go again. This team.” But no, the Bengals are this team. Here, here’s why the Bengals are this team. In the last 25 years, we’ve talked about this. Out of over 800 defenses, Cincinnati Bengals are now the worst defense in the last 25 years in points per game allowed. They are the second worst defense in the last 25 years in yards per game allowed. They are the second worst defense in the last 25 years in EPA per play allowed. They are the fourth worst defense in the last 25 years in yards per play allowed and the fourth worst defense in the last 25 years in yards per carry allowed. And the crazy thing about that as we continue to use that phrase is that it keeps getting worse and will continue to get worse until substantial changes occur because like you said, they can’t tackle. They don’t know where they’re supposed to be. They’re getting blown off the line of scrimmage. There’s no pass rush to speak of. They’re too slow. They’re too slow to process. They’re not physical enough. They’re laughing and leaving the locker room. What what can you say about this defense that would give you any reason to believe it won’t continue in the trajectory it is heading, which is in a year the 25 Dallas Cowboys defense exists, this 25 Bengals defense very much on track to be the worst in the last 25 years, if not NFL history. Oh, I haven’t even looked at the Cowboys stats. I would take their defense over the Bengals defense. Don’t even need to don’t even need to look this year’s whatever. You know, I I maybe I’m crazy and maybe it’s oh well, they didn’t have Trey Hendrick Hendrickson. I don’t care. I don’t care who you have. I’ll go to St. Xavier High School down the street. We go to Mason High School, Indian Hill, Win Woods. Guess what? They’ll tackle. They’ll hit. They’ll be physical. They’ll say, “All right, Caleb Williams is in front of me. Guess what I’m going to do? Not let him pass me.” Like sometimes it’s it really is that simple. and he’s not Michael Vic. He’s not Lamar Jackson. He’s athletic. But go hit him. Go run through him. And And you mentioned the laughing element. And I wasn’t there for this. I wasn’t there. I wasn’t the one asking, “Hey, Jordan, do you want to talk?” Or, “Hey, TJ,” or, “Do you want to talk?” But I was there for Jamar Chase, who it it’s the worst. I hate having to interview Jamar after a game like this when he quietly has over a hundred yards. He quietly has a really good game. You don’t realize it. It doesn’t feel impactful like that. And yet they score 42 points, 35 with the and then the Charlie Jones return and it should be enough. And Jamar Chase has had his heart ripped out and he wants to say, “Man, bleep these stupid bleepers that won’t just tackle. Just do basic stuff. I’m down here blocking like crazy for T. Higgins in the first half just trying to get every inch and scratch and claw and everything we can get and these guys won’t do basic things. I guarantee you he wants to say that. I don’t know that. That’s me saying something that Jamar I don’t think has ever said in front of a camera or to a media member on or off record. And guess what? I think that’s what he wants to say. And guess what he still does? He talks to the media. These other guys that aren’t doing their job that are failing and everybody on defense has failed. Every single guy. every single one of them. They’re laughing. That’s That’s unacceptable. I think there’s more there. I think there’s a ton more on this defense, on this offense, and uh man, really, really frustrating after the Bengals appeared to pull off a a magical comeback and win. The Bengals defense blew it. We’ll continue the conversation coming up next. Today’s show is brought to you by our friends over there at Pelaton. Look folks, it’s time to break through the busiest time of the year with a brand new Pelaton cross trainining tread plus that’s powered by Pelaton IQ. 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The Bears had how many yards in this game? Was it 576? It sure was. Even if you remove the yards that came after the Bengals missed tackles game, James, the Bengals are giving up over 400 yards of offense. 450 yards of offense nearly even without miss tackles. So y it’s it’s everything, man. It it’s just beyond like Kyle Manangi and the Bears fourth string running back who they signed off the practice squad this week. All of them making the Bengals look bad. guys ended up on the ground on the other side of the formation on the defensive line and and then laughing. Yeah. And leaving. All right. Couple things. Uh because I I said part of that Jamar point, but we’re up against the Nad break. Um but Kyle Man is just a guy. Let’s put that out there. Just a guy. So to give to give that up, to let that happen. It’s unacceptable. And that’s what I mean. I’m not trying to be mean to Kyle Manu. I’m sure he’s a nice guy. I keep making the guy references. But that defense should feel so bad. I I’ve heard Dave Lapam say this a bunch and I’m not going to pretend I know what it’s like to be a player because I don’t. But guess what? Dave Lapam does. And And so for him, he he’s talked about during the really bad years, he hates taking out the trash because his neighbors can see him because it’s so embarrassing and it’s so like and I I feel like I would be that way too. And so for them to laugh when their leader, when Jamar is like wants to throw pick up the stadium and throw it into the river, he’s so mad. And then for them to laugh when they’re the reason they lost. And we can say it. They might not say it, but we could say it. The Bengals defense is costing them games right now when they have a 40-year-old quarterback playing on an AC joint throwing for career-high 470 and T and Jamar doing their thing and Chase Brown trying to hurdle over guys. Chase Brown’s my height trying to jump over dudes and like you’re not he might be a little shorter than me. Like that’s crazy, right? Like to do that. And so all of these guys, the offensive line, I get it. They’ve g they gave up some plays today, but guess what? They’re busting their tail trying to keep Joe upright, trying to create holes in the run game, trying to do these things. And when they don’t, they certainly don’t laugh about it. And they don’t shy away from the cameras. They don’t shy away from the questions. And I think that’s that’s something that they’re clearly missing on that side of the ball where and I I was I guess I was hoping it would be TJ Sllayton I guess maybe BJ Hill. Those guys should get scooped up by a teammate and been like are you guys serious? Like and I’m I’m like physically scooped up like it should have been a thing. Are you guys ser you’re going to laugh now? You’re gonna you’re gonna pretend like like they should be so distraught right now that all they’re doing is going home in in a in a an embarrassed state because they’re the reason they lost. And had they just played competent football, the Bengals would be minimum five and four. We’d be talking about the playoffs and a lot of things would feel a lot different. And instead, they haven’t held up on their end of the bargain at all. And whether it’s Zack Taylor, Al Golden, obviously you can go higher with the personnel part of it, but I’m I’m I’m thinking like literally in season. All right, you have a game today. It’s Zack Taylor, Al Golden, and and that entire coaching staff’s job to make sure that they’re tackling and in the right spot and nowhere to go. And it’s the players job to make a a tackle. Like when Zack Taylor says make a play, I I’m not even asking for that anymore. Like once the catch happens or once you make contact with the ball carrier, just bring him down or hold him until someone can get to him. Like my my expectations are so low now. And they can’t even do that. That’s the sad part. They can’t even do that. Like uh Kyle Man runs a second and second and 10 runs for 18 yards. A third and five they run it. He gets eight yard nine yards in the first half. Like it’s just much like last week when it was like, “Oh, well you’re down two scores. Why don’t you run it with Bruce Hall with with the Jets this week? It was third and third in medium, third at clearly throwing down. Nah, we don’t need to. Second and long. Uh second down runs work against the Bengals. It’s just a joke. It was a joke. You have a quarterback catching two passes. Maybe that’s why they were laughing because it was such a joke. You got Caleb Williams catching a Philly special and then taking a throwback screen for a 20 yard explosive. Are you like, huh? It’s impossible. It should be impossible to do. Yes. One of the many ways this defense just is a laughingstock at this point. Caleb Williams, who didn’t look like he was having a particularly comfortable day in the pocket, was scrambling around in clean pockets at times, which I’m not crediting the Bengals defense here much. They did get some solid late pressures at times, but for the most part, I thought Caleb Williams was just having meltdowns in the pocket, was a little bit erratic, and still finishes for 8.2 yards per attempt. and and it just wastes an immense effort from the offense. The Bears defense isn’t good. They’re opportunistic. They had their two three takeaways in this game. Joe Flacco throws an interception on the the final play, Hail Mary, that he doesn’t get anywhere close, but you know, he had the lost fumble and the interception on the checkdown to Chase Brown earlier in the game. But but even despite that, the offense and and special teams the special teams had a big bounceback this week outside of the the DJ Avy offsides penalty on the field goal, which is its own backbreaking issue. But kickoff game, Bears starting deep in their own territory. Charlie Jones kick takes one back for a touchdown. Good field position many times to start drives for the Bengals offense. Much better this week after I was critical of this issue last week. And we’re about to talk about these efforts from a bunch of offensive players led by Joe Flacco playing through an injury that Zack Taylor described as him being unable to lift his arm during the week. And then he’s he’s getting treatments for it, playing through it, throwing 47 passes, taking three sacks with that injury. and and none of it matters because your defense is laughing off giving up 47 points. The Bengals dropped to what? Two and four in games where they’ve scored 35 plus points in the last two years. One and four in games where they scored 38 plus points in the last two years. There’s only one other there’s only four other teams to lose when scoring 38 points or more in the last two years. Zero teams have lost more than once in that time frame. I I also want to talk about Al Golden’s future. Do we expect any imminent changes? We we’ll get to that topic in addition to some of the standout performances on offense that are going to inevitably be forgotten because of the game that they came in to finish the show coming up next. The show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NBA is back. There’s no better place to get in on that action and away from perhaps thinking about the Cincinnati Bengals than FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. The Bulls keep winning games somehow. My childhood team and well, even if you miss the start of the game or you want to ride the hot hand, FanDuel has live bets for you from anything for who who’s going to score next. Fourth quarter comebacks. Fourth quarter comebacks with onside kicks. fourth quarter comebacks with outside kicks in a game where there’s also a blocked kick and a kickoff return for a touchdown. Uh maybe you can’t get quite that specific, but you can combine your live bets into a same game parlay for a shot at a bigger payout. It keeps every game exciting. And right now, if you’re a new customer, you can get $300 in bonus bets when your first $5 bet wins. So head to fanduel.com to sign up and play your game with FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. All right, before we get to the standouts, let’s talk about Al. Let’s talk about Al. I think that that’s important to talk about. I I think it’s going to be a discussion that we have again tomorrow probably or at some point. Like it’s not going to to end on, I guess, unless he does get fired. What’s your gut tell you? Because they suck. I really I’m stunned at how undisiplined they are. and the the timeliness of the penalties, for example, early in this game is a is is a good example of it. Uh the the late sub uh on on fourth down, it was fourth and six and then you have the penalty on DJ Ivy and it’s fourth and one. Jamar Stewart’s running onto the field super late. Like that’s coaching is a big factor there. And it’s not just Al, it’s the other coaches, but man oh man, do do they look scrambling at times coaching wise to get players where they need to be and in the right spot. So, uh, what’s your gut tell you? My gut tells me that they just burn it down at the end of the season when it continues this way. But the results have been so bad that I would not be surprised if they were like, “Look, it’s a by-week. It’s really not working. We just did this terrible game against the Jets and we came back and got worse.” Yeah. Nothing you’re doing is working. And I know you’re you’re Zach’s neighbor. Those jokes are not going to die. The coaching search not getting out of the neighborhood. Like, you can’t outrun that at this point. But if there was a time to make a move, the by-week sure does make sense to me, man. Like, I don’t know that it gets better, but I also don’t think that it could be worse than what they’re already doing. Like, what they’re doing is already continuing to snowball and get worse. And it’s at the point where you have to question if they have anything left in terms of the locker room. Is there anything in terms of respect from these players to the coaching staff at this point? You’re talking about players only meetings, guys requesting trades, veterans getting benched, guys laughing after this loss. Like, how much of that is a reflection on what’s going on between the players and the coaching staff? Is that just fractured? Is that broken? I don’t know. I’m asking questions. I’m speculating. But what about your gut? What do you think? Do you think this is like a Bengals patience thing? We’re just going to deal with it in the offseason, or is there actually a Terrell Austin situation happening here? I I think with the Terrell Austin situation it was oh Marvin’s got it right. It would be like if the offense was struggling who do you go to and and that’s it is who do you go to? One two I do think Al knows foot like talk to Al like I think Al knows and and I don’t think that they’re naive enough to think that he doesn’t know football that he just forgot how to coach. I I also think that there’s a reflection on Zack and that’s that’s where you get to is I I remember saying this a year ago when we were having these conversations about Lou and it’s like well fine the head coach is the head coach and people are going to get sick of me saying that the head coach is the head Zach has to fix the defense it’s up to him and he said all right part of that is bringing in Al fine and and I get it the Duke side and the personnel side but a lot of what I’ve tried to focus on in this show isn’t like, “Oh, well, Colston Lovelin got open, right?” I I wasn’t knocking them for that. Wasn’t knocking that. I probably should. It is a problem. Both Colton Love catches are problems in terms of execution, but to your point, it is more basic than that. Like, yeah, like I’ve tried to like I can’t believe you gave up a 23 yard at a close level. No, it’s like how the hell do you not tackle this guy? He’s huge. Like I’m not saying that we would go out there and tackle them, but my goodness, it didn’t feel like their life. Like you, this defense should be playing like their lives are on the line because their football lives are on the line from the coaching staff, which is why you brought up Al Golden to Jordan Battle. You think Jordan Battle’s tape right now in all the tackles, even with the interceptions this year, you think teams are going to just jump at him if he keeps playing like this? like Cam Taylor Brick, who I thought played pretty well today, like seem to play with a little chip. Like, you need to play with that. The sad thing is I think they are and they’re just that bad. And and the like the the the relationship with the defense and what they’re trying to do as a team is just so fractured. They’re not learning. And that’s the whole thing with Hal Golden, right? Like he’s going to come in and he’s going to convey the message to the young guys. Yeah. And they’re going to understand his teaching. He knows how to teach young guys. Yeah. Yeah, I would say that has not been the case pretty unequivocally. Yeah, it’s it clearly hasn’t been the case. Yeah. So, I I don’t know. I don’t know what you I mean, I could name a thousand different coaches in the area that know how to teach tackling. And so, I get it. Like, you’re not the most talented defense in the league. Do the simple stuff. When you don’t do the simple stuff, it’s a reflection on coaching. And I did ask Zach Taylor like, “Hey, do you think you could fix it?” And I’m paraphrasing here, but he’s like, “We’re gonna try. Me and I are going to try. I I know Friday Zach was asked about Al and how, you know, how’s Al handled this week and all he’s just work work. It’s what he does is he works, works, works.” Well, that work has not paid off. And so, they have to figure that out in however that is. and that that it’s such a high level conversation that this is just kind of barely even scratching the surface of what we’re going to have to probably dive into this week and and look into it and go down rabbit holes and discuss a bunch of stuff because you know what’s crazy Jake if you had told me that the offense would play the way the offense would play and let’s transition to that when they traded for Joe Flacco I would have probably bet you that they’re five and four like they put themselves in position to get to five and four. Never thought they were winning at Lambo. Had a nice little flurry at the end. Could have stole it. Didn’t because the defense can’t stop a third on third and eight. Shocker. That was little foreshadowing. Defense blows it against Pittsburgh. The offense comes back. But these past two weeks, like you’re literally talking about like the most basic things. If you do them, you find a way to win. And not that the offense was perfect. Their offensive line was perfect. Their skill guys were perfect. Like Jamar Chase had a drop. Chase Brown had a drop. Joe Flacco was clearly batt. Like they weren’t perfect, but it doesn’t matter. No one’s asking you to be perfect. We’re asking you to go out there and ball. Like go out there and and make plays and do and the offense did. And that’s why Chase Brown said finish the flipping game. And uh he’s right. It’s kind of at a point where you are asking the offense to be perfect much like last year was asking Joe Burrow to be perfect, but you’re asking Joe Flacco with a bulky shoulder to be perfect, which is wild and unreasonable. But despite that, he goes for 10 yards per attempt and four touchdowns. and he has one bad interception. Don’t get me wrong, it’s way too late on the checkdown to Chase Brown. The intentional grounding play looks very disjointed before they miss a 54 yard kick with Evan McFerson, which is probably it’s on topic, but they get 20 plus yard catches from every single receiver that caught a ball in this game. T Higgins, Jamar Chase, Andre Yosvage, Tanner Hudson, Noah Fant, Mitch Shinsley, and and Chase Brown all had catches for 20 plus yards in this game. Some of them multiple. Mitch Tinsley doing the Mitch Tinsley thing, right? Tanner Hudson, one of the better balls that Joe Flacco threw in this game. Beautiful touch on that pass. Beautiful touch on the deep ball to Yoshi on the right sideline early in the game. Beautiful touch on the dropped fade ball to Jamar Chase that should have been a touchdown in the red zone. The Bengals ended up getting points there. The offense isn’t perfect like you’re saying, but Joe Flacco with a shoulder that doesn’t work. Throwing 47 passes, getting a ton of production. T. Higgins having one of the most monstrous games you could imagine. Seven catches, 121, two touchdowns, extending his home touchdown streak to nine games. And none of it matters. Like, it’s all just a footnote. That’s so disappointing to have that kind of productive day chunking the Bears defense all game long. Yeah, they had a couple of bad plays. Orlando Brown with a penalty and a bad rep on that strip sack. It wasn’t good. Yeah, Joe Flacco threw one bad pick. But there’s a lot of good in this game, too. And they get to 42 points and they just get walked off on anyway. Just yeah, wildly disappointing stuff. I don’t know how you survive if you’re Al Golden other than there’s like no successor. Maybe it would be Shawn Desai. That’s the only guy with defensive coordinator experience in the NFL on the defensive coaching staff as far as I know. Here’s the thing, man. Zack isn’t gonna just be like, “Let’s fire out. That’s his ass, too. You know, like it just is. Yeah. Like he said, “Let’s fire Lou.” Because like the difference between this and Austin is like that was Marvin, right? Like that’s Marvin and Marvin’s the defensive side of the ball, right? This would have to be ownership saying like, “Hey, we need to do something different. We’re stepping.” And to me, I just don’t think they make that decision now. We’ll see though. Like we’ll I I think tomorrow we’re going to have more like there it’s going to be so fluid. We’ll hear from We have the trade deadline coming up. We got reports that maybe Jay Glazer saying maybe the Bengals have softened their stance on Trey Hendrickson a little bit and Sher kind of reporting the opposite. So that stance should be softer than the defense trying to guard us in space. Who who wins? You know Jake Low, James or Pink get out there. We line up. You You think we get a first down? No. I think we get a couple first downs. Might get a touchdown. I will break immediately. Uh I I don’t know if you will. Yeah, we will uh we will cover the trade deadline here. There are teams interested in multiple Bengals defensive players, which is insane, but apparently there are people calling about Cam Taylor, Brit, Logan Wilson, and of course, obviously Trey Hendrickson. I mean, we can talk about Duke Tobin, too. I’d be making a lot of moves. I’d be burning this thing down and and resetting because this kind of team, even if Burrow’s out there, like it’s probably pretty different. If Burrow’s out there, you’re probably in a different place on the defensive side of the ball. But it wasn’t different last year. And so there’s a very real possibility that this is exactly where the Bengals are even if Burrow’s out there for for some of these games where the defense is doing what the defense did last year when Joe Burrow was out there. It’s possible. We we’ll never know. But the fact that this is happening when you’re actually getting production on offense, like inexcusable top to bottom, if I’m ownership, I’m very interested in burning it down. Maybe they wait until the offseason to do it. Maybe they don’t go far enough. That would be the the fair bet judging from their history. But this is some unprecedented stuff now that’s going on two years, especially defensively. I mean, I just made the joke that I think is at least 1% possible that the Lock on Bengals guys would get first downs against this defense. So, yeah, it’s pretty unprecedented. Trey deadline coming up, by week coming up. I’m gonna get tackled in the locker room. I’m going to get tackled in the locker room and it’s going to be the first tackle that they actually wrap up on. Go ahead. We don’t know yet. That’s going to do it for this episode of the Lock On Bengals podcast. Until next time, thanks for listening and have a good one. You gotta get me out of here. You got to get me out of here.

The Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Chicago Bears 47-42 on Sunday after an improbable comeback fell short due to arguably the WORST defense in NFL history!

Jake Liscow and James Rapien break down another embarrassing effort from the defense, and a loss that felt all too similar to 2024 despite an onside kick recovery, a kickoff return TD, and a blocked FG. Joe Flacco gutted through an AC joint sprain for another huge game highlighted by more Tee Higgins dominance, but it’s all a footnote to a pathetic defense that couldn’t stop anything the Bears wanted to do, from Kyle Monongai running the ball to Caleb Williams catching multiple successful passes.

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