Cincinnati Bengals postgame video wrap following win over Dolphins
Enquirer beat writer Kelsey Conway breaks down the Bengals’ Week 16 win over the Dolphins.
The Bengals beat a Dolphins team starting a backup, rookie quarterback in Miami on Dec. 21.Another strong late season finish against bad teams playing backups can be a bad thing for the Bengals, Jason Williams writes.
Here it comes.
The Cincinnati Bengals‘ late-season run of winning games against bad or unproven quarterbacks and mostly sputtering teams. The Bengals have gotten really good at winning such games the last three seasons. It’s emboldened the stubborn front office to remain status quo, despite the Bengals missing the playoffs all three seasons.
So Cincinnati’s 45-21 road win on Sunday against first-time starting quarterback Quinn Ewers and the flailing Miami Dolphins could be the worst thing to happen for the potential of roster improvement in 2026.
Get ready to run it back, baby!
It’s really unfortunate that any win has to be viewed this way. Especially for the through-thick-and-thin Bengals’ fans, who are owed a lot by a family-owned operation that doesn’t care about them. It’s also unfortunate for a team that has winners like Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase on the roster.
But it doesn’t take a cynic to know exactly where this is going. The Bengals now return home to play a couple of woeful teams in Arizona and Cleveland to finish out the season. Cincinnati should win both games, meaning it’d win three straight games to finish 7-10.
It’ll allow owner Mike Brown and roster architect Duke Tobin to make the same tired excuse they’ve made in recent years: We’re close. If Burrow hadn’t missed a big chunk of games due to injury, we’d be in the playoffs.
Well, we don’t actually know if Brown and Tobin will vocalize that excuse. They hide from media and fans. But that excuse has sure shown in their decision making the last few offseasons, when the Bengals have sat on their hands and not gone all-out to improve the roster.
The Bengals went 4-2 after Dec. 1 during the 2023 season. Three of those wins came against teams that didn’t make the playoffs, including Indianapolis with backup quarterback Gardner Minshew and Minnesota with backup Nick Mullens. The other win came in the regular-season finale against Cleveland, which started backup Jeff Driskell and rested its starters ahead of the playoffs.
The Bengals didn’t have the injured Burrow for that stretch and missed the playoffs by one game. Fans could somewhat accept the “we’re close” excuse that season. The Bengals may have won at least one late-December road game in Pittsburgh and Kansas City with Burrow.
Still, the front office didn’t improve the defense that offseason. The Bengals’ big free-agent signing was aging defensive lineman Sheldon Rankins, who was a non-factor in his illness-plagued one season with Cincinnati. The Bengals drafted defensive tackles Kris Jenkins and McKinnley Jackson. Neither player has become a consistent contributor.
And let’s not forget, that 2024 draft also produced troubled wide receiver Jermaine Burton, who was cut a few weeks ago. No big deal, right? Well, the Bengals drafted Burton to replace Tee Higgins. Instead, Burton’s troubles forced Cincinnati into having to re-sign Higgins last offseason. At least a chunk of that $115 million should’ve gone to improving the defense.
Last season, the Bengals won five consecutive games at the end, including victories against Dallas, Tennessee and Cleveland. Those teams started backup quarterbacks and didn’t make the playoffs. The Bengals missed the playoffs by one game. There was no Burrow injury excuse. He started every game and should’ve won league MVP if not for the Bengals’ woeful defense.
The front office responded by not signing any top-tier defensive free agents. The Bengals passed on good defensive players in the first round to draft edge rusher Shemar Stewart, who had just 4.5 sacks in college. Predictably, he’s had a rough rookie season.
The Bengals could use the excuse this season that Burrow missed nine games with a toe injury. But it’d be a hollow excuse, which no one should buy. Joe Flacco performed well enough to win in most of the veteran quarterback’s six starts after being acquired in a trade from Cleveland. But the Bengals only won one game with Flacco, because of an atrocious defense.
So here they are again. The Bengals’ defense sure looked good against Miami’s Ewers, a rookie who made his first NFL start on Sunday. No surprise, he threw two interceptions and wasn’t good. There’s a reason why the former Texas Longhorns star fell to the seventh round in the last draft. Miami had already been eliminated from playoff contention and looked every bit like a team playing out the string.
It should be more of the same the next few weeks. Arizona and Cleveland have a combined 6-24 record and are starting backup quarterbacks.
So, don’t be surprised when the Bengals do nothing to upgrade the defense again in the offseason.
Contact columnist Jason Williams at jwilliams@enquirer.com