Bengals' 'beautiful' win over Browns masks bubbling issues with clunky offense

CLEVELAND — As Ja’Marr Chase walked off the field, the 21-14 final score shining off the scoreboard behind him, he excitedly bounded toward the locker room and fired off a thought for everyone to hear but to nobody in particular.

“Beautiful!” he said.

That might not be the first word most watching the old-fashioned Battle of Ohio slugfest might have used about the previous three hours, but to this Bengals team that earned style points and little else the first five weeks, they know beauty lives in the eye of the beholder.

“We found ways to win,” Joe Burrow said. “Everybody is talking about how good our offense was the first four weeks or whatever it was, and we were 1-3. So, that’s not ideal. I’d rather have everyone talking about how we didn’t execute on offense and win two games in a row than the other way around.”

That’s exactly what they will do.

The Bengals went into halftime with as many punts as first downs, 0-for-6 on third downs and Ja’Marr Chase was their leading rusher with one carry for 11 yards.

They only managed 86 yards at the break. The clunkiness felt all too familiar inside this building. They have posted 100 yards or fewer before halftime 11 times since the start of the 2021 season. Four (!) of those have come in Cleveland.

The only difference? They walked out of the building with a victory for the first time on this streak.

“That’s what you got to do,” Burrow said. “Great teams find ways to win. I think we have a chance to be a great team. We are not that yet. Lot of season left to play.”

They weren’t the last two weeks because the offense failed to replicate the electric performances put on scoring 33-plus points four weeks in a row.

Instead, they couldn’t muster a field goal attempt when Sam Hubbard picked off Dorian Thompson-Robinson to set them up at the Cleveland 43. They finished 2-of-11 on third down. The running backs averaged 2.4 yards per carry. Burrow was sacked three times.

This coming off the clunkiness against the Giants where the defense bailed out a sluggish performance and this offensive malaise has started shifting from blip to trend. Is it concerning to the franchise quarterback? Rarely one to hide displeasure if he feels it, he wasn’t uncertain on that question.

“We scored over 30 and we lost,” Burrow said. “Now we’ve won two in a row. So, no, I’m not concerned.”

How many teams do the Bengals beat with the performances from the last two weeks? Not as many as they’d like. Daniel Jones and the three Cleveland quarterbacks earned assists on these victories.

Yes, these were two good defenses and the Bengals proved well-rounded enough to take advantage of both those weaknesses.

Special teams coordinator Darrin Simmons saw a weakness in the Browns’ kickoff coverage team and sneaked tight end Drew Sample back in front of Charlie Jones for the first time this season. The middle return was drawn up to perfection as Sample picked up the open defender and Jones ran off his block to sprint 100 yards for the score.

CHARLIE FREAKIN’ JONES WITH THE 100-YD KICK RETURN!!!!

📺: #CINvsCLE on CBS pic.twitter.com/9ObAqsLtQ7

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) October 20, 2024

“We had a feeling the first kick they probably wouldn’t make an adjustment,” said Sample, who slow-played his position by starting near the blocking line and gradually backpedaled deep in front of Jones. “That was the risk of it.”

Inevitably, along with a defense that’s writing a redemption story arc, that ended up the difference in the game. Trey Hendrickson continued to look unblockable with two sacks and forcing an intentional grounding. The reinforcements on the defensive line have reenergized that group.

Burrow mentioned for the second straight week how important it has felt to see the defense gain momentum after what went down in September. The early tailspin could end up being one of the best things to happen to that side of the ball, in their mind.

“We were facing so much adversity and so much noise from the outside,” Hubbard said. “It builds your character as a team. It forms your identity to go through that together. See how people will react. Nobody switched up. Nobody turned on each other. We just found solutions.”

The offense might be looking for the same strategy. Nobody doubts a group that can always pull big plays out of the back pocket and out-talent every opponent that lines up across from Chase and Tee Higgins.

In desperate need of a score, Burrow saw Chase get pressed by cornerback Greg Newsome and immediately converted the route to go ball. They were on the same page and Burrow planted a back-shoulder throw on him as he’s done hundreds of times during their career together. It’s unfair chemistry that the Bengals always have in their back pocket, even on days when nothing else seems to be working correctly.

The type of play that made Chase want to pull an Allen Iverson and stomp over top of Newsome and a team he’s enjoyed talking smack with over the years.

“It was the perfect moment to,” Chase said. “Feels great to talk trash and get a dub.”

Was that a Ja’Marr Chase Iverson stepover TD celly?!??! 👀 pic.twitter.com/ibR4MDAS0Y

— NFL on CBS 🏈 (@NFLonCBS) October 20, 2024

Then there’s Higgins, who had four catches, all for explosives. He skied over top of Martin Emerson for a 21-yard catch early, spun the DB for a big gain later, then exploded out of a slant and broke a tackle for a touchdown that essentially put the game on ice.

Burrow and the Bengals can always play those cards. Even on sluggish days. The floor with that trio is as high as any in the league. What’s apparent in the last few weeks is they are still figuring out the ceiling.

“We left a little bit more out there than we wanted to,” Higgins said. “They did not make it easy at all. Obviously there is a lot of stuff we need to correct and I cannot wait to get better in film on Monday.”

The degree of difficulty increases next week against the Eagles and urgency still applies at 3-4. For a team that lost pretty, don’t expect any tears to be shed for winning ugly. The loud “beautiful!” from Chase told that story. But the underlying symptoms of this win should be duly noted.

“We’ll take them how we can get them,” head coach Zac Taylor said. “Obviously, we want to score a lot of points and there’s some things that we can continue to improve on to do that. It’s just about playing good complementary football and I thought in the second half we did a good job of that. We found a way to win and that’s all that matters coming out of here.”