If a defeat can teach us something, the Cincinnati Bengals certainly learned a lot from their embarrassing 34-11 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in front of a national television audience.
Here are a few important lessons learned:
Tee Higgins enjoys being the best choice.
Now, there’s simply no getting around it. When Ja’Marr Chase is not available, Higgins fills in, and in the previous two games, he has managed to shake off a season-long slump. Higgins amassed 140 yards against Pittsburgh on just eight targets (five receptions), which included an 80-yard score.
To Higgins’ credit, not many players in the NFL can manage to put up jaw-dropping stats while facing one of the best receivers in the competition (Chase). Thus, it should come as no surprise that Higgins appears to have much higher numbers when he is the center of attention for the offense.
Jake Browning won’t be receiving anything from the Bengals.
The backup quarterback set a few records recently, but his method of success didn’t exactly point to him being a franchise quarterback—Browning gained a lot of yardage by handing the ball off to Chase Brown and Joe Mixon.
Working the short game, he gave Chase a blank canvas to work with before taking chances down the field
Cincinnati’s front office, meanwhile, is renowned for being tough to work with. Browning won’t be leaving unless a team provides them at least a second round selection.
It would also be challenging for any team to convince itself that Browning can be its guy following a dismal performance against the Steelers. He exhibited every trait that had previously turned off scouts and general managers, most notably a deficiency in field awareness and bad decision making.
To be clear, Browning can perform well with this Bengals squad if his skill players—including the running backs—strongly support him and he isn’t asked to bear the load. To succeed as much as he did against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Indianapolis Colts, and Minnesota Vikings with a different roster, though, he would need a lot of the proper pieces in place.
In the AFC North, the Bengals are not designed to succeed.
Yes, as many have noted, Cincinnati lost all five of its AFC North games this season without a healthy Joe Burrow. And the fact that D.J. Reader was sidelined versus the Steelers undoubtedly added to the score’s extreme disparity.
