The underdog Bengals (-3.5) entered their Divisional Round matchup with the Titans in Nashville, knowing they could win. While a No. 1 seed, Tennessee was far from the juggernaut that you’d expect to see out of a team with a home-field advantage over the rest of the AFC bracket. If anyone was ripe for an upset, it was the Titans. By direct contrast, Cincinnati was a Cinderella in every sense of the cliche, had a bevy of confidence, a little Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins sprinkled in, and, of course, the unflappable Joe Burrow.
Or should I say, “Joe Cool”?
The Bengals are on to their first AFC Championship Game since the year of our Esiason, 1988. This comes a week after ending the NFL’s previous longest playoff drought. They got there first and foremost thanks to a stellar performance for Burrow, who cut up the Titans to the tune of 348 yards while they teed off on him without mercy.
Time after time, hit after hit, it didn’t matter. No one would deny Burrow on this day.
So when Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill threw his third pick in the final moments, giving the Bengals a shot to steal the game, neither Burrow, nor Chase, nor rookie kicker Evan MacPherson, were going to waste the opportunity.
EVAN MCPHERSON. A ROOKIE.
THE @BENGALS ADVANCE! #NFLPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/B6QsNNNhyX
— NFL (@NFL) January 23, 2022
A 52-yard, no-doubt buzzer-beater on the road. Does it get any better than that when it comes to playoff football? How about when it happens for a perennial, downtrodden afterthought like the Bengals?
It’s been a good while since we had such a lovely story in professional football, to say the very least.
The last time the Bengals were this good and this fun, the late George Michael serenaded us all with his smooth single, “Faith.” The top movie filling countless seats at theaters around the country? Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I don’t know who framed the Bengals for so long that they didn’t appear in a conference championship game for almost 35 years, but if it wasn’t clear before, you gotta have faith, faith, and faith.
To backtrack a previous statement, the Bengals used to be an afterthought. Thanks to Burrow, Cincinnati is not only more relevant than ever; it’s hard to imagine they’re not a consistent fixture every January. If this is what they accomplish in his second year as a starter and with a poor offensive line, anything can happen in the future.
The Bengals are here to stay and it’s all thanks to Joe Cool.
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