When Zac Taylor took over the Bengals (-7.5 at Kansas City), not only was there no direction in Cincinnati, but no one even had a map. Taylor’s Bengals, with some praising the McVay disciple, crawled their way toward a 2-14 season. The end of the Marvin Lewis era, one that only saw countless heartbreaks, had its last, wheezing gasps. The Bengals were the NFL’s worst team and Taylor looked completely out of his depth.
My, my what a great quarterback and a little moxie can do.
After a thrilling, 27-24, comeback victory on the road in Arrowhead Stadium, the Bengals are in Super Bowl LVI. You read that right, your eyes do not deceive you: The new Cardiac Bengals, led by the new king of cardiac quarterbacks, Joe Burrow, went into the House of Patrick Mahomes and took a Super Bowl berth right out from under the red rug.
How did they get here? How did we, as an anxious audience at home, get to a point where rookie kicker Evan McPherson makes two game-winning kicks to send the Bengals, of all teams, to the American sports mecca, the Super Bowl.
SHOOOOOOOOOTER SENDS US TO LA!
Visit https://t.co/KpeqK4RKUm for more highlights. pic.twitter.com/vb03jFYigS
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) January 30, 2022
It wasn’t on the arm of what seems like yet another great quarterback added to a pantheon of already great quarterbacks in Joe Burrow.
It wasn’t through the hands and deft play-making ability of Ja’Marr Chase, another seemingly already legendary player, and as a rookie no less.
And it most certainly wasn’t thanks to Taylor, who has improved as a caretaker of one of football’s more memorable stories in some time.
The only way any team, no matter how dire the situation seems, completes the largest second-half comeback in AFC Championship Game history, is through discipline. Put more succinctly, the only way you make that come back is through disciplined defense.
The Bengals faced the all-worldly Chiefs’ offense—which only a week ago effortlessly cut through the Bills’ No. 1 defense—seven times in the second half of Sunday’s AFC title bout. Seven possessions, with Pat Mahomes and the Big Red Machine already running on all cylinders. Game over, right?
Wrong.
Here’s a rundown of how the Bengals’ defense held together against Kansas City in the second stanza:
- Drive 1: Five plays, 16 yards, Punt
- Drive 2: 5 plays, 17 yards, Punt
- Drive 3: 2 plays, seven yards, and a B.J. Hill interception of Mahomes
- Drive 4: Three plays, -2 yards, Punt
- Drive 5: Three plays, -4 yards, Punt
- Drive 6: 14 plays, 49 yards, Field Goal
- Drive 7: Three plays, zero yards, and the interception of Von Bell’s life.
A defensive masterclass in every sense of the phrase.
RING THAT BELL!
Watch on CBS pic.twitter.com/dDZVDGwW3i
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) January 30, 2022
Those last two possessions are why we should perhaps start to fear the Bengals, and why perhaps they’re a bigger threat to win the Super Bowl than anyone previously thought. The league’s premier player player, Patrick Mahomes, had the ball twice with a chance to drive the final nail in the coffin on the Bengals’ season. And twice, Cincy slammed the door in his face. What would be a given under almost any other circumstances, instead produced a shock, and an upstart Bengals squad clearly capable of reaching the moon if they put their minds to it.
Before they beat the Chiefs in their own stadium with the AFC on the line, no one gave the Bengals much of a chance. Pre-game odds with Tipico Sportsbook leading upto Championship Sunday had the Bengals at +750 to win Super Bowl LVI–easily the longest odds among the NFL’s final four teams.
You could attribute such a lack of faith to a turnstile offensive line. Yet, somehow, the Bengals sacked Mahomes four times while only allowing Burrow to hit the ground once. You could think the Bengals’ otherwise oft-gashed defense wouldn’t stand a chance against Mahomes. Yet, somehow, there they were in cold possession of every last blade of grass.
The Bengals are onto Super Bowl LVI. They’re in the healthiest place as an organization with a legitimate star quarterback like Burrow, as they might ever be. But they didn’t get to this stage only because of him. These orange and black tigers are a complete team, a squad with a well-calibrated focus.
One could say putting the clamp down on the Chiefs in their own stadium would be the perfect cap to anyone’s seasons. But the Bengals wouldn’t do that. They’re not an underdog, the way everyone once believed, and you better believe they’re hungry for more.
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