Bengals’ emotion aside, loss to Chiefs shows they can still be among NFL’s best

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Joe Burrow stood on a podium in the bowels of Arrowhead Stadium holding a dejected stare of disbelief and the tone of nursing an open wound of defeat.

“As frustrating as I’ve had,” he said of the Bengals’ 26-25 loss to the Chiefs, unable to even explain why. “I’ll need a couple days to figure that out.”

Likely because for the vast majority of Sunday, the Bengals were the better team than the back-to-back Super Bowl champions. One week after looking like a far worse team projected to finish near the top of the draft.

Joe Burrow speaks to the media following Week 2 at Kansas City.

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 15, 2024

Inside the defensive corner of the tiny locker room, rookie seventh-round pick Daijahn Anthony sat at his locker, still wearing part of the uniform he wore for the second regular-season game of his life. His stare was similar.

A chain given by his grandmother was in his locker next to a phone he used earlier in the day to take video of the field, looking up and around in awe of a building he would play in for the first time.

Instead of reflecting on that moment of gratitude, he was swimming in guilt over a fourth-and-16 pass interference penalty that turned a win into a loss in arguably the best rivalry in the game today.

On the other side of the defensive bank of lockers stood Ja’Marr Chase. After nearly a half-hour of quietly getting ready and not talking to reporters, Chase stood up for two minutes to offer one-sentence answers caked in frustration from a game, month and year that’s had far too many complications for the typically jovial star receiver.

He snapped off responses that he didn’t want to talk about an outburst toward an official that went on and on featuring “abusive language,” according to referee Alex Kemp. It eventually drew an inexcusable 15-yard penalty in the defining moments of the fourth quarter.

“I don’t like losing,” Chase said.

Ja’Marr Chase was asked a few times about the unsportsmanlike penalty and said he was not talking about it.

Ref Alex Kemp did in the pool report.

He calls it “abusive language toward a game official.”

Full explanation: pic.twitter.com/ZFxjUFCyIJ

— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) September 16, 2024

No matter where you turned following the game, you felt the emotion. Raw, unfiltered feelings of all types.

“We know what it comes down to, it’s going to be us and them,” safety Vonn Bell said. “It’s an emotional environment.”

These games elicit them. Bell stood at this exact spot following an AFC Championship Game loss to Kansas City knowing it might be his last run with these teammates and his last shot at the Super Bowl.

Anthony sat mere feet from a locker where Joseph Ossai also lamented a penalty — with B.J. Hill next to him in defense — that set up a game-winning field goal by Harrison Butker in 2022.

The reality added to the intensity. That history of three straight losses to Kansas City, a third consecutive 0-2 start to the season and the Week 1 debacle that had the Bengals inexplicably the butt of jokes on national networks.

Yet, there’s another reality at play here.

They executed a game plan that should have been enough to knock the champs off their pedestal. Kansas City needed a scoop-and-score fumble and fourth-and-16 prayer to avoid moving to 1-4 against Burrow.

They reminded the league of what Chase said earlier in the week, calling the Bengals the team to beat in the AFC.

“We should act like it, we should play like it,” he said then.

They did.

They rattled Patrick Mahomes, at times offering memories of the 2021 AFC Championship Game where he made uncharacteristic turnovers and poor decisions. Akeem Davis-Gaither stepped in front of a pass intended for Travis Kelce for an easy interception. Cam Taylor-Britt made a leaping one-handed grab for another. They turned first-and-goal from the 2 for Mahomes into a field goal. Trey Hendrickson got rookie Kingsley Suamataia benched and everyone in front of him beat on his way to two sacks and three drawn penalties that put the Bengals into the fourth-and-16 endgame. It appeared to be the culmination of their return to the role of Achilles’ heel to the Chiefs’ invincibility.

HOLY 😱 What an INT by @CamTaylorBritt_!

📺: #CINvsKC on CBS/Paramount
📱: pic.twitter.com/f7r9MeCGIv

— NFL (@NFL) September 15, 2024

“We showed everybody what we are made of,” Taylor-Britt said. “We got a chance to show our real spark.”

After a week of nervous chatter about Burrow’s wrist and hesitancy, he hit his new weapon, rookie Jermaine Burton, on a gorgeous 47-yard go ball. He showed off the usage of three tight ends as true weapons in an offense with more versatility than ever in his career, connecting with them 14 times for 151 yards. They were a potent answer for the double-Chase defense. An oft-maligned offensive line kept Burrow clean enough, including 4.2 seconds to hold the ball while Andrei Iosivas broke free on fourth-and-goal for his second touchdown.

“Thought I played fast and decisive today,” Burrow said, calling it the best he’s felt throwing since last season’s wrist injury.

That’s 2 TD’s for @AndreiIosivas!!

📺: #CINvsKC on CBS/@paramountplus pic.twitter.com/0ZZGQZu1oq

— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) September 15, 2024

They scored on six of nine true possessions, only twice going three-and-out. They did it without Tee Higgins, who looks ready to return next week.

Coach Zac Taylor showed aggressiveness and variance in his game plan, shifting from under center to two and three tight ends and finding explosives out of the underneath middle and up top. He showed aggressiveness on fourth down, and his team rewarded it.

Considering the car wreck put on tape last week against New England, this represented a critical return to a team they were supposed to be and one that should be reckoned with in January.

“I’m really proud of the way we fought,” Taylor said. “Disappointed we lost, it’s an emotional loss for us. But at that same time, I like where our team’s mental state is at right now and how we fought on the road against a really good opponent.”

Moral victories are like dirty words around a professional athlete. They play to win, they expect to win. Moral victories are for losers.

The mere mention of them, especially around a team that’s been to and expects to return to playing in late January and February, draws a side-eye.

“In this league, it’s about winning,” left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. said. “That’s the most important stat. Starting 0-2, that’s never a good feeling. Can’t necessarily say I sink my teeth into moral victories.”

Players might not like them and they rarely have a place. Brown is right, careers are built and ended by the final result. Yet, in Week 2, there’s room for much more nuance.

The season will be long and the Bengals have done this before, now 0-2 for a third straight season. Over the past five seasons, only two teams have made the playoffs after 0-2 starts, one of them was the 2022 Bengals who saw their season end here at Arrowhead.

Sometimes you have to peel away the emotion and see the logic. In September, you have to even more. The Bengals mostly played at a championship level against a championship opponent. They look more than capable of repeating their odds-beating past.

The result might be hard to digest through the long stare of disbelief, suffocating guilt or overflowing frustration, but that’s the truth that will inevitably matter when this game is filed into the big picture.

“I feel like s— hurt,” Taylor-Britt said. “We are back at square one, 0-2 once again. Every year I have been here it’s been the same way. We always find a way to bounce back and come together as one and go win.”

Once they get done wading through their emotions, they should realize Sunday proved they are in a great position to do so.

(Photo: Kevin Sabitus / Getty Images)