The Cincinnati Bengals are 0-2 to start the season for the second year in a row. For the second year in a row, they intend to make a remarkable turnaround. In 2022, they went 12-2 in their 14 remaining games to finish 12-4. What kind of run can they make this year?
In both cases, the slow start involved the health of Pro Bowl QB Joe Burrow. He had an appendectomy a year ago and it took him a few weeks into the regular season to start looking like himself. This time around, he injured his calf, and he clearly wasn’t fully healed in time. Indeed, he aggravated the injury the last time out and it’s not even clear, as of this writing, if he will play. “We’ll see”, he told reporters, via Mitch Stacy of the Associated Press.
While he said that he is preparing as if he will be ready to go for the Bengals’ third game—and they do play on Monday so he has an extra day—he understands another setback could be fatal to his team’s chances in 2023. But the pressure of the 0-2 hole weighs on him.
“It’s in my head, for sure. I’m thinking about it”, he said when asked about the level of urgency he and his team feel about being two games back in the loss column without anything to show for it to the left on the ledger. Still, he insists that urgency is not panic or desperation.
“The teams that come out on top at the end of it are going to be the teams that handle that adversity the best”, he said. “You can’t let it snowball on you. That’s what we’ve done in the past. And if you go back and look year to year, the teams that are still in at the end, everybody has adversity at some point in the year”.
They did do a nice job of navigating the choppy waters last season, which included a gut-wrenching loss in the season opener to the Steelers. Even as they came back at the end of regulation and it looked like they were about to win, a blocked extra point by Minkah Fitzpatrick sent it into overtime, where Pittsburgh eventually prevailed. A week later, they lost as time expired on a field goal by the Dallas Cowboys.
But they didn’t do much losing after that. So far, they’ve fallen to the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens. An 0-2 hole within the AFC North makes matters even worse. But the bottom line is they’re still just two games back. There is a long season still yet to play, so they just have to take it as it comes.
The issue, of course, is how much Burrow’s calf can take, and what degree of caution should be employed. What is the risk of reinjury the Bengals could face if they trot him out on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams and he finds himself in Geno Smith’s predicament, with Aaron Donald screaming down the middle?
