It's Getting Late Early for the Cincinnati Bengals as Hope is as Thin as the Denver Air They Wilted In

The Cincinnati Bengals had a chance to prove last week’s 48-10 loss at Minnesota was an aberration.

Instead, they turned into a confirmation that the rest of the season might look like Broncos 28, Bengals 3.

Hapless offense.

Toothless defense.

Careless everything, leading to 14 penalties, five of which were of the pre-snap variety, including a delay of game before a punt.

Not a “let’s give ourselves more room” delay of game; a “sleepwalking, ho-hum” delay of game.

“It didn’t look like we wanted it,” wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase said pointedly.

Last week the Bengals set a franchise record for their largest margin of defeat.

Monday night, they belly-flopped into bottom-five depths in yardage differential as the Broncos outgained them 512 to 159.

“We had some procedural penalties. I felt like when we did get some momentum, it put us in first-and-15 and against a good defense, you just can’t put yourself in a hole like that,
 Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “We’re just not creating enough momentum to put points on the board, put pressure on the other team, to get our defense a rest. There are things I know that will be better.”

Will they, though?

Or is this what the next 13 games are going to look like?

What evidence – in any area of the game – through the last eight quarters lends belief that it will get better.

That it even can get better.

The Bengals had more penalties (14) than first downs (nine).

They almost had more punts (eight) than first downs.

They’ve gained 330 yards in their last eight quarters.

Fifty-nine teams have had more in a single game.

The Bills had 330 yards in one half against the Ravens.

“We’ve faced two of the tougher environments on the road against two really good teams,” Taylor said. “We didn’t hold our own. We didn’t do well enough. I think there’s been pieces that we can continue to build on.”

Such as committing no turnovers after spitting up five the week before?

“As far as from a turnover perspective, we played clean, but we didn’t move the ball so who cares?” quarterback Jake Browning said.

The answer to that question, if you ask Chase, is “not enough people.”

"It's just we gotta want it," Chase said. "At the end of the day, we gotta want it. Today, it didn't look like we wanted it."

The best thing the Bengals have going for them is the fact that it’s early.

We’re a little less than a quarter of the way through the season, and they’re 2-2.

If a game was tied after the first quarter, it’d be foolish to write a team off as having no chance to come out with a win.

If the playoffs started today, they would be in as the No. 6 seed.

But they are averaging 157 yards of offense in three road games this year, and that’s with Joe Burrow at the helm in one of them.

Their next four road games are at Green Bay, at Pittsburgh, at Baltimore and at Buffalo.

It’s too early to say they are cooked.

But it’s also too unrealistic to believe otherwise.

The Bengals get one more chance to keep all hope from being snuffed.

If Sunday at Paycor against the Lions looks anything like what we’ve seen the last two weeks, it’s going to get late pretty early in these parts.