Halloween was just as scary as the Bengals could have imagined it. 

Leading up to the game, the Bengals were the heavy favorites against the Browns, especially after their dominating performance in Atlanta last week. The offense had finally gotten themselves together, and the defense was expected to continue to dominate as they had all season.

Unfortunately, fans got the opposite of that. The offense couldn’t put anything together until late in the third quarter, kicker Evan McPherson struggled, and the defense got blown out late in the game due to injuries.

The defense did all they could to help the offense in the first half. They blocked a field goal, intercepted the ball, and forced a fumble. The offense didn’t capitalize on any of these opportunities, which, given their talent, is inexcusable. 

Sure, Ja’Marr Chase is out with a hip injury right now, but we still have Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins as great wide receivers. Before week six, the offense was finding a lot of success with Chase having less than 100 receiving yards per game. Who would have guessed that his presence on the field is what gets the Bengals going?

Going into this game, players knew that Chase was going to be out, and they knew they needed to step up to fill his shoes. No one on offense stepped up, and it cost them big time. The Browns were on a four-game losing streak heading into this game, with a backup quarterback starting, and they couldn’t get the job finished. I don’t know if they got big egos after last week’s win and thought they could strut into Cleveland and get an easy win, but they deserved to lose after the performance they put up.

As I’ve written week in and week out, the run game continues to struggle. Mixon cannot get himself going and is averaging 3.3 yard-per-carry this year. Last season, he had 1,205 total rushing yards, and this year he’s on track to have less than 900. Constantly giving him the ball in hopes that he will get something going has not been working, and they need to find a solution fast.

The biggest leader on the team, Joe Burrow, also struggled Monday night. He threw an interception on the first drive, fumbled the ball once, and was sacked five times. It didn’t feel like he knew what he was doing until the fourth quarter which was too late. He finished the game 25-of-35 for 232 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception. On paper, it doesn’t look too bad, but watching on the TV, it looked terrible. He continues to be winless in his career against Cleveland, which he will hopefully bounce back from in the rematch week 14. 

The Bengals are sitting at second in the AFC North right now, but have lost to every division team already this year, which will not help the tiebreaker possibilities at the end of the season if needed. This ship needs to turn around if they want to make the playoffs this year, which is very doable considering how talented this team is.