The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 on Sunday and exposed some problems with their defense in the process.
The Kansas City Chiefs lost another tough game to the Cincinnati Bengals 27-24 on Sunday. The Bengals have now beaten the Chiefs three consecutive times dating back to last year and all three were painful three-point losses. Unfortunately, the Bengals and their fans will continue to have bragging rights over KC until a potential rematch in the playoffs.
A loss like this has to be shared by the entire team. Travis Kelce (who passed Shannon Sharpe in career yards) had a brutal fumble when it looked like the Chiefs had a chance to put the game away. The offense wasted multiple opportunities and the offensive tackles got beat at inopportune times.
Harrison Butker also missed a 55-yard field goal that could have tied the game. I’d argue that Butker shouldn’t have even attempted that kick and that Andy Reid should have gone for it on that 4th down. However, even if Butker had made that field goal, I don’t think anyone would have been confident that the Chiefs still wouldn’t have given the game away. That’s because the biggest problem in this game was that the Bengals exposed some real issues with KC’s defense.
Before we get to the Chiefs’ defensive problems, let’s acknowledge that the Bengals’ offense is really good. Joe Burrow is Joe Montana-esque in his calm and poised demeanor. He makes big-time throws, is clutch when the game is on the line, and nothing seems to rattle him. Cincinnati has two fantastic pass catchers in Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase. They didn’t even have their top running back Joe Mixon for this game, but it didn’t matter because Samaje Perine looks like one of the league’s better backups. He had 155 total yards on Sunday against the Chiefs.
The bottom line here is that the Bengals deserve their fair share of the credit for this performance. This wasn’t the Indianapolis game where the Chiefs choked away a game against a vastly inferior team. The Chiefs were going toe-to-toe with one of the other best teams in the AFC and the Bengals’ talented offense exposed some serious issues with the Chiefs’ defense.
Let’s start with the problems that are more execution based and then we’ll talk about where the Chiefs might just be short on talent.