A few years ago, the Cincinnati Bengals were seen as the primary challengers to the Kansas City Chiefs’ dominance in the AFC.
As one of only two teams, alongside the New England Patriots, to defeat the Chiefs in the playoffs, the Bengals had high expectations.
In a way, it was looking like Joe Burrow and the Bengals were the ultimate kryptonite to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.
However, last season took a turn for the worse.
Burrow suffered a wrist injury that derailed Cincinnati’s season. The misfortune carried into this year, as the Bengals stumbled in Week 1, losing 16-10 to the New England Patriots.
There is significant concern that Burrow’s wrist is still a major problem and may linger throughout his career.
Despite the struggles and early-season doubts, star wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase remains confident that Cincinnati is still the team to beat.
“Everybody knows that, bro,” Chase confidently stated. “It’s not ‘if.’ We are the team to beat in the AFC. And we know it. And we gotta play like it, too.”
The Burrow-Chase duo was central to the Bengals’ remarkable run to Super Bowl LVI, where they defeated the Mahomes-led Chiefs in a thrilling AFC Championship Game.
The following year, they made it back to the AFC Championship, only to fall short in a rematch with Kansas City in heartbreaking fashion.
These back-to-back deep playoff runs had many pegging the Bengals as Kansas City’s biggest rival in the AFC for years to come.
But with Burrow’s injury cutting short last season and their rocky start this year, the Bengals face a much tougher road ahead.
“For us, it’s just Week 2. It’s the next opponent, and we’re excited to turn the page and move forward,” Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor said. “We got the taste out of our mouth, we’re done with that and now we get a chance to move forward.”
While Taylor has mostly talked in coach-speak this week, he did acknowledge that the rivalry with the Chiefs does offer a little something extra…
“There’s a lot of knowledge on both sides of it for us and them, just because we feel like we played them as much as we played a divisional opponent,” Taylor said. “We played them as much as we played any team in the league outside the division.”
To his credit, Mahomes also acknowledged the elephant in the room and admitted Sunday’s game against the Bengals isn’t just your typical Week 2 game.
“These games are going to matter at the end of the year,” Mahomes said. “Obviously it’s early in the season. Everybody’s working through stuff. Everybody’s trying to get better and better. But you know that this could be a tiebreaker, whatever you want to call it, at the end of the year, that determines seeding for the playoffs.
“There’s definitely a rise in intensity, especially in these games against other contenders.”
On one hand, you have to respect Chase’s confidence in his team. He may be furious about his personal contract situation, but we all know the type of competitor he is on the field.
As for his comments, it’s obviously inaccurate to call the Bengals “the team to beat in the AFC.” … Love them or hate them, until the Chiefs are knocked off their throne, they are clearly the true team to beat – not only in the AFC, but the entire NFL.
Having said that, who do you view as Kansas City’s biggest threat? … Is it indeed the Bengals assuming Burrow is healthy???