On Sunday afternoon, Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals offense scored 38 regulation points. They did more than enough to win.

However, they didn’t win. Lou Anarumo’s defense failed to stop Derrick Henry, and for the most part they did. Before his 51-yard carry in overtime, he was averaging just 2.9 yards per carry. This is a good job.

But then they had Lamar Jackson throw for 348 yards and four touchdowns. They managed to build a little pressure, but he stayed in the pocket most of the time and dismantled a second pass that left him missing two starting corners.

Occasionally Lou would send extra rushers and some passes would be overthrown or underthrown, but when he managed four rushers it wasn’t enough.

In the second half, the Bengals’ defense was unable to force the Ravens into a third-down play until four minutes left in the fourth quarter.

So is it Lou’s fault?

No not really. He was asked to play poker without face cards. Good luck getting four of a kind.

In overtime, the football gods saw fit to give the Bengals a powerful gift: a Lamar Jackson fumbled snap that Germaine Pratt fired within field goal range. The Bengals only needed three points to win.

What happened next upset the football gods so terribly that they punished Ryan Rehkow when he put the ball on the turf for Evan McPherson’s shot.

Taylor ran the ball up the middle three times and crashed into the wall that was the Ravens’ run defense all day. The Bengals gained three yards on those three runs (all in one play), and then when Rehkow dropped the ball as he was about to place it, McPherson’s foot hit him off-center and sent it wide left.

Just a few plays later the game was over.

So is it Taylor’s fault?

A little maybe. He should have been more aggressive in OT, but I’m sure if Burrow had thrown his second pick we would all be wondering why he didn’t run the ball and let McPherson kick it. He plays poker without aces. Easier to win since he has a strong offense, but still pretty tough.

This leaves one space left. The front office.

The Bengals reached the Super Bowl in 2021, and I think it’s safe to say they were ahead of schedule. Burrow led a team with a patchwork offensive line and still lost by just three. I think it’s clear now that a lot of that had to do with who Anarumo had on his depth chart.

He had Bates and Vonn Bell, who had developed a psychic connection while on the field together. He had DJ Reader in the middle of the defensive line acting as a rock and giving Logan Wilson and Pratt the freedom to make plays. He had Chidobe Awuzie at the corner.

Bates left. Bell left. Awuzie left. The reader left.

Losing Bates is obviously the loss that hurts the most. He did nothing less than dominate the Falcons’ secondary, and he was only 25 years old when he left the Falcons. Awuzie was a few years older and coming off a season-ending injury. I understand it.

So they decided to let Bates walk, and they told us it was because they had to pay Burrow and they had to pay Higgins and they had to pay Chase.

And they paid Burrow, a lot.

But they didn’t pay Higgins, and they still haven’t paid Chase. They didn’t spend much money to extend Hendrickson because he demanded a trade when he and his agent realized they had gotten a bad deal.

The Bengals’ offense, absolutely one of the best in the league, scored 38 points in the regular season, and Taylor and Anarumo were asked to coach a defense despite battling injuries and losing so many great talents since then Super Bowl run against an equally good Ravens offense.

So is it the front office’s fault?

Mostly yes.

What we can’t do now is shout loudly that Mike Brown is the same as always and that he needs to get out of his mouth while at the same time praising Katie Blackburn.

Some things have changed, yes. The Ring of Honor is great. The gaming experience is better. They won some postseason games for crying out loud.

But if those changes don’t pay off in the form of Lombardi Trophies, or at least wins when Burrow throws five touchdown passes, then what are we talking about? We’re talking lipstick on a pig.

So this applies equally to Brown and Blackburn. If the franchise is serious about showing the rest of the league and its fan base that they have changed, then they need to keep the guys they are recruiting who are obviously superstars in stripes. Don’t let this team lose another Bates. Learn from this misstep and don’t let it happen again.

It may be too late to fix the problem this season, but it’s not too late to not let down the future Bengals fans who will grow up listening to their moms and dads hear the cautionary tale of Andrew Luck tell.

There’s not much left to say.

Relevant song lyrics:

And now my bitter hands cradle broken glass
of what everything was
All images were all black washed
Everything tattooed
All the love has gone bad and turned my world black
Everything I see is tattooed
everything I am
All I will be