The Cincinnati Bengals’ season hit rock bottom with a 24-0 home loss to the Baltimore Ravens, and the fallout has gone well beyond the box score. Joe Burrow’s recent comments about needing to “have fun” playing again already had teammates and fans on edge, and after the shutout officially knocked Cincinnati out of playoff contention, even Ja’Marr Chase admitted he might have to start “uplifting” a quarterback who has usually been the one steadying everyone else.
In a year where injuries, regression, and frustration have piled up, the franchise player’s mindset is suddenly front and center.
Multiple players said Joe Burrow addressed the team after the game. They did not share what Burrow said, per Joe Danneman on X.
That silence almost says more than any leaked quote could. Whatever Burrow told the locker room clearly stayed in-house, which suggests his message carried enough weight that teammates were willing to protect it.
For a 4-10 team that just got blanked at home and has seen its supposed Super Bowl window slammed shut for the third straight year, that kind of internal loyalty still matters.
On the field, nothing about Sunday looked like the Bengals’ contender version. Burrow went 25-of-39 for 225 yards with two interceptions, including a crushing red-zone turnover that turned into a pick-six the other way.
Cincinnati moved the ball in spurts but repeatedly stalled on third and fourth down, finishing with just 4.2 yards per play and no points to show for it. Even Chase’s 10 catches for 132 yards came with costly drops that helped kill drives.
Head coach Zac Taylor didn’t duck the blame for the meltdown. He called the shutout “unacceptable” and put it on himself as the playcaller, vowing to dig into why an offense that once terrified the league could look this lifeless at home against a division rival.
Where the Bengals go from here will depend heavily on what was actually said in that postgame speech.
The public may never hear Burrow’s words, but his teammates’ decision to keep them private hints at a quarterback still firmly at the center of the room, even as the season around him collapses.
