The Cincinnati Bengals have had somewhat of a nightmare season in 2024-25. On Sunday night, a chance to jump back into the AFC. Wild Card race slipped through their fingers as they suffered yet another heartbreaking prime time loss in a 34-27 defeat against the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Bengals fell behind in 27-6 early in the second half of this one before mounting an amazing comeback to tie things up at 27. Joe Burrow started to find Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins and running back Chase Brown made a few big plays out of the backfield.

Defensively, the Bengals finally started to slow down Justin Herbert and company after a disastrous first half that looked like much of the season had up to this point. One of the biggest keys to that turnaround was the secondary, which started to play very well after halftime.

Cornerback DJ Turner II was one of the standouts, as he made multiple plays to break up potential chunk gains in the passing game. On the last of those plays, a beautiful pass breakup against Quentin Johnston down the left sideline, Turner suffered an injury that has turned out to be serious, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media.

“Bengals CB DJ Turner II, who has emerged as a starter this season and was coming into his own, is feared to have suffered a fractured clavicle, sources say,” Rapoport reported on X, formerly Twitter. “He’s getting a second opinion, but Turner is likely out for the season.”

Losing Turner for the rest of the season due to injury would be a huge blow for a Bengals defense that can't afford to lose any talent off of a unit that is already battling as hard as it can. This has already been one of the worst defenses in the NFL this season, so long a starting cornerback is not ideal.

Sunday night's loss dropped the Bengals to 4-7 on the season. They are now two full games behind the Denver Broncos for the final AFC Wild Card spot with a meeting against Sean Payton and company later in the season. However, the Bengals still have to play two-games against the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers, so their margin for error is just about zero moving forward.