The 2025 Wildcard Round of the NFL Playoffs has officially concluded. Every year there is one team that just missed the playoffs, and should be involved but weren’t, due to bad luck and terrible decisions. This year, that team is the Cincinnati Bengals, who just missed the playoffs. There are three key reasons why the Bengals didn’t make the playoffs this year.
Almost every year, the Cincinnati Bengals start exceptionally slow. This year was no different, and it cost them badly. They lost 4 of their first 5 games against the Patriots, Chiefs, Commanders, and Ravens. The worst loss of the year was in Week 1 against a Jerod Mayo-coached Patriots team that had Jacoby Brissett as the starter. That was embarrassing to Bengals fans, the team, and those who used their survivor picks on the Bengals like I did in Week 1. If they didn’t have the slow start, they would have made the playoffs.
The Cincinnati Bengals’ strength was in their offense, but when looking at the defense, it was a clear weakness. Oh dear, where to even begin with this defense? According to Fox Sports, the Bengals had a Bottom 10 Pass Defense, Bottom 10 3rd Down Defense, Bottom 5 Red Zone Defense, and 25th-ranked defense in the NFL. Their secondary hasn’t been the same since Jesse Bates left, and it got progressively worse. The only player in the secondary that looked decent was Cam Taylor-Britt, which is a massive problem. The Pass rush disappointed, and the only player who looked great was Trey Hendrickson, who deserved better with his 17.5 sack season. This needs to be a wake-up call for the Bengals, and with 47.5 million in cap space, they need to fix that and extend WR Tee Higgins on offense.
It’s not just the defense that was awful, but the coaching in general. Zac Taylor hasn’t done a great job, with the constant slow starts. He wasn’t getting fired, because this is the same franchise that kept Marvin Lewis for a decade and a half. This was easily his worst season as the Bengals Head Coach, even with an above .500 record. Arguably worse than 2019 and 2020, as those years were expected to be bad. This year had many analysts projecting a deep playoff run. With how bad the defense was, there has to be a change in coordinator. So on Black Monday, the Bengals parted ways with Lou Anarumo. It may be a scapegoat-type firing, but let’s be real, it had to be done. A new voice was needed to lead the defense and a change had to be done.
Honestly, there are not a lot of bright spots for a team that many predicted to go on a deep playoff run and win the division. I debated saying that they finished strong, winning the last 5 games, but three of those were against the Tennessee Titans, Dallas Cowboys, and Cleveland Browns.
I am just going to give the bright spot to Joe Burrow, who deserved so much better this season. He had a career year, throwing for 4,918 yards (career best), 43 touchdowns (career best), and 9 interceptions. The Bengals wasted a year of Joe Burrow, Tee Higgins, and Ja’Marr Chase’s prime with how bad the defense was. Hopefully, this offseason they fully invest in fixing the defense.
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