Opinion: Losing close is still losing, and Cincinnati knows it.
Enquirer sports columnist Jason Williams’ recent article on the Bengals’ 27–18 loss to Green Bay, framed as a "moral victory," captures exactly what ownership hopes the fan base will believe. Williams offers a new standard of excellence: We were good enough not to get blown out. Let’s celebrate.
If the hometown columnist can be persuaded to praise effort over execution, maybe the public will be happy to lose every game by less than 10 points. After all, the Bengals had lost the previous three games by an average of 25 points. We’ve turned things around, haven’t we?
The standard has now dropped so low that civic comfort comes from not being humiliated. Williams speaks to a fan base that paid premium prices to watch an offense that struggles to gain yards in the first half and spends much of the game trying not to sabotage itself.
He offers fans a coping mechanism for enduring disappointment season after season − yet they keep paying good money to come back for more. If the Bengals were a slot machine, the patrons would tear their rotator cuffs before they called it a night.
Williams has succumbed to this new low, and I’m sure Bengals ownership hopes he takes the fan base along for the ride. Because as long as we celebrate losing close games, no one will ask the harder question: How ownership can construct a roster that, without Joe Burrow, looks lost − a group where every player seems out of position and the team can’t adapt.
Cincinnati deserves better. This is a roster loaded at the top of the salary cap, yet ownership has built a team that collapses the moment a single player goes down. Fans have waited long enough for sustained excellence. They show up every Sunday, no matter how many times hope has been postponed. What we don’t have is ownership that grasps what every other NFL owner − except Jerry Jones − understands: You can’t consistently win without seasoned football executives running the franchise.
Until that changes, games like this one will keep repeating. The faces on the sideline will change, the uniforms will update, and the press conferences will sound familiar. And every time Joe Burrow goes down, the same truth will rise again: The Bengals’ greatest weakness isn’t on the field. It’s in the owner’s box.
Dennis Doyle lives in Anderson Township and is a member of the Enquirer Board of Contributors.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: The Bengals' rebuild needs to start in the owner's suite | Opinion
Category: General Sports
