A team with Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins should not rank 28th in passing DVOA at -12.4%, behind offenses led by the likes of Sam Howell, Zach Wilson and a struggling rookie Bryce Young. While he is technically healthy enough to play football, he's clearly not healthy enough to play football well, and the Bengals offense has floundered as a result. The calf injury he suffered in early August has sapped him of his mobility and caused the entire offense to have to be rethought from the ground up, and it's not working. In a normal year, that's what the headline would be the "what's wrong with the Bengals?" stories focusing on their inability to get off the field causing them to sit at, say. They're allowing 5.1 yards per carry, ranking 30th with a rush DVOA of 8.9%, and have been getting gashed on a regular basis. The defense has, in fact, regressed, though it's been the ground game that's really hurt them. We were concerned about the losses of Jessie Bates, Von Bell and Eli Apple and had them projected 25th in defensive DVOA after finishing 11th in 2022. Our preseason projections were harsher on the Bengals than the general public. Instead, they've joined the Bears as the only teams with multiple games below -50% DVOA this season. The Bengals were supposed to be part of the Big Three with the Chiefs and Bills as favorites in the AFC. Sunday's 27-3 loss to a Titans team that can best be described as "uninspiring" isn't quite the nadir of Cincinnati's season – their -56.8% DVOA in Week 4 was ever-so-slightly higher than their -59.1% mark in Week 1 – but it was another crushing blow to a fan base that had Super Bowl aspirations before the season started. CalfWatch 2023 continues, as Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals watch the season slowly drain away.
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