‘This S–t Is Gonna Get Ugly’ – Bengals Defense Reacts to Historically Bad Performance

The Houston Texans did something to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday that few teams have ever done. They did some other things that no opponent in the 56-season history of Bengals football has ever done.

Sunday’s 30-27 loss to the Texans not only snapped Cincinnati’s four-game winning streak, but it marked the first time the Bengals have ever allowed a 150-yard rusher and a 170-yard receiver in the same game.

Bengals Defense Has One of the Worst Performances in Franchise History

Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud, who threw for a rookie-record 470 yards in a win against Tampa Bay last week, stayed hot against Lou Anarumo’s defense with a 356-yard performance, where 172 of those yards went to wide receiver Noah Brown.

And that was while Texans running back Devin Singletary was running through the Bengals defense for 150 yards, the third-highest total the team has allowed in the Anarumo era.

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And with Stroud’s 356 passing yards, the Texans became the first team in the league with a 350-yard passer, a 170-yard receiver and a 150-yard rusher in 25 years, matching the 1998 Colts with Peyton Manning, Torrance Small and Marshall Faulk.

“That’s not who we are as a defense,” cornerback Mike Hilton said. “We’ve got too many guys on this defense to give up that type of explosion. If we don’t correct it, this s–t is gonna get ugly.”

Short memory by #Texans QB C.J. Stroud, as he finds his fellow rookie Tank Dell for a TD 🔥#WeAreTexans | #NFL

pic.twitter.com/0VSk9IiZVe

— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) November 12, 2023

One of Anarumo’s go-to sayings is that yards don’t equal points, and that point was proven by the fact the Bengals came into Sunday’s game having allowed the sixth-most yards in the league but also stood as one of only four teams that had yet to allow 28+ points in a game.

Against the Texans, 544 yards equaled 30 points.

The 544 yards were the second-most allowed under Anarumo and tied for the 11th-most in franchise history.

“It pisses you off because I know damn well we can do better than that,” said cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, whose fourth interception — and just Stroud’s second — of the season nearly saved the day.

“I’m not speaking on any position group specifically, just talking about as a defense,” Taylor-Britt added. “We’ve got to keep it below that. Everybody on defense knows what it is and what it isn’t.”

What it was against Stroud was a case of playing a heavy dose of zone and trying to force Stroud to make tough decisions on where to go with the ball. But the decisions weren’t hard at all as so many times Brown — or occasionally another receiver — was wide open deep in the zone.

Using SportRadar’s definition of explosive plays (12+ runs and 16+ passes), the Bengals allowed 17 on Sunday.

That’s not only the most in the Anarumo era — it’s the most since at least 1991.

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Only three other teams since at least 1991 have given up more — the 2013 Lions and 2010 Chargers each had games where they surrendered 19, and the 2004 Chiefs gave up 18.

Of Brown’s seven receptions against the Bengals, six went for at least 20 yards, as Stroud averaged 9.1 yards per attempt.

“He got outside the pocket a lot, and he wasn’t even looking to run,” Hilton said. “He was looking downfield for the deep ball, and they connected three or four of them for 30-plus yards. You give those type of plays up, it’s hard to come back from. And we didn’t.”

Next up for the Bengals is a trip to Baltimore to face one of the leading MVP candidates in Lamar Jackson on a short week.

“If we play like we did today, we’ll get our a– beat in Baltimore,” Hilton said. “That’s straight up. We’ve got to bow up or shut up.

“We know who we are in this locker room, and we’ve got to go prove it.”

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