Cincinnati Bengals having their worst season in franchise history
By John Buhler
The Cincinnati Bengals fall to 0-10 on the season after losing to the Oakland Raiders, signifying this is might be the worst team in franchise history.
They might have kept it close on the road in Oakland this week after getting blown out vs. Baltimore, but the Cincinnati Bengals still remain winless on the season. Cincinnati falls to a terrible 0-10 after losing to the Oakland Raiders in Week 11. There are only six more chances for the Bengals to get a victory, but they may not do it, as this looks like their worst team in franchise history.
Cincinnati has had some bad teams since founder Paul Brown’s passing in 1991. The Bengals went 15 years without making the AFC playoffs from 1990-2005. Cincinnati has not won a playoff game since Brown was still with us. Outside of the Marvin Lewis era in the Queen City, it has been more bad than good with the Bengals and this might be the worst it has ever been.
Cincinnati is on pace to be worse than Dick LeBeau’s miserable 2002 team that went 2-14, resulting in his firing and the Bengals earning the right to draft Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Carson Palmer No. 1 overall in 2003. Zac Taylor’s first year with the Bengals has the stink of a LeBeau team, a Dave Shula team and a Bruce Coslet team.
Fortunately for the Bengals, this most miserable of seasons will be over in a few weeks. Taylor may still be in town because Brown’s son Mike Brown will once again refuse to eat a cent of any coaching contract. However, the Bengals are in line for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft to draft their new Carson Palmer or a solid long-term Andy Dalton replacement.
The Bengals can take 2019 LSU Tigers quarterback Joe Burrow, the Heisman front-runner for the No. 1 team, who grew up in Ohio. If not Burrow, they could be interested in Oregon Ducks quarterback Justin Herbert. Either senior signal-caller will give the Bengals a better chance of winning than whatever we’re seeing out of Ryan Finley since the bye week.
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Time will tell if this is the worst team in the Bengals’ 50-plus years of existence as a franchise. For now, Taylor is poised to be the first NFL head coach to begin his career in the league going winless since John McKay did it back during the bicentennial with the expansion 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Unfortunately, this Bengals team isn’t an expansion team. They’re just bad and sad.
