The Bengals were on the brink of making one of the most miraculous fourth-quarter comebacks in recent memory on Sunday against the Bears, but they let the game slip out of their grasp. Trailing by 14 with less than five minutes left, Joe Flacco steered a pair of sensational touchdown drives and gave Cincinnati a 42–41 lead.
Caleb Williams and Chicago’s offense got the ball back with less than a minute to work with, but that was more than enough time for the Bears. Williams completed a pass across the middle of the field to Colston Loveland, which would’ve put Chicago close to field goal range. Loveland was never tackled, however, as the Bengals’ defense imploded and failed to bring the rookie tight end to the ground. Instead of an intermediate gain, Loveland was off to the races and scored a go-ahead touchdown to make it a 47–42 game.
Sunday’s meltdown marks back-to-back tough losses for Cincinnati, which was defeated by the Jets in Week 8, 39–38. Despite scoring 80 points in their last two games, the Bengals don’t have a win to show for it. It’s a historically bad run, as they’re the first team since the 1966 Giants to score 38-plus points and suffer a loss in back-to-back games, per ESPN Insights.
Since taking over for Jake Browning, who had stepped into the starting role to replace the injured Joe Burrow, Flacco has been lights out for the Bengals. The offense continues to keep Cincinnati in games, but the defense continues to let the team down.
The Bengals will head into the bye week with a 3–5 record. Considering how close they were to wins in each of the last two weeks, they’ll be incredibly disappointed not to be 5–3. They’ll return to action on Nov. 16 against the Steelers.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Bengals Made Embarrassing NFL History After Blowing Late Lead vs. Bears.
