3 big surprises from Cincinnati Bengals loss to Bears in Week 2

The offense did not look good and seemed to take some steps backward.

The bright spot of the game came when Joe Burrow linked up with Ja’Marr Chase on a 42-yard touchdown pitch and catch. This gave a glimpse of what the offense can become and gave some hope for the future of these two young players having a long and healthy career together.

Other than that, the offense did not look good.

The only other touchdown drive started at the Chicago 7-yard line which was important to capitalize on but did not show much of Cincinnati’s ability to move the ball. The Bengals mustered only one other scoring drive and that was a long field goal. The bright spots were far outweighed by the stretches of nothing in between.

Aside from the turnovers, the fact that the offense could not move the ball was shocking. After last week, it seemed the offensive line was fixed, Joe Mixon was going to run all over every team, and Burrow and company would set records in the passing game.

However, the opposite occurred when the offensive line gave up hit after hit on the quarterback, Mixon struggled to find any kind of success on the ground, and Burrow could not connect with his wide receivers.

There are plenty of questions being asked about Zac Taylor’s ability as a play-caller, and he will have to have a few strong games this season for fans to look past what happened today. If he continues to struggle, this game could be a strong argument showing Taylor is not able to successfully lead this offense.