Cincinnati Bengals’ 3 biggest regrets from the 2021 season

Super Bowl LVI- Mixon MIA

How can there not be regrets from the big game? After all, the Bengals lost. Despite the fact the team wasn’t even supposed to be there, it’s hard to not think about what could’ve been done to change the outcome. (Besides arresting the officials for grand theft, but I digress).

Despite sputtering on offense for most of the night, the Bengals were in a position to drive to tie or win the game late. Logic would dictate that if you are in a do-or-die, end of season scenario, perhaps you should have your best players on the field.

Sadly, unless Zac Taylor thinks Samaje Perine is better than Joe Mixon, he didn’t subscribe to my logic.

I don’t have to recap the Bengals last drive, but just for fun I will. On third and fourth down, with the offense essentially at midfield, Zac Taylor chose to stick with the two-minute package and keep Samaje Perine on the field.

I am not knocking Perine. He has served as an adequate, and at times, actually good replacement for Mixon. However Joe Mixon just posted a career year. Factor in that he was running angry and having his way with the Ram defense, and it seems curious that he was on the sideline for the two biggest plays of the year.

I certainly don’t need to tell any Bengal fan what happened next, (I’m going to.)

Perine subsequently got stuffed on third and short, though replays seem to indicate he may have gotten the first down, or at very least been INCHES short. On fourth down, despite Aaron Donald being about 18 feet offsides, I mean cmon, the guy was in the backfield a full minute before the ball was snapped, Burrow managed to float a “pass” toward Perine that he MAY have not really laid out for.

Now, I’m not here to BLAME Perine for this. The truth is he shouldn’t have been in that spot to start with. However, the honest truth is, if Zac Taylor decides to go into his Madden settings and replace Perine for Mixon as the “two minute/third-down” back, we very well may have a different outcome.

Mixon gets the third and short, Joey Franchise drives the team into field goal range, Money Mac ties the game, and we win in overtime. At least that’s the way it plays out in my head.

There you go sports fans. My take on the three biggest regrets of the season. All of that aside, it was the most fun season I have experienced as a fan, and with Zac Taylor at the helm and Burrow and Chase in the fold, hopefully next year’s column will be “three reasons the Bengals won Super Bowl LVII.”

WHO DEY!!