Who Dey Nation owes Cincinnati Bengals head coach Zac Taylor an apology. Or at least I'll speak for myself on that front.
Congratulations to those who had the following scenario on their bingo card. Who would've thought Taylor could guide a 40-year-old Joe Flacco to a 470-yard passing performance after acquiring him in-season, with no run game or defense to speak of?
What if I told you that wasn't good enough to win a real-life NFL game at home? Well, that's what just happened, as Taylor's Bengals watched their defense get obliterated yet again in Sunday's 47-42 loss to the Chicago Bears, sending Cincinnati spiraling into its Week 10 bye.
Bengals coach Zac Taylor has Joe Flacco playing like Joe Burrow, and he should not be on the hot seat
So much of Bengals X/Twitter was coming for Zac Taylor's job after last week's 39-38 defeat to the previously winless New York Jets.
Sorry, did you see the scores I just wrote? Taylor's offense put up 38 points against Gang Green and another 35 today that could've been more. Chase Brown's early dropped pass, and Andrei Iosivas' failure to stay inbounds made it so Cincinnati left even more points on the field!
For those who say, "Well it was Zac Taylor's decision to fire Lou Anarumo and hire Al Golden as his new defensive coordinator!"
Yes, but is Zac Taylor in charge of draft picks? Last I checked, no. Is Zac Taylor in charge of overseeing the defensive unit? Also no.
No coach can make this defense work. Take a peek at these numbers. UGH.
The Bengals defense has allowed 576 (!!) total yards against the Bears today.
— Gridiron Grading (@GridironGrading) November 2, 2025
That is the most allowed by a defense in any game this season.
The previous most was 512 allowed by the same Bengals defense to the Broncos in Week 4.
No words.
Golden is coaching with one hand tied behind his back because de facto GM Duke Tobin can't do his job. Tobin's latest top two picks, defensive end Shemar Stewart and linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr., are sabotaging the defense so much that words fail to express their inverted contributions.
To their credit, the Bears shut down Cincinnati's flourishing rushing attack on Sunday. That didn't stop Taylor from making sure the Bengals stayed close enough to win. And what a freaking game from Flacco.
Joe Flacco vs Bears:
— StatMuse (@statmuse) November 2, 2025
470 yards (career-high)
4 touchdowns
The oldest QB ever with a 450/4 game. pic.twitter.com/qN4ALZph59
A freakish fourth-quarter onside kick recovery gave the offense new life, and Taylor dialed up chunk play after chunk play to give the Bengals new life. They even converted a two-point conversion before the onside shenanigans to help them edge one point ahead on Andrei Iosivas' nine-yard TD catch with 54 seconds remaining.
Yeah. Less than a minute. Chicago had one timeout and a lot of field to go, with a quarterback in Caleb Williams who holds the ball way too long. This was the bottom-line result:
COLSTON LOVELAND ARE YOU KIDDING?
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) November 2, 2025
📺: CBS pic.twitter.com/OMOzjsl6vC
Go ahead and put that on Zac Taylor if you want to. He elevated Jake Browning to a 4-3 record in 2023, has overseen the development of Joe Burrow's entire career, and is helping Flacco learn an offense on the fly while being among the elite passing games in the league.
There are so many flaws to this Bengals organization. As more time passes, it looks more and more like Zac Taylor is the least of their problems.
Fire Duke Tobin. Fire Al Golden. Don't fire Zac Taylor.