Weak AFC playoff field twists the knife on Bengals’ horrendous season

If Joe Burrow weren't so calm, cool, and collected, he'd probably be at home throwing things while watching these disgusting-looking AFC playoffs from his couch. The Cincinnati Bengals organization should be ashamed of themselves for not doing more to get Joe Shiesty back to the postseason this year.

Although every offseason brings about the promise of sweeping change to the franchise, it never comes to pass. Duke Tobin confirmed the scouting department won't expand, and the Bengals are liable to be fiscally conservative in free agency and with trade possibilities as per usual.

When you really dive into what's transpired through two weeks of playoff football in Cincinnati's conference, it's eye-opening how much of a missed opportunity this season was for Burrow and Co.

Eye-opening and brutally painful, that is. So let's do it live.

AFC playoffs feature dreadful quarterback play sans Joe Burrow & leave Bengals fans wondering what could have been

I wasn't feeling that despondent about the Bengals not being in the playoffs for the third year in a row until I witnessed the Divisional Round unfold. Enough time had passed before then to get over it.

Now it's an open wound again.

How about we start with the current AFC favorite to reach the Super Bowl? Their young quarterback, Drake Maye, looks Burrow-esque in the sense that he's destined to appear in The Big Game as a second-year player.

Maye has fumbled the football 13 times across the regular season and playoffs, the most in NFL. He coughed up four fumbles in the Pats' Divisional Round win over the Houston Texans, losing two.

Strength of schedule can be overblown, because if winning teams capitalize on an easy field of opponents, it obviously worsens it. Nevertheless, New England had the easiest schedule in the NFL. To new coach Mike Vrabel's credit, his troops capitalized to the tune of a 14-3 record.

But like...other than Maye being uncannily accurate on downfield throws and athletic enough to take off and run when situations call for it, are we sure the Patriots are that good? After all, the Joe Flacco-led Bengals only lost to New England 26-20 in Week 12 when Flacco's right arm was basically falling off from a separated AC joint.

Not to take anything away from the Pats. Is there bitterness about them looking like another dynasty already that's at play here? Probably. They can be good, and yet not that good to the point where they intercept Texans QB C.J. Stroud four times in one half.

Thought this was a hilarious real-time meme type deal about Stroud's all-time bad performance:

Also, to the Bengals/Burrow haters, if Joe Brrr was "carried" by his defense in the past en route to five playoff victories, how do we even begin to break down Stroud's three wins as a postseason starter?

We can't really butterfly effect everything to account for the Bengals' hypothetical playoff presence. Still, the Bo Nix-led Denver Broncos are the AFC's No. 1 seed and are on the doorstep of a Super Bowl berth.

Nix did get injured in the Divisional Round, facing off with an alleged Burrow rival in the Bills' Josh Allen, who gifted Denver four turnovers in a three-point overtime loss. Interesting stat here:

I'm no Jalen Hurts truther/supporter, but those numbers go to show how Allen could've managed the game a lot better when all the chips were down.

Make no mistake: the chips were down. Allen had a wide-open path to Buffalo's first Super Bowl win. No Burrow, no Lamar Jackson, and no Patrick Mahomes in his way. And the Bills blew it.

Do I need to circle back to Wild Card Weekend to discuss the debacle that was the Pittsburgh Steelers in their 30-6 loss to Houston at home? Nah but it's funny to mention. Now, Aaron Rodgers and Mike Tomlin are both out of the building for one of Cincinnati's biggest rivals.

Y'all see why this is so gutting, right? If not for back-to-back fluky Burrow interceptions at Buffalo. If not for the Bengals defense letting Justin Fields' Jets pile up over 500 yards of offense. If not for the defense wasting Flacco's 470-yard passing performance against the almost-NFC finalist Bears. If not for two missed extra points by Evan McPherson in Week 18.

That's four wins right there and a 10-7 record. Imagine if Burrow stayed healthy all year, instead of getting injured again behind an offensive line that waited until the 11th hour to solidify a position of weakness.

Who Dey Nation, we're down bad and we should be. Let us pray the front office is galvanized by the pathetic AFC playoffs, recognizes how much Burrow would dominate this weak-sauce competition, and spark the most proactive offseason in franchise history.

Yeah it's not gonna happen. Fun to daydream about it at least. Not so fun to daydream about how the Bengals could be on a collision course with Super Bowl LX right now.

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