Bengals losing streak: The Browns game is still on their mind even if they say otherwise

The last time the Bengals held a lead against the Browns, quarterback Joe Burrow had just directed a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to move ahead 34-31 with 66 seconds to play in Week 7 of his 2020 rookie season.

It lasted all of 55 seconds.

Baker Mayfield answered by taking the Browns 75 yards in five plays for the second of what has grown into a four-game winning streak for the Browns in the Battle of Ohio. The run includes a 41-16 rout at Paycor Stadium last year and an “oh, by the way” 21-16 decision in Week 18 when the Bengals rested Burrow and every other starter.

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Asked whether this is the first time he’s ever lost three in a row to the same opponent at any level, Burrow said, “Tough to say, but probably true.”

Does that eat at the uber-competitive quarterback?

“Those are in the past,” he said during Thursday’s news conference.

If that sounds like, “Yes, and I don’t want to talk about it,” offensive coordinator Brian Callahan confirmed as much later in the day.

“We handled Pittsburgh and Baltimore last year. Didn’t handle them great to start this year, but he hasn’t had a chance to beat (the Browns), and you take a lot of pride in trying to beat your division and be the best team in your division,” Callahan said. “He certainly is looking to notch himself a win. You can feel it from him. His intensity is ramped up. These are the games that matter as you go down the middle of the season into the stretch. You’ve got to pick up division wins. We haven’t done that yet. So I think he’s on edge this week a little bit. He’s ready to go.”

If the Bengals are going to get their first division win of the season and avoid a fifth consecutive loss to the Browns, they’ll have to do it without wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase.

How the Bengals overcome the loss of the Burrow-Chase connection will go a long way in determining whether they can snap the four-game losing streak to the Browns and also avoid an eighth loss in the past nine games, which would be their worst nine-game stretch in the 53-season history of the Battle of Ohio.

It was a missed connection to Chase last season that helped lead to Burrow dropping his third game in a row against Cincinnati’s in-state rival while suffering one of the largest defeats of his high school, college or professional career.

The 41-16 loss began with the Bengals driving into the low red zone on the opening possession with a chance to take a 7-0 lead. Instead, Denzel Ward intercepted a Burrow pass for Chase near the front pylon and took it 99 yards for a pick six. Chase blamed himself, saying he “ran a horrible route.” Asked Thursday about his recollection of the play, Burrow wanted nothing to do with it.

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“I’m going to try and talk about this year’s matchup,” he said. “Obviously, last year is last year.”

The refrain was the same throughout the locker room. Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie spent several minutes talking about the 2 1/2 seasons he spent as a teammate of Browns receiver Amari Cooper in Dallas and the friendship that developed because of it, but when the subject turned to 41-16, his reply was curt: “That was last year.”

Unlike most players in the locker room, defensive end Sam Hubbard has been here for the duration of the 1-7 run against the Browns, which began with a 35-20 home loss in Week 12 of his rookie season in 2018.

“I haven’t even thought about that,” he said of the losing streak. “We (the starters) didn’t even play last time. New year, new team, new everything.”

The last time the Bengals had a losing streak this long against the Browns was the dark decade of the ’90s, when they dropped seven in a row from 1992 to 1995. Making the skid more noticeable is the complete flip from where the rivalry had been, with the Bengals winning seven in a row and 21 of 27 from 2004 to 2017.

“We want to win this game, which would involve breaking the streak,” left tackle Jonah Williams said. “But there’s a million reasons why this is a huge game for us, and that’s not one we’re thinking about.”

By not saying anything about the losing streak, the Bengals are saying plenty. Prideful professional athletes know when another player or team has an extended history of getting the best of them. And even if they don’t, they’re reminded of it between the whistles each time the rivalry is renewed.

Each of the past four losses to the Browns has come differently. It started where the Bengals hope it will end: in prime time at FirstEnergy Stadium. On a Thursday night in Burrow’s second career start, Cleveland built an early 14-3 lead, and the rest of the game saw Burrow throwing 61 passes — the second most in team history — to lead scoring drives that kept getting the Bengals close but never over the hump, as the defense couldn’t get a stop in a 35-30 loss.

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That was followed by the 37-34 shootout at Paycor, which featured five lead changes in the fourth quarter. Next came the 41-16 blowout, then the 21-16, pseudo-preseason yawner to wrap up the 2021 regular season.

Those games might as well have been last century.

“It’s focusing in on the now,” coach Zac Taylor said. “This year. What team we have now. Going on the road and getting our first divisional win.”

If there’s one thing from the losing streak that lends relevance to Monday night, it’s the offense’s final drive in the 37-34 loss — specifically, the person directing it. Burrow was 5-of-6 for 61 yards, hitting four receivers and overcoming a pair of false start penalties and a third-and-11 to give the Bengals the lead with 1:06 to go.

That, in Callahan’s mind, marked the beginning of Burrow the closer.

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“That was one of the first times we really saw that killer instinct that he’s got and that ability to take over at the end of a game,” Callahan said. “He’s obviously done that a lot since then.

“The best play of that whole drive was (when) they played a snap of two-man in empty, and he checked to the quarterback draw on third-and-11 and powered forward. And the whole stadium, you felt the whole thing, like, ‘We’re gonna win this game.’”

The reason they didn’t is a glaring example of how far this team has come. That game-winning drive Mayfield capped with a 24-yard strike to Donovan Peoples-Jones with 11 seconds left marked the Browns’ fourth touchdown in four second-half possessions that day.

The Bengals haven’t allowed a single touchdown in the second half this season, and they haven’t surrendered more than one in 16 consecutive games.

That’s one streak the Bengals are interested in discussing and boasting and circling as relevant. And it could be in jeopardy Monday night, as Browns running back Nick Chubb has been a second-half touchdown machine.

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His four are tied for the league lead this season, and he has 24 since entering the NFL in 2018, tied for fourth most. The Bengals have had no answer for him in the fourth, third, second or first quarters.

Chubb barely played in the Week 18 game last season, carrying the ball just nine times. But he gained 58 yards for a 6.44 average. In the first three games of the Browns’ winning streak against the Bengals, Chubb rushed for 367 yards on 51 carries (7.2) and four touchdowns.

“It always starts with stopping the run, but specifically to the Browns with their offensive line and their running back, that is the key to victory,” Hubbard said, adding that if you were to create the perfect running back in a lab, it would look like Chubb.

“His patience, his vision and his strength. He’s got the breakaway speed, but you see guys bouncing off,” Hubbard said. “A run that should be a 0-yard run, he gets 4 because he’s so strong and falls forward. You’ve got to make him fall back by getting bodies on him.”

Per Pro Football Focus, Chubb has 510 yards after contact this season. The Bengals as a team have 612 rushing yards before and after contact.

Getting more people on Chubb to bring him down means a bigger emphasis on the run than usual for the Bengals cornerbacks.

“Especially for me,” slot corner Mike Hilton said. “They’re gonna be jetting me into the box and putting me in situations where I have to go down into the box. I expect it. And that’s what I live for. I’m ready for it.”

Hilton, despite not being on the team for the first half of the skid to the Browns — or maybe because of it — also was the only Bengals player willing to take the losing streak head-on.

“They’ve had our number for the last couple games,” he said. “We’re trying to get our first AFC North division win, and to do it against those guys, that would be big for us.”

(Photo of Nick Chubb: Joseph Maiorana / USA Today)

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