Burrow, Chase are recording memorable wasted seasons
Downcast Cincinnati Bengals fans are painfully aware that the club is wasting two great offensive seasons.
Joe Burrow tops all NFL quarterbacks with 3,977 passing yards and 36 touchdowns. Ja'Marr Chase's 102 receptions, 1,413 receiving yards, and 15 TDs lead the league by wide margins. Yet the Bengals' record is 6-8 and encompasses four crushing losses when they've scored more than 30 points. They face elimination from the playoff race in Week 16.
Wretched defending (Cincinnati ranks 29th in yards and 31st in points against) undermined this dominant duo. Historical comparisons hammer home the injustice. Burrow's just the second passer to achieve his specific combination of stats - at least 3,900 yards and 35 touchdowns through 14 games - for a team with a losing record.
There are 18 examples of QBs compiling those numbers, including several eventual MVP winners and two recent Super Bowl champions.
Besides Burrow, the glaring outlier is Drew Brees, whose 2012 New Orleans Saints surrendered the most yards in any NFL season (7,042) and went 7-9 during Sean Payton's Bountygate suspension. Brees eclipsed 5,000 passing yards but magnified his team's holes by tossing a league-high 19 interceptions. With only eight picks this year, Burrow shoulders less blame.
Chase is in his own echelon: He's tallied 170 more receiving yards, 114 more yards after the catch, and four more touchdowns this season than the NFL leaderboard's second-place wideouts. He's the only receiver in league history to gain 1,400 yards with 15 scores at the 14-game mark.
Few receivers who reached that yardage milestone this century played for worse teams, per Stathead. Chase is slightly better off than Julio Jones with the 2018 Atlanta Falcons (5-9 record at this juncture) and Calvin Johnson in his record season with the 2012 Detroit Lions (4-10).
Four playmakers in the span grabbed as many receiving touchdowns as Chase, per Stathead. All were electrifying talents on powerhouse teams (Davante Adams with the 2020 Green Bay Packers, Tyreek Hill with the 2020 Kansas City Chiefs, Rob Gronkowski with the 2011 New England Patriots, and Randy Moss with the 2007 Patriots) that finished with a minimum of 13 wins. Chase's scoring spree for these Bengals is historically futile.
The Bengals' defense ranks in the ninth percentile this century in expected points added (minus-4.46 per contest), per TruMedia. They're the 34th team in the span to gain 3,800 passing yards but give up a total of 5,000 through 14 matchups. Over half of those squads (18) made the playoffs - seven even reached the Super Bowl - but Cincinnati's inability to guard the end zone (the team’s allowed a league-worst 47 TDs) explains why a poor process yielded bad results.
Two wins in a row, highlighted by a six-takeaway outing against the Tennessee Titans, slowed the Bengals' tailspin. To squeak into the playoffs, they must beat the Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, and Pittsburgh Steelers and hope the loser of Thursday's Broncos-Los Angeles Chargers clash - that team will sit seventh in the AFC - doesn't win again. The 8-6 Chargers, 6-8 Indianapolis Colts, and 6-8 Miami Dolphins have weak remaining schedules, meaning Cincy's outlook is bleak.
Precarity looms for a franchise that vanquished Patrick Mahomes once, lost the ensuing Super Bowl to Matthew Stafford in the waning minutes, and hasn't been the same. The Bengals risk losing Tee Higgins, Chase's receiving sidekick, in free agency while needing dramatic defensive improvements. Squandering Burrow and Chase's elite production would sting.
Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.