The Bengals looked good for most of the season. They looked like a team that deserved to win their division; one that should host a playoff game; one that should be moving on to the next round of the playoffs after handling the upstart Chargers on Sunday. That is, if Andy Dalton played much better than he did in the season finale (four interceptions).
I believe the struggle face says it all.
The first half wasn't bad. Yeah, the Bengals could have been up 17-7 or at the least 13-7, but they were still up going in to halftime. You can't be too unhappy with that.
But than the meltdown commenced.
Dalton couldn't seem to hit a receiver anymore and threw two to the wrong the guys.
I'm going to assume that the referees had a better angle of this than I have. From the look of this GIF the ground caused the fumble, and if memory serves it can't (but Dalton was credited with a fumble; if that rule changed can someone paste a link to it in the comment section.).
It wasn't all Dalton of course. During the second quarter rookie running back Giovanni Bernard had this fumble in the red zone. The Bengals would have come away with at least a field goal, but instead--nothing.
In the scheme of things I suppose it didn't make a difference, but you never know how things would have gone had the Bengals gone in to the half with confidence rather than thinking," Damn it! Here we go!"
So for the third season in a row the Bengals make the playoffs, and for the third season in a row they exit in the first round.
Final Score: Chargers 27 Bengals 10
[GIFs from Bleacher Report]
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