Under Zac The Bengals Are 0-2 Four Of His Five Years

[*ochocincos*]

This 0-2 feels different than last year's 0-2.
With Burrow reaggravating his calf and seeing the performance thus far, I don't feel like the team will perform at the same level or better as the past two years.

Along with Burrow clearly hobbled, some other observations:
- Irv Smith is not anywhere close to as good as Hurst or even Uzomah were
- The DL just isn't quite getting there enough. They get pressure, but not sacks. (Also, Lamar Jackson is a cheat code)
- I don't have the pass rush metrics from BAL game to confirm, but I feel Jonah Williams still is not good enough at RT
- Hopefully Taylor has now learned that not risking your starters getting ANY snaps in preseason can result in a high amount of rust and ultimately losses early on in the regular season.

Bengals now are in the unfortunate era of having to pay for an expensive veteran QB, so it's going to be more challenging to put quality players elsewhere due to cap constraints.
This might be the true test of the Taylor era - Can they draft well enough to get immediate contributions from draft picks rather than having them sit for a year (or more) before needing to play.
Chiefs would have been in a difficult spot last year had they not gotten so much immediate contribution from their draft class.

Luckily, the Bengals have arguably easier games from here to the bye week, so hopefully they can end up 4-2 or 3-3.
Although as much as I would have said the Bengals should be easy favorites against all of the Rams, Titans, Cards, and Seahawks, I don't feel that way right now.