Brian Callahan fuming over offense; calls for Bengals not named Ja’Marr Chase to step up

The Cincinnati Bengals pulled out a big win against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. A win that gets them back to .500 before their bye week and keeps the rest of the season in play. If they perform strongly after the week off, not only are the NFL Playoffs still in reach, but a third straight AFC North Championship is in play.

In the big win, we still saw concerning things from the Bengal offense. After looking strong in the first half, the offense was only able to score three points in the second half. Three points seem like a miracle when you realize that they only managed 52 yards of total offense in the half.

Quarterback Joe Burrow made that clear after the game when speaking to the media. “We were horrible in the second half,” Burrow said. “We just have to be able to put together a complete game.”

Burrow isn’t the only one in the building to see that the offensive struggles need to change and change fast. Coaches spoke to the media Monday and echoed Burrow’s sentiment.

“We have to be better than we’ve been,” Offensive coordinator Brian Callahan said on Monday afternoon via ESPN’s Ben Baby. “And I think we will be. But sometimes, there’s a time and a place to tell the truth. And that’s the truth at this point.”

“There’s an accountability factor, where nobody — coaching, playing — has met our standard,” Callahan continued. “And our standard’s high. And it should be because we’re capable of being really good. And thus far, we haven’t been. There’s been a lot of reasons for that. Ultimately, nobody cares.”

Callahan went as far as to say he was “fuming” over what happened Sunday, according to Mike Petraglia, while also suggesting everyone not named Ja’Marr Chase needs to up their game.

Zac Taylor, who calls offensive plays for the Bengals seemed to be on the same page with Burrow and Callahan.

Taylor said it was “clear as day” the Bengals needed to score more points. Taylor added that he is looking at all aspects of the offense, from schemes and tendencies down to the variation in plays.

“Whether it’s explosive passes, explosive runs, more runs, less runs, more passes — it doesn’t matter,” Taylor said. “We just have to get the ball in the end zone.”

A win is a win in the NFL, but it is clear that if the Bengals want to get back to the postseason, the offense needs to improve quite a bit.