While the Zac Taylor Bengals without Joe Burrow are taking on their own demonic narrative, powered by a series of unfathomable collapses in consecutive weeks—who knew that blaming your troubles on Lou Anarumo, consistently one of the best defensive coordinators in the NFL, would backfire so spectacularly?—we want to point your attention to the fact that a crateload of cosmically strange occurrences for one football game lined up against the Bears on Sunday, and Chicago walked away with a victory anyway.
Talk about burying demonic narratives. We can, and will, discuss how Ben Johnson has spearheaded this complete cultural turnaround. We can, and will, discuss how Caleb Williams seems to have found this beautiful middle ground between living in the abstract and making Lamar Jackson–esque reads that only he seems capable of seeing. But as basic as this seems to point out, it warrants mentioning that this is precisely the kind of game that Chicago has been known to lose, and that finding a way to come back with seconds remaining to beat the Bengals 47–42 on a ridiculous 58-yard Colston Loveland touchdown is nearly as important as all the foundational work that has put Chicago in this position to begin with. This isn’t fan drivel. Last season literally collapsed underneath the weight of one of these losses. Many seasons have collapsed under the weight of these losses. What a fanbase thinks of itself and, consequently, what a team thinks of itself, absolutely matters.
