Week 9 · 2025–26 season
Bengals
L 42-47 vs Bears · Nov 2, 2025
Misery Index · Despair
Bengals fans openly debating whether this defense is historically bad while Flacco's 470 yards rots in the box score.
The emotional rollercoaster
Fan misery across the game window. Up is worse.
What happened
J.Flacco threw for four touchdowns, J.Chase ripped off chunk plays, and E.McPherson's onside kick somehow worked — and Cincinnati still lost by five because the defense surrendered a 58-yard C.Loveland touchdown with 25 seconds left. When a 42-point afternoon featuring a successful onside recovery and a late A.Iosivas score still ends in a loss, the question stops being whether the defense can be fixed this year and starts being whether it can be fixed at all.
What fans said
“FIRE THE COACHES PLEASE”
u/gugly▲ 997rage
“What a pathetic excuse of a coaching staff. What a pathetic organization.”
u/DRmanhattanJR▲ 282despair
“Get a rare onside kick and score, all to give up a long TD. Fcking garbage”
u/jloadin3▲ 448rage
“Fire anyone. This is ridiculous”
u/Bored_in_a_dorm▲ 202rage
“We’re now talking about how this could be the worst defense in the HISTORY of the league. Like, worse than the 0-16 Detroit Lions.”
u/stubept▲ 200rage
“Our Defense is fucking pitiful! Pitiful!”
u/GodDammitBengals▲ 169rage
14 more
“Al Golden needs to be fired today.”
u/Monkeyfeng▲ 110rage
“Fuck the Bengals. Fuck Mike Brown. Fuck Al Golden. I hate this team.”
u/SoFlyKight▲ 72rage
“One of the worst defenses in league history this century”
u/RevolioClockbergJr▲ 54rage
“Joe throws for 470 and you lose again…”
u/jloadin3▲ 555frustration
“Fire everybody, rehire them, and fire them again for good measure.”
u/PillaisTracingPaper▲ 44rage
“FIRE ZAC TAYLOR. It’s been seven fucking years of this shit.”
u/Crazy_Meringue▲ 32rage
“He didn't even have an NFL touchdown until today...now he has 2.”
u/spadingtrailrunner▲ 88joy
“There is nobody I feel for more than Joe Flacco.”
u/-WeAreGod▲ 83despair
“Calling the Bengals defense dogshit is an insult to dogshit.”
u/3KoboldsInTrenchcoat▲ 30rage
“we ARE the worst all time in def EPA/play.”
u/Equivalent_Pitch9271▲ 28rage
“FINE, GRANTED, PLEASE LEAVE YOU WORTHLESS GARBAGE. GOOD LUCK FINDING ANYONE TO TAKE YOUR UNDERPERFORMING, LOW EFFORT, OLD BEHIND.”
u/Timely-School-3094▲ 33rage
“This is on pace to be the worst defense of all time.”
u/IMGONNACOOM▲ 71despair
“Back to back demoralizing losses. If you don’t love that you don’t love Bengals football!”
u/horsethiefjack▲ 371frustration
“Fire this coach, every single person on the coaching staff, and every single player on defense. This is utterly fucking ridiculous”
u/thefugginkid▲ 25rage