Cincinnati Bengals fans probably left the team’s Week 3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers bemused more than anything else.
Angry? Maybe. But they’ve been conditioned for the better part of a decade now: This is the Zac Taylor experience.
It’s all just…there. The Bengals had aspirations of a 3-0 start, so Taylor’s special teams unit had some inexplicable, crippling mistakes. The defense got gashed by a bad offense. Joe Burrow’s offense put up good numbers, but he fumbled away a game-winning drive at the end.
This shocking stat from Sports Illustrated’s Jay Morrison says it all:
End of 3Q
— Jay Morrison (@ByJayMorrison) September 27, 2026
Steelers 24, Bengals 20
Bengals are 6-50 when trailing after 3Q under Zac Taylor.
That’s 6-51 now.
Sometimes, numbers don’t lie. And they add up here. Taylor made a weird
decision late in the game on whether or not to force a third down. General consensus says he messed it up.
And to start the game-winning drive, while lining up on the first play after a kickoff, Taylor had to burn a timeout. These were the mistakes that, eight years ago when Taylor was a young coach with no pro coordinator experience, were understandable. Not anymore.
At this point, even Taylor’s postgame presser was just, frankly, inoffensive:
Zac Taylor on what cost the #Bengals the game: “The end. All 3 phases had a chance to win the game” pic.twitter.com/g9Uaicnd0m
— Yanni Tragellis (@yannitragellis) September 27, 2026
This is how it is with Zac Taylor in Year 8. The highs will be fun, but the lows are head-smackingly silly. His team generally looked unprepared and the three spots on defense he refused to upgrade (Jordan Battle, Jalen Davis and the linebackers) were the biggest problems.
And sure, the Bengals can bounce back from this. Reality-check time. Playoffs are still a very real possibility. But this is one of those games that, when it comes time to tally playoff seeding in the winter, will really haunt the Bengals.
It was completely avoidable, too. But so it goes in this era of Bengals football.
This article originally appeared on Bengals Wire: Bengals’ loss to Steelers was, unfortunately, standard Zac Taylor
