Burrow and the Bengals are bumming again after another last-second loss to Chiefs in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals have walked out of Arrowhead Stadium both elated and dejected over the years. Most of the time it has been January, and they have been playing the Kansas City Chiefs for a spot in the Super Bowl.

There wasn’t the same sort of finality this time around. But Sunday’s last-second loss was a tough one.

The Bengals had fought and rallied and fought some more to take the lead on Evan McPherson’s fourth field goal with just under 10 minutes left. And their defense had forced Kansas City to punt, and was on the verge of another big stop when a penalty on safety Daijahn Anthony inside the final minutes kept the Chiefs’ own comeback hopes alive.

A few plays later, Harrison Butker kicked a 51-yard field goal as time expired to give Kansas City a 26-25 victory.

If anyone should know about giving Kansas City (2-0) too many chances, it should be the Bengals (0-2), who had played them five previous times since 2022, including a split of AFC championship games that came down to a field goal.

The most recent matchup must have seemed like deja vu: Butker kicked a 45-yarder with no time left for a 23-20 win on Jan. 29, 2023.

While the Bengals still have 15 games ahead of them, rather than heading into the offseason, they find themselves in a deep hole. Their surprising loss to the Patriots in their season opener means they are 0-2, and should Zac Taylor manage to get them turned around, they now face the prospect of Kansas City holding a tiebreaker over them.

There were certainly bright spots for Cincinnati, especially after a lackluster offensive performance against New England.

Joe Burrow looked much better throwing the ball with 258 yards passing and two touchdowns. Most importantly, Burrow did not seem to be affected by his bothersome wrist in his second game since having surgery on it.

He did fumble the ball, though, and Chamarri Conner returned it 37 yards for a second-half touchdown.

Both of Burrow’s touchdown passes went to Andrei Iosivas, who came through as Tee Higgins missed another game with a hamstring injury. Iosivas and tight end Mike Gesicki, who had seven catches for 91 yards, also helped make up for a poor game from Ja’Marr Chase, who not only was limited to four catches for 35 yards but had a silly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.

Ultimately, penalties were a big reason why the Bengals came undone. They had eight of them for 79 yards, and the final one against Anthony on fourth-and-16 from the Kansas City 35 in the final minute proved to be the most important.

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