Bengals already facing pressure to deliver in Week 2 showdown with Chiefs

This game is usually reserved for a time when the weather is colder and the trees have shed their leaves.

The Chiefs and Bengals have met five times since 2022, and every game has been played in December or January, including two playoff games.

Sunday’s matchup between the two AFC rivals at Arrowhead Stadium doesn’t come with the same consequence as those playoff games. But it does come, for the 0-1 Bengals, as a game of significance, considering the fact they’re coming off a dismal season-opening upset loss to the Patriots.

For the Chiefs, who defeated the Ravens in the season opener, the beat goes on for the heavy favorites to win a third consecutive Super Bowl.

Surely, there’s much more urgency for the Bengals, based on their humbling loss to a Patriots team in complete transition with a rookie head coach and a place-holder journeyman quarterback.

Cincinnati, too, is eager to shed its ugly trend of early-season struggles. The Bengals, under head coach Zac Taylor and quarterback Joe Burrow, are 1-8 in Weeks 1 and 2.

Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase during the week hardly sounded intimidated by the matchup with the two-time defending Super Bowl champions.

“We are the team to beat in the AFC and we know it, and we got to act like it and play like it, too,” Chase told reporters. “We couldn’t ask for a better chance to get a win right here. We couldn’t ask for a better chance for the receivers to go crazy, for the quarterback to crazy and for the whole offense to be ourselves again.”

Taylor went with a more clichéd approach when speaking about the game during the week.

“For us, it’s just Week 2,’’ Taylor told reporters, trying to downplay the significance of the game. “It’s the next opponent, and we’re excited to turn the page and move forward. We got the [Week 1] taste out of our mouth, we’re done with that, and now we get a chance to move forward.”

The last time the Bengals and Chiefs met was last New Year’s Eve, when Kansas City clinched the AFC West title with a 25-17 home victory.

“There’s a lot of knowledge on both sides of it for us and them, because we feel like we played them as much as we played a divisional opponent,” Taylor said. “We played them as much as we played any team in the league outside the division.”

Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes downplayed that this game was any less important based on it being played early in the season rather than late.

“These games are going to matter at the end of the year,” Mahomes told reporters this week. “Obviously, it’s early in the season. Everybody’s working through stuff. Everybody’s trying to get better and better. But you know that this could be a tiebreaker, whatever you want to call it, at the end of the year that determines seeding for the playoffs.

“So, there’s definitely a rise in intensity, especially in these games against other contenders.”

The Bengals defense will have to contend with yet one more dangerous skill position player in rookie receiver Xavier Worthy — who scored two TDs in his NFL debut last week, one rushing and one receiving, on just four touches.

Worthy, who was drafted 28th overall by the Chiefs, ran a 4.21 in the 40 at the NFL Combine, yet one player from the Bengals, cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt, apparently doesn’t buy into the danger Worthy presents.

“Speed, that’s about it,” Taylor-Britt told reporters when asked about the Kansas City rookie. “He can run straight — run jet sweeps and just run straight. He can’t do too much else, so that’s about it.

“He’s only 100-something pounds [165]. If you put hands on him, you’re going to stop his speed. So, basically, get your hands on him.”

It would surprise no one if Mahomes targeted Worthy early — perhaps with Taylor-Britt on him — and burns the Bengals to make a point.

“Obviously [Worthy’s debut] showed his speed,’’ Mahomes said. “It showed how he’s able to run routes and find open spaces. It’s just kind of a start for him. We want to get him more and more involved in the offense, but a great start.”

Worthy ran for a TD the first time he touched the ball and later caught a TD pass. With receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown missing another game and going on injured reserve while he recovers from a shoulder injury, Worthy could see more targets against Cincinnati.

“It’s been cool just to … do what I did [in Week 1],” Worthy said this week. “But I have, like, a 24-hour rule: You do it, you live it out, then you forget about it, and it’s on to the next. So, it’s on to the next.”