Zac Taylor insists his Bengals can still be a playoff team after loss to Chargers drops them to 4-7

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Even after yet another painful loss in a season full of heartbreakers for Cincinnati, head coach Zac Taylor insisted his beleaguered Bengals can still make the playoffs.

Taylor's Bengals (4-7) and their fans might be finding it increasingly hard to keep the faith after the Los Angeles Chargers delivered their latest gut punch.

Cincinnati lost 34-27 Sunday night after rallying back from a 21-point deficit in the second half, only to give up a dramatic 84-yard touchdown drive in the final minute. The Bengals have six losses by seven points or fewer this season, including two in a row.

Taylor remained passionately optimistic about his team even after its flaw-filled performance at SoFi Stadium.

“This is sick, the way that these games are ending, and the way that we feel coming off the field every week, the feeling I’ve got when I’ve got to talk to the team in the locker room after all these endings,” Taylor said. “What I just keep telling the team is, ‘At some point, this has got to help us.’ At some point, we’ve got to find some momentum, and we’ve got to get on a run, and we’ve got to find ourselves in a good position where we reflect back. We don’t ever want to use a loss for good, but it’s got to help us in some way.”

Cincinnati is 4 1/2 games behind AFC North leader Pittsburgh (8-2). Nine AFC teams have better records than the Bengals as they head into their bye week.

Taylor repeatedly insisted he thinks his Bengals can still be a playoff team, saying they've “played good football” this season.

“We believe in our guys,” he said. “We’ve got good systems in place, and we’re going to hang in there and support each other and find a way to get this thing done. And if we can get it done, it’s going to be a dang good season. It’s not so far what we would have written for ourselves, but I tell you, I stand here today with the utmost belief that we can still get this done on the back half of our schedule.”

When Joe Burrow was asked if he shared his coach’s beliefs, the quarterback quietly said: “Hope so.”

Moments later, Burrow responded, “Yeah,” when asked if this was the most frustrating season of his football life.

“Pretty self-explanatory,” he added.

Indeed, the Bengals’ passion and frustration boiled over occasionally in Inglewood, and it’s logical to wonder whether cracks are forming.

Ja’Marr Chase had seven catches for 75 yards and two TDs to top 1,000 yards already for the fourth consecutive season, but the NFL’s receptions leader gave an odd answer when asked how the Bengals can start executing late in games.

“I don’t know,” Chase said. “Ask Zac. Ask the coaches. Don’t ask me. That’s not my job. I play football on the field. I don’t call plays for us, so I can’t really do nothing.”

Three-time Pro Bowler Trey Hendrickson came off the field screaming in Taylor’s direction during the first half, and he swatted away Taylor’s outstretched arm. Hendrickson said he was frustrated with a no-call.

“Everybody tries to calm me down, but it’s the (NFL),” Hendrickson said. “You play with an edge. Everybody does. Everybody should, and flicking that switch off ... I love Zac. He’s a great head coach. He’s done a lot for me as a person. I love him.”

But Hendrickson acknowledged the defense deserved to feel low after surrendering 272 yards in the first half.

“I wish I knew all the answers,” Hendrickson said. “Right now I don’t. It’s humbling, the (NFL). We have a very talented roster, I think, individually, these pieces. It’s not coming together as a defense like we planned.”

Cincinnati started the season 1-4, with its four losses coming by a combined 15 points. After a 3-1 surge, the Bengals blew a 14-point lead over Baltimore last week and then rallied to catch up, only to lose 35-34 when their two-point conversion attempt failed with 38 seconds left.

The loss to Los Angeles negated another comeback led by Burrow, who passed for 214 yards in an electric five-drive stretch of the second half alone. Cincinnati scored three touchdowns on those drives — but Evan McPherson missed field goals to end the other two drives, leaving him 6 for 10 beyond 39 yards this season.

Taylor defended his kicker, and he insisted the Bengals don't need any major changes in an attempt to save their season.

“We can see it’s just coming down to one play in every single game, so why would you make a big, wholesale change when it’s just coming down to one?” Taylor said. “To me, that’s just panic. That’s not what we’re about. We believe in what we’re doing, and so we’re not going to be those people that just panic because the record is 4-7 and we start making all these significant changes. That’s not what the answer is.”

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Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (1) celebrates his touchdown catch with teammates during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase celebrates his touchdown catch during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins (5) is tackled by Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Ja'Sir Taylor (36) after a catch during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase (1) reaches but cannot make a catch in front of Los Angeles Chargers cornerback Tarheeb Still (29) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) throws as he is tackled by Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley (0) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Inglewood, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — Young people who attend the United Nations climate talks have a lot to be angry about. They've lost loved ones and months of school. They've lost homes and family farms and connections to their families' native lands.

They haven't lost hope, though. Not yet.

“It has become so tiring for me to be just a poster child,” said Marinel Ubaldo, who by age 16 had watched two back-to-back supersized typhoons destroy entire communities in her native Philippines. Missing a chunk of high school in the aftermath, because there was no school to go back to, was a wake-up call. Now 27, COP29 will be her sixth time attending the summit where leaders negotiate the future she will inherit.

“I guess I'm very pessimistic, but I’m going to be positive that this COP could actually bring more clarity,” she said.

Her pessimism isn't unwarranted. Fewer leaders were in attendance this year, with a backdrop of uncertainty as political will on climate unravels in major countries like the U.S. and Germany. While many passionate youth want to protest, this will be the third straight COP in an authoritarian country with tighter controls on protests and speech. And for many of the young people hardest hit by climate extremes, it's simply difficult and expensive to get to the conference.

“We have this constant challenge of having sometimes the youth forums with spaces at the margins of the decision maker spaces,” said Felipe Paullier, assistant secretary general for youth affairs in the United Nations youth office. That's why the U.N. has been working to institutionalize the role of youth in the climate talks, he said.

And climate change has a disproportionate impact on children around the world. Their growing bodies have a harder time handling extreme heat, which also causes an uptick in premature births and childhood malnutrition, said UNICEF assistant secretary-general Kitty van der Heijden.

“We are simply not doing good enough for children in this world. We are failing children,” she said.

All of that means young people are feeling the burden of speaking up about climate change more than ever. And many of those who come to COP, and even some of the ones who don't, said they feel tired — weighed down by the knowledge that year after year, they show up to speak and don't have a lot to show for it. This was the third year in a row that Earth's projected warming hasn't improved.

“I think for a lot of young people from extremely climate vulnerable nations, it actually it doesn’t feel like much of a choice” to speak out about climate change, said 20-year-old Fathimath Raaia Shareef, from the Maldives.

Shareef's grandmother migrated south to the small island nation's capital, so she has never had the opportunity to see what her family's home island was like. Growing up, after she found out about sea level rise, she had recurring nightmares about her island sinking. She would wake up crying.

“How am I supposed to focus on anything else when when my island, when my home country is at risk?” she asked.

It's that focus that brings many young people to the table even as they question their faith in the possibility that international negotiations can achieve real change. Here at his fourth COP, 15-year-old Francisco Vera Manzanares of Colombia called the U.N. summit a necessary but “very difficult space” to be in. He thinks slow pace of change from countries around the world creates a “credibility crisis” in the institutions that are most needed to keep the goals that require global cooperation within reach.

“People listen to children. But, let's say, it’s different (to) listen than hear,” he said.

That's why he hopes more adults will help children meaningfully advocate for themselves in a crisis where they have the most to lose — and the most to save.

“It's our rights. It's our future. It's our present,” he said.

Follow Melina Walling on X, formerly Twitter, @MelinaWalling.

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Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Nov. 18, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, center, a climate activist from Colombia, reacts while listening during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, center, a climate activist from Colombia, speaks with Felipe Paullier, left, U.N. assistant secretary-general for youth affairs, during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, a climate activist from Colombia, speaks with other youth activists during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

An activist holds a globe that says silenced during a demonstration during the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Activists participate in a demonstration at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Francisco Vera Manzanares, 15, center, a climate activist from Colombia, listens during a forum with young activists, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)