The Cincinnati Bengals learned a very tough lesson on Sunday after losing 23-20 to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game.

And it's a lesson they need to apply in 2023 if they're going to get back to the Super Bowl.

The trash talk between the Bengals and the Chiefs this week was fun for fans. But it got to a point where it felt like the trash talk — which mostly started with Cincinnati and then the Chiefs just responded to it — became the storyline of the week instead of what Cincy need to do to beat Kansas City.

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor even said that he'd search every inch of the internet to find stuff to motivate his team.

Zac Taylor says you are looking for any bit of motivation you can find as the season gets long, now 20 weeks in.

“I’ll search every inch of the Internet to get it.”

— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) January 23, 2023

Look, I love that stuff. I love the pettiness. I loved Joe Burrow saying "better send those refunds" after beating the Buffalo Bills last week (because of the tickets being sold for a potential Bills/Chiefs AFC Championship game in Atlanta).

But for the first time this season, it felt like the trash talk took center stage. And it became a distraction.

(If we're being honest, the "refunds" thing didn't really make that much sense considering Cicninnati was selling tickets for a potential Bengals/Jaguars AFC Championship game.).

It's important to remember that Cincinnati is still a relatively young team. The head coach is young (39 years old). The quarterback is only in his third season. Their best wide receiver, Ja'Marr Chase, is just 22 years old.

Cincy still has a lot of growing to do. Learning how to handle success and how to get over the hump in big games is still something they're figuring out.

This team is going to be a Super Bowl contender for the foreseeable future. Despite the tough loss to Kansas City, this is still just the beginning of a great run by Burrow and the Bengals.

But the focus on trash talk over performance is something they need to reevaluate next season. That stuff has its place — when utilized properly it can be a great weapon. But when it becomes the focus, it's a distraction. And I think that's what happened this week against the Chiefs (the poor officiating didn't help, but the Bengals still had their chances to win the game).

It's a tough lesson to learn — especially in the playoffs.

But Cincinnati has no choice but to learn from it. Otherwise, they'll be right back in this same position in 2023.

Featured image via USA Today Sports