'I couldn't cry, I couldn't be mad': Joe Mixon gets brutally honest reflecting on Bengals' Super Bowl LVI defeat
Joe Mixon was a focal point of the 2021 Cincinnati Bengals squad that made it all the way to Super Bowl LVI. It was his fifth year with the team that took a risk drafting him in the second round back in 2017. He witnessed the lowest of the lows from 2019-20, and came so very […]
Joe Mixon was a focal point of the 2021 Cincinnati Bengals squad that made it all the way to Super Bowl LVI. It was his fifth year with the team that took a risk drafting him in the second round back in 2017.
He witnessed the lowest of the lows from 2019-20, and came so very close to experiencing the highest of the highs only a year later.
Three years have passed and Mixon is no longer a Bengal, but the memories of that night, and that run, still linger in his mind.
Joe Mixon reflects on Bengals' Super Bowl loss
Cincinnati was not expected to make the Super Bowl after winning just six games in the previous two seasons combined. Mixon was a part of that entire ascension, and watching it all end in a three-point defeat in the final two minutes had his emotions all over the place.
"The Super Bowl run, it was like a Cinderella story," Mixon told TWSN's Malik Wright in a recent interview. "When you weren't supposed to be in that position, but you are in that position and you make that run and you were super close, that's why I don't think I even interviewed after the game. Like I'm hot that we lost, it was like I didn't have really like no emotion. I couldn't cry, I couldn't be mad."
Cinderella story is right. The Bengals had the third-longest odds to win the Super Bowl that year (+15000) with only the Houston Texans (+30000) and Detroit Lions (+25000) behind them. Houston finished with four wins and Detroit ended up with just three. Cincinnati had 10 along with three in the playoffs alone.
To come that far only to lose was heartbreaking, but the journey is remembered fondly by Mixon.
"Obviously it sticks with us to this day," Mixon said. "But at the same time, I was obviously just proud to be in that position. To be able to go to the Super Bowl. To throw a touchdown in the Super Bowl."
Mixon amassed with 72 rushing yards on 15 attempts and his six-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins against the Los Angeles Rams on that fateful night. He played two more seasons with the Bengals before being traded to the Houston Texans in the 2024 offseason. He rushed for 1,016 yards and 11 touchdowns last year for Houston on his way to a second Pro Bowl honor.
He may no longer be in Cincinnati, but plenty of Bengals fans can relate to Mixon's reflection of the team's near Super Bowl triumph.
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Good memories from a night that didn’t end well for Cincinnati.
