Bass: Here is the beauty of the Bengals winning ugly

[Arkansas Bengal]

Mike Bass Special to The Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Thu, Oct 19, 2023, 9:06 AM·6 min read

 

 

Zac Taylor was unofficially the 100 millionth person to ever reference the term “Winning Ugly” when he mentioned it Sunday. He enjoyed the Bengals win, if not all parts of it – but what if he missed the point?

 

To me, it was a beauty.

 

It depends on your definition of Winning Ugly.

 

Is yours the same as the original?

 

* * * * *

Doug Rader was a fairly recognizable baseball player in the late 1960s and the 1970s.

 

He was a five-time Gold Glove third baseman, the first Houston Astro to win even one. He was nicknamed “The Red Rooster,” a nod to his red hair. He struck out to finish Jim Maloney’s second no-hitter for the Reds. His offbeat wit and practical jokes were highlighted in the seminal baseball book, “Ball Four.”

But his lasting contribution to popular culture came later.

 

In mid-August 1983, Rader was managing the third-place Texas Rangers and still hoping to overtake the division-leading Chicago White Sox.

Rader’s quote on the Sox?

 

They were “winning ugly.”

 

A heel and a catchphrase were born.

 

The Sox felt insulted and inspired. They embraced the term. The world followed. In time, the Rolling Stones made it a rock song. Brad Gilbert made it a tennis book. “The Good Wife” made it a TV episode. Sports made it a cliché.

 

The meaning blurred.

 

Winning Ugly has been used to describe winning by cheating or playing dirty ... winning despite playing sloppily, maybe beneath your or your sport’s standards ... barely beating inferior opponents ... beating superior opponents by exploiting their weaknesses ... winning by playing physically instead with style, maybe grinding out a victory ... and on and on we can go.

 

Baseball Almanac and the Dickson Baseball Dictionary define it this way: “Winning a game despite violating many of the fundamentals of baseball. The term was first used by Texas Rangers manager Doug Rader in reference to the West Division-winning 1983 Chicago White Sox.”But what did Rader mean 40 years ago?

 

What was the context?

 

““They’ve just been winning ugly,” Rader said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram report. “From all the reports I get, I don’t think they’re playing that good. People we’ve come across who have just finished playing them said they don’t look too great. If the right guys stop producing, they can go into one of those things (slumps), which it’s obviously going to take for us to catch them.”

 

Does that sound like the Bengals?

 

They might not look “too great” . . . compared to their past level. They actually survived the “right guy” not producing as usual . . . because Joe Burrow was not healthy.

 

They won three of four to enter the bye at .500, and if that is Winning Ugly, then who wouldn’t love that?

 

* * * * *

Taylor brought up Winning Ugly in his postgame media conference because of his text exchange with St. Xavier football coach Steve Specht the previous day. Taylor had congratulated Specht on a road win.

 

“It's better to win ugly,” Specht replied, “than to lose pretty.”

 

Not exactly Whitman, Angelou or original, but . . .

 

“That was the first thing that hit me when I walked off the field today,” Taylor said. “At times it felt ugly, especially on offense, but again our defense stepped up and made some big plays for us that allowed us to get out of there."

 

Hold on a second.

 

What is ugly, anyway?

 

What is pretty?

 

Generally, pretty is an electrifying offense. Think Joe Burrow throwing for 446 yards and four touchdowns to reach the 2022 Super Bowl. Beautiful is Burrow to Ja’Marr Chase for 60 yards and a win to go 3-3 last season. Defense generally isn’t pretty, although “The Super Bowl Shuffle” Bears offered dominance, personality and fun.

 

You might wish for a defense that doesn’t break AND doesn’t bend. Oh, well. You/’ve got the 2020s Bengals.

 

Come to think of it, is a game-winning offensive drive prettier than a game-winning defensive stand? How about stopping the Seahawks on downs on two trips inside the 10, Seattle’s final two drives of the game? Wasn’t that pretty? How about surrendering just three points on Seattle’s last four red-zone trips? Gorgeous.

 

“Our defense stepped up big in the second half,” Burrow said after the game. “Offense was really good in the first half, we were horrible in the second half, so we just have to be able to put together a complete game.”

 

A complete game might feel more comforting. Oh, well. You’ve got the 2023 Bengals.

 

Look at what they’ve done. What if going from 0-2 with an ailing quarterback to 3-3 with a week off next was the Bengals at their best, as they are?

“That’s what great teams do,” Taylor told the team in the locker room after Bengals 17, Seahawks 13. “They just figure it out, man. They figure it out on any given Sunday.”

 

* * * * *

Whatever Winning Ugly was, it worked for the White Sox.

 

They came to Texas less than a week after Rader’s comment and won three out of four.

 

“I can’t wait for their bubble to burst,” Rader said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “It will be a beauty.”

 

Instead, the Sox continued their second-half surge to finish with 99 wins and the division title. The Rangers finished 22 games back after leading in mid-July.

Two years later, months after Texas fired Rader, the White Sox hired Rader as a coach. Naturally, Winning Ugly came up quickly.

 

“I didn’t think anybody would take offense,” he told the Tribune. “I didn’t say it in a derogatory way. I was just trying to be descriptive.”

 

* * * * *

Whatever Winning Ugly was, it worked for the Bengals, too.

 

They won two straight games and three of four. Those games were not going to be easy to win. They were not going to be easy to watch. Now you can rest.

“Relieved. Nervous. 💖 3-3,” @brandonmariemil posted in our weekly day-after-game X session.

 

“No style points in the NFL (only in narratives),” @opticblast81 posted. “And if there were, the offense looked incredible for almost a half and the defense looked incredible for the other.”

 

“W is a W,” @Blazers98 posted.

“Winning is winning,” @whodeynorth posted. “Go 1-0 each week and build upon what is working. I feel good about when the bye is hitting and how we’ll emerge. This team has grit.”

 

Maybe that’s what Winning Ugly is.

 

Then again, maybe it’s a beauty.

 

https://sports.yahoo.com/bass-beauty-bengals-winning-ugly-140603152.html