First-place Pittsburgh fell to 5-4 with a loss to the Chargers on Sunday, and now the Bengals have chance to get right back in the mix if they can beat the Steelers on the road this week.
It’s not an impossible task – Cincinnati won the home matchup just three weeks ago – but a win is absolutely vital to the team’s goal of an AFC North title, which oddly is still on the table.
“The way I see it is we should have been treating it like one-week seasons,” left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. said. “There’s a lot of football in front of us, but the only thing we can focus on is this week and that’s Pittsburgh. To me, it’s all about that. We got out there and handle business, I think that puts us at 4-6, that’s what we need to be striving for.”
Cincinnati was 4-5 at this point last year but lost three straight games after collecting that fourth win, and a 44-38 defeat against Pittsburgh was the game ultimately cost a playoff spot. The Bengals went on a five-game winning streak to end the season, and it wasn’t enough.
This time, they are leaning on a different “Joe” to keep them in the hunt. Cincinnati regained hope with Joe Flacco’s arrival a month ago via trade from Cleveland, and he got his first win in Stripes in his second start, against Pittsburgh. The offense has only gotten better since then.
It’s just the defense that needs to find it’s form after putting up historically poor performances the past two games the Bengals should have won. Defensive tackle and captain B.J. Hill said the defense just needs to get back to how it was playing earlier in the season, keeping games close while the offense struggled at the time.
“We’ve got the guys in here, we’ve just gotta lock in on the little things and do the little things right,” Hill said. “When we do that, we’ll turn this whole thing around because the offense is scoring points. All we’ve got to do is come out and do our job better.”
The Bengals can’t afford to let another game slip away.
Baltimore seems to be getting hot at the right time, coming off three straight wins after a stunning 1-5 start. The Ravens play the Browns on the road this week, then host the New York Jets before a big Thanksgiving night clash with Cincinnati in Baltimore.
“The door is closing, but it’s not closed yet,” Bengals safery Jordan Battle said. “We still have a chance to win the division, so we got to go out there and do whatever we can to win the division. Starting with the Steelers.”
Pittsburgh’s offense hasn’t been great, producing 280.7 yards per game (fourth fewest) and just slightly more rushing yards (85.7) than the Bengals, who rank last in that category. Aaron Rodgers threw for just 161 yards and one touchdown with two interceptions and took a sack in the endzone for a safety in a 25-10 loss to the Chargers.
Hill said despite the struggles for AFC North teams, no game is easy.
“We still have a challenge ahead of us, we’ve got some great teams (ahead), and we’re just taking it one game at a time and trying to win some games,” Hill said.
Perhaps the bye did come at a good time for the Bengals to refresh, put the past behind them and re-focus for the final eight games.
“It’s a huge week because it’s a divisional game, a road divisional game, it will be our second one this year, but to me, I feel like this locker room is going to have that fire regardless,” Brown said. “We’re a hungry group, a very hungry unit. We’ve got a bunch of guys that really want it.”
About the Author