The Bengals have won 3 of their last 7 games. Who are the 3 teams they beat? The Browns, the Lions, and the Chiefs. Those teams all went last in their divisions with a combined record of 11-37. The 2 worst teams in the AFC and the 2nd worst team in the NFC. The Jets finished the season 5-1 and the only game they lost was given away in the final seconds.
yea but if you win your division nothing else matters, not saying i dont agree with the basis of your point, but....
They clinched the division in week 16 when the Ravens lost to the Steelers in Pittsburgh (by 3 points) and the Bengals beat the Chiefs at home(by 1 score). If the Ravens had won that game and the Bengals had lost, the Ravens would be 10-6 and the Bengals would be 9-7. Try again.
What? Sure they swept their division, but its not like they had the toughest division. Cleveland? Pitsburgh who couldn't beat Cleveland and Oakland? Baltimore is the only worthwile team in that division. They won a mediocre division, went 6-0 in it and only beat Lions, Chiefs (an unimpressive victory) and Chicago. Great. Who did they lose to? An overrated Denver (maybe not overrated anymore after missing out the playoffs), Texans (whom Jets Shutdown defensively), Oakland (Oakland??), Vikes, SD, and Jets. Jets are a far better team than Cincy. We proved that last wk, and we'll prove it again this wk.
The only game we really got our asses kicked in was the 2nd New England game. The rest were all pretty close and could have gone either way. I feel totally confident that we can matchup with and beat any other team out there right now.
Half of the Bengals wins came against teams with less than 6 wins: Lions, Chiefs, Bears, Browns x 2 Jets had 2 wins against teams w/ less than 6 wins: Raiders and Bucs
the fact that they went 6-0 in that very physical division is impressive though. When you play in the division you can throw records out the window.
That's basically my point. Usually teams learning how to win lose close games but don't win games they're not supposed to. If you think about every game we won (with the exception of the Colts) we were the better team. If you think about every game we lost (excluding the Pats) we could have won. Obviously we didn't and that's all that matters but we are 2 bad games by ST, and a holding penalty from having 3 more wins and being division champs.
I'm not arguing against this point, nor do I think we "back into" the playoffs either. Cincy is a good team. They didn't back in.
I'm not arguing that they backed in but lets be honest, Pittsburgh lost to Oakland, KC and Cleveland. The Bengals also lost to Oakland and Houston two teams we beat a combined 62-7 with the 7 coming on an INT retruned for TD. We also beat them 37 -0.
Maybe Ravens. Steelers just weren't the same this yr. You can hint at Polamalu, but a safety isn't the biggest part of a D and I'll just point towards the Jets situation that have a couple of mediocre (or barely above average) safeties.
In fairness, one of the Bengals' late losses was to SD in SD, by 3 points in OT. SD has been the hottest team in the league since their early losses, and the Bengals played them tougher than anyone else. I would also say the Browns sucked early, but have gotten better over the season, and the Chiefs have played tough against some teams, belying their overall record. Still, the OP makes a generally good point. At this juncture, despite that awful Atlanta loss, the Jets have more momentum than Cincy.
As much as we hate Kerry Rhodes, him and Leonhard are def one of the better safety tandems in the league.
