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Bengals season at a crossroads
Yahoo Sports
CINCINNATI — The Bengals’ most lopsided loss in two years leaves them
at a crossroad.
A 35-7 drubbing in Pittsburgh on Sunday essentially eliminated
Cincinnati from the AFC North race and left the Bengals (7-5) in a
crowded field trying to get the second wild card berth. There’s no room
for another stumble, let alone a face-first landing like the one in
Pittsburgh.
“The pressure’s on,” defensive lineman Frostee Rucker said Monday.
“It’s been on since day one. We’re fine. We know what’s at stake.”
Everything was at stake on Sunday for the AFC North race. The upstart
Bengals counted it as their best test of the season.
They played by far their worst game of the season, a clunker that ranks
among the worst in their Ohio River rivalry. They hadn’t lost by so
much since a 37-0 drubbing by the Jets in the final regular-season game
of 2009, when they rested a lot of their regulars to get ready for the
playoffs.
There was a lot of resting in this one, too, but it had nothing to do
with getting ready for the playoffs. Both teams rested some of their
starters in the fourth quarter, with Pittsburgh in control at 35-7.
The loss pushed the Bengals two games behind Baltimore and Pittsburgh —
both 9-3 — with four to play, leaving the division title up to those
two teams. The one that finishes second is in line for a wild card.
“We knew there was a sense of urgency going in there playing a big
division game,” Rucker said. “But we’ve got to move on.”
Can they?
The young Bengals prided themselves on standing up to each opponent so
far and taking every game down to the fourth quarter. This one was over
by halftime, when the Steelers led 28-7. They haven’t had to recover
from something like this.
“Not all is lost,” receiver Andrew Hawkins said. “We’re still in
control of our own destiny.”
The Bengals are essentially tied with three other teams for the other
wild card. Oakland and Denver are tied atop the AFC West at 7-5. The
New York Jets and Tennessee Titans also are 7-5 and trailing in their
divisions.
The Bengals’ schedule is convenient. They play at home Sunday against
Houston (9-3), which is down to rookie quarterback T.J. Yates because
of injuries. The Texans also had leading receiver Andre Johnson
aggravate his left hamstring during a 17-10 win over Atlanta on Sunday,
their franchise-best sixth victory in a row.
Then, they play their final road game at St. Louis (2-10), which is
tied with Minnesota for second-worst record in the NFL. Cincinnati
finishes with home games against Arizona (5-7) and Baltimore, which may
be in position at that point to rest some of its starters for the
playoffs.
The question is how they’ll handle the pressure of a playoff run.
“Football gets tough in December,” Hawkins said. “Everybody wants to
put their best foot forward.”
Coach Marvin Lewis is telling his team that things are no different
than they were in October or November.
“I think we’ve been in this situation for a while,” Lewis said on
Monday. “I don’t think anything has changed over the last seven or
eight weeks. I think the approach has been that — that all of these
games are important. Just the way everyone else is around us, that’s
the way it was. “There is no distance (among the wild card contenders),
so we have been approaching it that way. We have to approach it that
way as we put things together.”
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