Will Cincinnati Bengals Finish Strong for a Third-Straight Season?

Cincinnati is hoping to win their third-straight game on Sunday against San Francisco.

With Joe Burrow feeling the best he's felt all season and the rest of his teammates coming back from a Week 7 bye, the feeling inside the Bengals locker room this week was one of rejuvenation and confidence. 

They believe they can go to Santa Clara and beat the 49ers on Sunday, despite being underdogs. They believe they can go on another mid-to-late season run over the final 11 games of the season. Though Cincinnati started the season slow, the attention to their original goal of a Super Bowl appearance has not wavered.

“I’m excited to complete this last stretch of the season,” Zach Carter told All Bengals. “We’ve got 11 games straight and I feel refreshed and I’m ready to attack it.”

Players clearly understand that there isn't much room for error. Every single week from here on out will require a new level of dedication and performance.

“This is a statement game for sure because like I said they’re a Super Bowl contending team and they’re coming off two losses," Tyler Boyd said. "We know we are going to get their best and they’re for sure going to get out best. So whoever is the most executed team is going to win.”

Media, players, coaches, and even fans have openly talked about not wanting to spend a lot of time comparing the team’s performance from 2021 or 2022. With as much continuity as the Bengals have had from coaches and players on the roster, it’s hard not to recognize certain patterns and identities that the team has taken on, especially for a squad like Cincinnati who seems to have a knack for playing well as the underdog.

Boyd has been on the team longer than any other player on the roster. He has experienced multiple years of going home early without hope for the playoffs and he’s seen the ultimate low in recent years when the team went 2-14 as they transitioned from Marvin Lewis to Zac Taylor. Boyd has also experienced the high of being an improbable Super Bowl contender in 2021, and the new expectations placed on the team from that point forward. He’s seen enough of both sides to be able to paint an accurate portrait of who this current team is.

“We are a finishing team,” Boyd said. “We always make a more sound team in the second half of football and we have to start faster closer to the back end of games and I think that’s when we prosper.”

Following a 4-11-1 campaign in 2020, Cincinnati wasn't considered a Super Bowl contender. The Bengals managed win the division with a 10-7 record as Burrow prepared to take on Las Vegas. During that year the expectations were low, relatively speaking. Fans were hoping to see their first playoff win since 1991. 

Cincinnati beat Las Vegas and then went on to claim victory over Tennessee and in Kansas City, despite being underdogs. They ultimately lost to the Rams in Super Bowl LVI, but it was an incredible run. The next season the Bengals started 0-2 and 0-3 in the AFC North. They got hot in the second half of the season and won 10-straight games, before eventually falling 23-20 to Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game.

After two years of beating the odds, the Bengals have built a reputation for themselves when they are the underdogs. 

“When our backs are against the wall and we’ve got to come out fighting, that's when we are at our best,” Burrow said. “We’ve got to find out if we are the same team this year.”

Cincinnati’s defensive players echoed the same sentiment. Call it a theme, an identity, a reputation, call it whatever you want. Whatever it is, guys on all sides of the ball believe in it.

“I just know that we are about to start playing our best ball," Carter said. “I don’t like comparing things to last year but we kind of started off slow this year but the last few weeks we’ve been starting to come together slowly so I feel like now that we are about to be in November that’s when we play our best ball. There’s something about being the underdog and people saying ‘ya’ll won’t win’ that’s just more added fuel and I feel like our guys thrive off of that.”

The team keeps finding new ways to dig themselves out of holes, and they aim to win their third-straight game on Sunday after starting the season 0-2 for a second consecutive year.

The path to the Super Bowl stage will be full of twists and turns, but the same mantra has kept them on the right path. ‘They’ve got to play us’ still rings throughout the building.

Sunday’s slate on the west coast will not be an easy one. Even with San Francisco dropping two-straight and potentially being without Brock Purdy, the Bengals know better than to overlook them. Each of the 49ers losses has been by 5 points or less. 

San Francisco played on Monday Night Football and Cincinnati is coming off their bye week, but rest might not be as big of an advantage as some think. 

“I don’t think that’s a factor," Boyd said. "Either way you look at it like we’ve been away too long and just getting back and might not be ready for a team like that or we had two weeks to game plan for them guys and so it can go hand in hand but at the end of the day we are just building ourselves back up to get ready to play football again.”

Can the Bengals hold true to their habits and finish strong for a third-straight year?

DJ Reader seems confident in their ability to make another run. 

“Trying to prove it, not everybody else out there, but to ourselves more importantly,” Reader said. “We are who we say we are. we’ve put the work in and we like to compete and have fun and when our backs are against the wall and its cold outside in the midwest we play some good ball."

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