Cincinnati Bengals: Takeaways from Week 16 loss to Browns
By Kenn Korb
Looking back at the Cincinnati Bengals loss to the Cleveland Browns in Week 16 and observing some notable takeaways from the game.
In a season where their outcome has long been decided, the Cincinnati Bengals came away with another loss to their rivals from Cleveland.
This one was at least somewhat more competitive, with Cincinnati sitting within one score for the final stretch of the contest before falling 26-18.
Here are some takeaways from the penultimate game of the Bengals’ season:
Cincinnati Is The AFC North’s Basement-Dwellers Now
A staple of the Marvin Lewis era has been taking the Bengals from being a laughingstock and making them relevant. When they were the “Bungles” in the 1990s, they weren’t simply bad; rather, they were often in competition to be the worst team in the league.
They aren’t challenging for that sort of ignominy right now, but they’ve clearly fallen behind not just their former level of expected success, but the rest of their division-mates.
Prior to Marvin Lewis taking over as head coach in 2003, Cincinnati’s football team was in such a state of awfulness that it still surprises. They were dead-last in the division — one which spent time with five and even six teams in it prior to 2002’s four-team/eight-division realignment — five times from 1991-2002, never won it, and only got as high as second in the division standings a single time (a 7-9 season in 1995).
With Lewis, that all changed: a single last-place finish in the division (2010) has been easily outshone by seven playoff appearances and four AFC North crowns.
This season will up that last-place number to two, and while the win total is not necessarily indicative of what a last-place team would be expected to have (Cincinnati can be no worse than 6-10 this year), it should stand as the final nail in the coffin for any chance of Lewis returning.
Baltimore is going to re-up John Harbaugh because he’s led a reinvention on offense which has not only allowed a raw rookie quarterback to do well, but to win games and be in the driver’s seat for the division crown. Pittsburgh has disappointed, but even if they don’t make the playoffs this year they have the talent and infrastructure to remain in contention for the playoffs and more each season Roethlisberger lines up under center.
Most surprising of all, Cleveland may be set up for future success even better than either of them because of their massive accumulation of young talent the past few years. If they make a good hire at head coach (not a given), they’ll have all they need to contend in the division for the next decade.
Cincinnati isn’t completely bereft of talent, but they clearly sit below all of them in terms of roster talent and long-term prospects at the moment. Without substantial changes made throughout the franchise going forward, they better start getting comfortable down there; otherwise, they have little hope of elevating themselves to even third place here for years to come.