NFL Power Rankings, Week 15: Packers take top seed, Eagles sparked by Jalen Hurts

It’s clear that the Cincinnati Bengals are a different team without Joe Burrow and Joe Mixon. With Brandon Allen under center and Trayveon Williams and Samaje Perine sharing the load as the running backs, the Bengals’ offense was less than impressive in Week 14. Despite playing one of the worst defenses in the NFL in the Dallas Cowboys, they managed just seven points.

To be fair to Allen, it should have been more. The young signal-caller was efficient in this game with 217 yards on 27-of-36 passing with a touchdown and no interceptions. But the Bengals running backs continued to cough the ball up — as did wide receiver Alex Erickson on a receiver reverse. Gio Bernard had the first fumble and the other came from Williams. All three were recovered by the Cowboys and defensive end Aldon Smith even returned one of them for a touchdown.

If there was any silver lining, it would be that the Cincinnati defense made Dallas work for everything on offense. Andy Dalton, in his return to Cincy, had just 16 completions for 185 yards and the ground game went for 101 yards on 25 carries. The game was never in doubt though, so that’s really just a small consolation prize for a team that should be completely focused on the upcoming offseason.