There are a number of ways teams can view the last week of a National Football League season. There are those squads headed to the postseason that may take this week “off” to protect against injuries. There are those teams that may have packed in their campaign after a disappointing campaign and be more focused on the upcoming draft than the results this Sunday.
There are also each year a team or two that is not headed to the playoffs but have something to prove in their final game of the season. These teams can be lethal. They have nothing to lose and want to end their season showing their competition that they were good enough to be entering the postseason if only …..
The Cincinnati Bengals fall into this category this year.
The Bengals have one of the best quarterbacks in the league with Joe Burrow. As long as he stays on the field, the Bengals are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Take him out of the lineup, and well they have more trouble than a naked beekeeper.
I don’t know why, but the Bengals defense statistically plays a lot better when Burrow is playing offense. This year, Burrow missed another block of games with an injury and his team looked like a trout pulled from the water and flopping around in the boat. After starting the first two games, both Cincinnati wins, Burrow missed the next nine games, and the Bengals lost eight of them.
One might assume they lost because the offense struggled without their prize quarterback. But in fact, the quarterback position was not the primary problem at fault for the Bengals collapse. After a couple blowout losses, the Bengals even traded for veteran signal caller Joe Flacco, and he played pretty well … but the Bengals defense appeared to have missed their ride to the games.